Mid-Century Mania - Part 1

Saturday afternoon I was thumbing through the July Vogue, and came across this fashion editorial featuring Ewan McGregor and Natalia Vodianova.  It's truly one of the more stunning and visually engaging shoots I've seen from Vogue in quite a while.

My first thought was, "Belle de Ville is going to ADORE this!"  only to discover that she was already on it.

My second thought was "YESSSS, kitten heels!"  (It appears the rumors of their resurrection have not been exaggerated.)

My third thought was to remember how while watching the first season of Mad Men I'd predicted to le monsieur that the next major fashion shift would be a return to 50's-to-early-60's silhouettes .  While it looks as though I may have been right, this likely was one of my stopped clock moments based on the cyclical nature of fashion rather than any kind true insight.

So before I let another opportunity for prognostication pass untapped, here's what the tea leaves are telling me regarding the return of elements of 50's-60's style, aside from kitten heels, smaller structured bags, and longer, fuller skirts:

1.  Bouffant hairstyles. More demure than the Full Amy Winehouse, but complete with backcombing and spray.  Or else the voluminous tousled Brigitte Bardot sex-kitten look.  We've already seen a bit of this on the runways and red carpets but I'm guessing it will take hold on a wider basis, and not just for evening.  Bouffant hair styles might not be as stiff and helmetlike as in the past, but like clothing, will be more structured. 

2.  Simple pearl jewelry, including single strands, pearls stud earrings, and especially brooches, will see a resurgence.

3.  Twinsets will suddenly have caché.

 

4.  Stores featuring "Danish Modern" furniture will spring up like mushrooms in every strip mall with a vacancy.  IKEA will be hip again.

5.  Cars with tail fins will reappear on the scene and be ultimately wildly popular. They won't be the behemoths of yesteryear, but I'm envisioning a hybrid or even an electric convertible with fins and a continental kit. (Please, please, please M/Mme Auto Designer!!!)

6.  This one I'm absolutely certain of: coffee drinkers will rediscover The Percolator.  I mean, look at the lines on this baby!  Hipsters everywhere will laud the "dusky" (read: slightly burnt) taste of the resultant brew.

Later this week, how une femme might interpret and incorporate mid-century style.

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Une femme recommends...

The September Issue is now out on DVD. I watched it last night and it is one of the most engaging and fascinating films about the fashion industry I've yet seen. I now have a total girlcrush on Grace Coddington. Her vision will blow you away and her strength and humor come through in every scene.

The film moves at a fast clip, but maintains a coherent narrative, and it's visually stunning. I'm going to have to watch it again, scene by scene with my finger on the pause button just to take in all of the incredible clothes.

One thing I found irritating though, was at the very beginning Anna Wintour says something to the effect of "people who don't like fashion are just resentful at not being one of the cool people." Grr. Some people really just don't care about fashion, the same way some don't care about sports, and that's fine. Chacun a son gout and all that. But if you love fashion, or even just have a fleeting interest, I highly recommend The September Issue.
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OK, OK...

Gotta Love Galliano...

"Will you buy me a Dior dress?"

As soon as I swear I'll never love again, the Funky Little Fashion Troll comes along and seduces me one more time. Ah, romance! Go see the slideshow here.
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The Wonder Years

Watching the atom bomb test...

When it rains, it pours...

Will you buy me a Dior dress?

My love of handbags developed early...

We are the goon squad and we're coming to town, BEEP BEEP!

Caught in the act of looking up Barbie's dress?

If the glove does not fit, you must acquit!

Suburban Cowgirl

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Model Citizens

A couple of items from the fashion modeling world in the news this week.


First, from New York Post, something disturbing but hardly surprising, as the fashion industry continues to pay lip service to "healthy" models while requiring a skeletal appearance:

The Council of Fashion Designers of America held an event dubbed "The Beauty of Health: How the Fashion Industry Can Make a Difference" at Milk Studios the other night as part of its awareness program....

People in the industry have been no help, Rocha told WWD's Marc Karimzadeh - "They said, 'You need to lose more weight - the look this year is anorexia, and although we don't want you to be anorexic, we want you to look it.'

"My question is, how do you look anorexic unless you actually are?" - a riddle to which no one had an answer.

