MODERN CLASSICS
Velázquez ring in yellow gold with amethyst, Carrera y Carrera
Arather strange thing happened at the shows this season. Instead of shouty prints, a new erogenous zone declared, or the debut of some bold, never-seen-before silhouette, a large group of designers decided to look to decades past for Autumn/Winter ’13 inspiration. No, not the usual ’80s power shoulders or ’70s hippie flares, but farther back. Unexpected, yes, but we’ve seen and loved these shapes before (or at least our grandmothers have); specifically the cinched-in waists of Forties Hollywood starlets, the flared silhouettes of the Fifties, and the rounded couture shapes of Cristóbal Balenciaga’s Sixties.
There were mysterious Hitchcockian heroines on the runways of Prada and Bottega Veneta, starlets in gold lamé trailed fur stoles along the floor at Marc Jacobs, and cocoon opera coats in satin at Rochas while Raf Simons at Dior made the New Look new again.
Gorgeous as these clothes may be, the conundrum facing most women was, how were they supposed to wear such pieces without looking like they stepped out of a period movie set, or worse, like someone’s grandmother? Yes, the swish of a full circle skirt is graceful indeed, but is it practical for a working mother who does the school run and then rushes halfway across the city for a meeting with business partners?
The key thing to know is that this is a trend that’s easier to digest in smaller doses, so break the look down to its individual elements and incorporate it into your everyday