This Season, Some Styles are Better Left on the Runway
by Jason Cabico on December 10, 2008 in Culture, News
The hectic schedules, unflattering lighting design, and the dreadfully serious and practical social life of the K-School are about as style-friendly as a religious order (the Pope’s red Prada shoes and silk Buddhist monk robes notwithstanding). Function is all well and good, but without attention to form, there’s just no “fun” in function. And let’s face it, we could all use a little more fun in our purpose-driven lives.
However, I must give props to the women of the K-School, who by and large manage to inject more varied, interesting, and put-together looks than the guys. Admittedly, when it comes to stylistic possibilities, women do have more selection and license to dress with more imagination and personality. But there is a downside to the female style smorgasbord – some fugly, what-were-they-thinking trends. Ladies: just because they’re popular, doesn’t mean they’re right.
Fall 2008 Ready To Wear
The season’s general trends: rich fabrics, higher necklines, and loose feminine forms. The more promising – if not entirely original – half of this season’s looks are throwbacks to the 1940s and 50s, with lower hemlines and higher collars. That’s right – it’s cold, the economy is depressing, and it’s time to cover sexy up. Oh joy! Nevertheless, these looks capitalize on classic, yet softer, silhouettes and a bit slinkier drape than the original versions. BCBG Max Azria and Diane Von Furstenberg pull off the retro look well, with knee-length dresses and sheer full-cover tops.
The other half of the collections, as demonstrated by Narciso Rodriguez, were dominated by more voluminous coats, shorter flouncy skirts, and shapeless dresses. These more modern but dowdier and somewhat amorphous looks were often paired with tights and leggings. The overall effect is shabby chic and eclectic, but not particularly flattering. Meh.
No Ma’am!
Bootie pumps are pure HEINOUS! It was one thing when my grandma, who was born in the 1920s, picked out a pair at Steve Madden last winter, but now, women in their 20s are somehow falling victim to this oh-so-unflattering school-marm look. These hoof-heels are a desperate ploy by the shoe industry to get women to start buying into hybrid shoes. Well, don’t do it. Don’t let them win. Booties are for babies and old ladies. And since they’re pumps, I know they can’t be justified as comfortable. Even though $500 booties were strutted down a few fall runways, please, leave them on the rack so grandma can buy them at a markdown when they don’t sell.
Just Ignore Her
Lindsay Lohan has an addiction problem. No, it’s not drugs. Or alcohol. Or Samantha Ronson. She is addicted to leggings. And as Blair Waldorf and the ladies over at GoFugYourself have made clear: leggings are not pants! And neither are tights. Yet, many girls and women have taken to wearing leggings as a basic garment. Leggings should be supplementary and functional – helping to keep you warm when you decide to wear a skirt with boots in the winter. Worn otherwise, they all too easily make legs look stubby, sausage-like, or worse. As with many other aspects of comportment and style, let’s just take LiLo (and her $100 leggings) as exemplary of a style don’t. It’s too easy for legging-looks to go wrong.
Time to Downsize
Sometimes I wonder, do those women who carry around luggage size “purses” secretly long to be hobos? I mean, why would you need a bag big enough to carry around most of your earthly belongings unless you planned on living out of your bag in a rail yard? Plus, there are studies about how overstuffed, supersized bags are bad for your posture. These ginormous bags are unnecessary, expensive, and just encourage you to carry more crap than you need during a normal day. There are limits to the excesses of fashion I will support, an¬d ladies, the Chanel hobo bag is one of those limits. So simplify your life and your purse and trade the big bag trend in for something chic and smaller.
Ultimately, women are viewed by the fashion industry as the primary consumers of their beautiful and inane business. Therefore, the industry will invent and target women with as many trends as they can come up with, many of them ridiculous. So, before you end up looking less than your true best or with a closet full of dysfunctional looks, make sure any trend you adopt goes well with your overall style and doesn’t leave you looking like every other woman trying to keep up with Marc Jacob’s marketing people. And above all else, continue to keep it classy, K-School women.
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[…] and Maison Martin Margiela…The student newspaper of the Harvard Kennedy School claims that booties are for babies and old ladies only (adding, “harrumph”)…So hard to keep up: It […]