I don't know why designers seem so intent on showing their clothes on women who are required to be more emaciated with each passing year. If I were someone who regularly purchased designer clothes, I'd start a boycott of the worst offenders.


Another (slightly) more encouraging item spotted in the LA Times:

"The market for older models has exploded," says Ginni Conquest, co-director of the sophisticated women's division at Wilhelmina Models in New York. (Models who are 25 and older are often referred to as "classic" or "sophisticated.") "It's our fastest-growing area, and it's a first for the industry."...

After all, what middle-aged woman wants to buy moisturizer from a model who's too young to order a martini? Or a cashmere cardigan from a coed? In September, J.Crew will introduce an online section within its Web catalog that features 58-year-old Los Angeles model Pia Gronning...

I'm not dancing in the streets quite yet. On one hand, it's nice to think that companies are targeting our demographic, and understanding that we don't want to be invisible. On the other, it's not like these "older" models will look like many 50-something women we know.

Les Mystères de la Mode

Une femme readily admits she isn't the most fashion-forward hankie in the drawer, but some recent vagaries of La Mode have her flummoxed.

One is the resurgence of jumpsuits. Not only are they generally unflattering, but having to remove an entire layer of clothing (or two if jackets are involved) from top to bottom every time you have to pee is a royal pain.

The antithesis of glamour: even Gwyneth looks like the seating hostess at The Velvet Turtle, circa 1975.

Another is sandals with spats attached.I have no comment except, "why?" (photo from Go Fug Yourself)


But the one of the biggest mysteries to me is the runaway success of Tory Burch clothing. And according to the LA Times,

In just four years, she has become the most influential fashion designer in America. Unlike big names such as Lanvin and Balenciaga, who may score a lot of red carpet hits but are sustained mostly by accessory and fragrance sales, Burch designs clothes that real people really wear.Her brand, with prices mostly in the $195 to $495 range, is accessible to a good range of ages and sizes (up to a size 14). For high-end shoppers, it's a source for casual clothes; for budget shoppers, it's aspirational. And for Burch, it's raking in more than $200 million in annual sales.

The allure just totally escapes me. I see something like this,

and my brain goes here:Bad Sitcom jokes aside, who is buying/wearing this stuff? The signature prints and many of the styles are intended to evoke breezy socialites on holiday, but might also bring flashbacks of wealthy, WASP-y, suburban, 70's pre-feminist hausfraus, with their shag haircuts and shag carpeting and avocado green appliances and hanging asparagus ferns and messy divorces. (An image the decor in the boutiques does little to dispel.)

But I'm starting to think that's part of the appeal. Not so much the messy divorce part, but the breezy socialite "I don't have to work" part. These clothes are not designed for the boardroom, the classroom or the mailroom. These are clothes for Ladies Who Lunch At The Club and then drop the kids off for their tennis lessons. They evoke that most coveted of luxuries, leisure. (As do many designer brands, but they aren't claiming Everywoman as their customer base.)

And my apologies if you're a fan of Tory Burch clothing, but I think the vast majority of it is butt-ugly to boot.Photos from interior of Tory Burch boutique from NY Times, here.

Your Sleeve Prayers Answered - Part Un

Well whaddaya know? Une femme has unearthed some tops with elbow-length sleeves:

Banana Republic, $70Banana Republic, $44
Banana Republic, $59

Talbots, $68 Talbots, $58Nordstrom, $128 Nordstrom, $54Vince via Nordstrom, $85 Looks like this may be the season to stock up on tops after all...(and we redheads are rejoicing over the prevalence of green). Dresses and jackets to follow in the next installment.

Shooting Fish in a Barrel

Spit in any direction, and you'll probably hit an egregious example of weight fascism in the fashion industry. But two separate items I came across one right after the other really highlight just how pervasive and extreme it can get.

First, via Too Fat For Fashion, comes an article in the Wall St. Journal about Ali Michael, who was all but shut out of the runway shows at Paris fashion week because her legs were too fat.

