The dress is the thing
Elle magazine (September) has declared it, and so it must be this season’s sartorial truth. The dress is the thing. The one item you’ll covet beyond all else this season. Hemlines have dropped to the knee and below, and the high street have translated the more oblique catwalk designs into affordable, desirable fashion.
Of course for many of us dresses can never go out of fashion. This is because we are lazy, slothful creatures who cannot process more than one large item of clothing in the morning. Separates? Separates shmeperates. Separates mean a full-length mirror, semi-darkness and any number of crumpled little items held up for inspection like pairs of odd socks. Take my advice and dress up. It’s a remarkably stress-free experience, and if, like me, you are still mourning the loss of opaque black tights in your life, the dress will be your NBF.
There is a dress for all sizes and all moods, and because it is one complete shape on the body, you can judge whether it suits you and how it fits you without playing matchy-matchy. The key words are structure and simplicity. Grown up sophistication is the theme that runs through it, so if you catch yourself looking like your daughter/niece/granddaughter you’ve fashion-forwarded a season so back to bed.
And do not pass Go.
Image credit: style.com
Sculptural ruffles at Lanvin ready-to-wear a/w ‘08. Sarah Mower decried Elbaz’s collection as “a tour de force of innovation and simplicity” and in one way “a feat of technical genius”.
Image Credit: style.com
Slick and simple at Thakoon a/w ‘08. The LBD grows up.
Image Credit: phase-eight.co.uk