"It's hard to imagine Miss Michael, a willowy, 5-foot-9-inch teenager, being told her legs are too fat. Last season, Miss Michael made herself sick keeping her weight down, said her mother. Miss Michael's reward was to be heralded as the next supermodel.
She opened Lanvin in Paris a year ago and walked the runways of Karl Lagerfeld, Christian Lacroix, Chanel, John Galliano, Dior, Rodarte and others. She appeared in Harper's Bazaar, Teen Vogue and W magazines and was personally congratulated by Vogue's Anna Wintour.
...
Her mother, a stunning woman who was once a model herself, said her daughter's model friends have struggled to get thinner in recent months and that her daughter, worried about her health, chose not to starve herself."

Also, "Nobody here has been talking about last year's skinny-model cause célèbre, when a few fashion-industry leaders in Milan and Madrid began talking about instituting body-mass-index requirements after the starvation deaths of several models. This year, the models are just as thin -- if anything, they look thinner. This was particularly visible in Paris, which sets modes for clothes and fashion shows around the world."

And speaking of Paris and trendsetting, this article in New York Magazine profiles Carine Roitfeld of French Vogue. (h/t Belle de Ville at Beverly Hills Branchée) Whether you love her, hate her, hail her as a genius of style, revile her as a vapid twit, or any combination thereof, Roitfeld is unapologetic about her weight prejudices.

"In Roitfeld’s world, models are never too skinny, diamonds are never too expensive.
.....
“One thing,” she says. “I have in my office—what you call in America? Something to weigh?”
A scale?
“A scale. So people always say that I weigh my staff, and it is totally wrong. All my girls are very skinny and very chic and very beautiful. And if they are not beautiful, well, then they are very charming. So people always say that I weigh them, but no. I don’t weigh my girls.”
.....
“Doesn’t she look like Nicole Kidman?” Roitfeld says of the assistant posted at her door. “I told you, all the girl who work at French Vogue are vewy skinny and beautiful.”
.....
Roitfeld is 48 hours off a ten-day vacation in Thailand during which she worked a great deal on meditation.
How was this trip?
“You think this will be so glamorous,” she sighs. “You have the idea in your mind and then you get there and the people in the hotel …” She grimaces and gestures hugely in the hip area. “There were lots of people who were so fat and like that.”

Sometimes words fail me. (Yet Vogue Paris has also recently included an editorial shoot featuring Crystal Renn, who is gorgeous, but not "skinny." Or maybe it was just a backhanded French jibe about fat Americans. Geau figure.)

Some would argue either that a) the images of uber-thin models are meant to be artistic and aspirational and that we're all too smart to think we are really supposed to be that thin, or b) that all fashion images are inherently oppressive and harmful to women and that we should burn our fashion magazines and shop at the Army/Navy surplus store or make our own clothing. For me, the truth lies somewhere in the middle. I like looking at pretty pictures of clothes, but also know that if 5'9" and 110 lbs is presented the ONLY kind of body wearing the clothes, it can certainly create some self-doubt about one's own appearance. These days it helps that I have a fully functioning reality filter, which unfortunately I didn't at the age of 14 when I thought I was supposed to look like the models in "Seventeen" and thought I could achieve it if I just lost enough weight.

I know that looking at pictures skeletal models doesn't cause anorexia/bulimia/eating disorders (right now the ball seems to be in the "genetic predisposition" court) but I do think dieting can trigger ED's and being presented with a single homogeneous stick-thin image of beauty leads to dieting and/or body hatred, which latest research indicates is a health risk in itself. And girls/women already in the grip of anorexia use those skeletal images as "thinspiration." Would women stop buying Vogue (or the products advertised in Vogue) if some of the models looked like Crystal Renn instead of, say, Anabela Belikova, or were older, or more racially or otherwise diverse? (And in the same vein, would people stop going to the movies if protruding collarbones were not a job requirement lead actresses?) Maybe it's reached that point, but I tend to think not.

But even though models have been thinner than the average woman since the early part of the 20th century, they were not always expected to have a skeletal, emaciated look. Check out this video clip of Chanel's 1959 collection, or do a google search on vintage fashion images. The women are slender, yes, but still have some curves and muscle definition, and their knees aren't the widest part of their legs. As much as fashion industry insiders like to protest that the current crop of models is "just naturally skinny" and that they "eat like horses," common sense says that a good percentage of them have to be seriously restricting food in order to achieve the desired look. And the deaths of two models last year as a result of eating disorders bears this out.

I can't say for sure what's behind the current emaciation requirement for models. Maybe it's just inertia (trends tend to keep moving in a given direction without strong enough intervention) or maybe designers are too lazy to try to create clothes that will look good on women with fully developed bodies. Maybe it's a reaction against the perception of an "obesity epidemic." Maybe it really is fear of and antagonism toward women. Whatever the reason, it's ridiculous, it's unhealthy and it's time for a change.

Sanity Making a Comeback on the Runways?

Looking through the Fall 08 RTW shows in New York, one can't help but notice some encouraging trends: styles that can be worn by those of us who are older than MTV, tights, flowing (not clinging) fabrics, and rich (not garish) colors. Here are some more of une femme's picks:

DKNY:

Tracy Reese:
Tuleh:

Charles Nolan:
(I'm absolutely drooling over the colors above and below!)



Lela Rose:

Yes, there was also some of the usual frippery and nonsense, (what's with the Alpenhats, Carolina???) but overall some intruiging trends.

All photos Style.com.

Ready-to-Wear I'm Ready to Wear

From NY Fashion Week, Fall 2008 collections. All photos Style.com.

Nicole Miller:
As always, I'm a sucker for a great jacket.

Elie Tahari:Classy!

Another statement coat. Clean and simple, yes. Boring, no!

This one, not so much...looks like this butterfly's not fully emerged from her coccoon...

Haute or Not?

Unless you count a couple pairs of shoes and a few handbags, there's nothing in une femme's closet that could by any stretch of the imagination qualify as "designer." Sure, I have items from some of the mass produced lines from Ralph Lauren and Michael Kors, but nothing that couldn't be found at the local Macy's. Even though I could probably afford the odd designer garment these days, I've never thought I had the right body (too short and curvy) or the lifestyle to justify it. With a 10-year-old child, two long-haired dogs, a car that lives outside and only gets washed maybe three times a year, a job that sometimes requires rooting around in dusty storage areas, and hand-eye coordination that is at times less than stellar, I've never really considered purchasing any designer clothing, with two exceptions.

The first is an Hermés scarf. Since I've really started wearing scarves on a regular basis in the last year, I've decided that the right one would definitely add a bit of panache. I may actually pick one up early next year.

The second (don't laugh) is a classic Chanel jacket. Every few months I think about actually searching for one, then the urge seems to subside for a while. But I'd really prefer a vintage version to any of the current iterations I've seen recently, and that's going to take some work to find. I may just have to admire them from afar for a few more years.

What's your take on designer clothing? Worth the price or a big waste? Any designers that you've found to be more wearable than others?

Ode to Noir

Who among us does not love a great film noir?


When it comes to fashion, though, black is often maligned. (Never mind that whatever la couleur de la saison, it's often lauded as "the new black.") "Drab, funereal, boring, done-to-death" are some of the adjectives thrown at this absence-of-color color. And "safe." In the world of fashion where novelty is currency, the word "safe" is almost always used derisively.


But what's so bad about safe? What's so bad about knowing that when you need to feel sophisticated/classic/pulled together/dressed up/timeless/edgy/any combination of those, in a pinch that your tried-and-true Little Black Dress, or black sweater and slacks, or even that black Banana Republic t-shirt are waiting in the closet to save the day? On those days when one's confidence isn't up to throwing together a Carrie Bradshaw-esque symphony of color, a simple black ensemble can put one on more solid sartorial footing.


Start with black for a great backdrop to showcase that Dramatic Jacket, metallic accessories, a unique scarf or even Grandma's pearls. And despite what your Great Aunt Wilma says, you can too wear brown with black in small doses. (Une femme thinks a dark brown bag with an otherwise black ensemble can look trés chic.) Pull your black and brown elements together with a little Leopard print, if that's your style.


Black accessories can make whatever you're wearing look more posh (with a small p). Think jeans and a trench with a black Chanel classic flap bag, a simple white blouse with a black vintage glass bead necklace, and of course add a black leather jacket to a tweed skirt to take it from Academic to Edgy. Whatever your ensemble, upgrade it to First Class with a pair of classic black pumps.

So get in touch with your Inner Noir. You'll be in sophisticated company...