A good week for 50-somethings
We 50-somethings used to be invisible. Not anymore. We now know we can wear whatever we damn well like, especially if we’re Helena Christensen and what we like is bustiers.
It was also confirmed – following a barnstorming resort show in Marrakesh – that the designer responsible for making Dior relevant and modern again is a 54-year-old woman. It’s almost three years since Maria Grazia Chiuri took the helm at Dior, in which time she has turned a fitfully successful label that was more talked about by fashion insiders than worn, into a global superstar. It’s not just the accessories and perfumes that are selling. Women are queuing up to buy the clothes. LVMH, the company which owns Dior, doesn’t break out individual figures. Suffice to say the other houses it owns (Fendi, Louis Vuitton, Celine, Givenchy and Pucci) have been told to look and learn from Dior.
All this has been going on against a persistent soundtrack of rumours among those who only respect fashion when it’s challenging (aka unwearable) that Chiuri was about to be replaced by someone younger, “hipper” and male. Monday night’s spectacle in Marrakesh was a hugely ambitious and thoughtful undertaking that saw Chiuri collaborating with African designers, craft collectives and artists to breathe fresh life into classic Dior Bar jackets, toile de jouys, and full skirts. Perhaps those rumours can stop
now. Meanwhile, on Thursday night in New York, Miuccia Prada, who’s about to turn 70, showed a collection fizzing with ideas and delectable clothes. Here’s the low-down.
Double shirting
Still getting your head round double denim? Don’t bother. Double shirting is the new styling trick in town. Simply layer different patterns on top of one another and peel off when the temperature requires.
Nylon bags
These haven’t been a thing since the early Nineties, when Prada first made contact with the fashion crowd – not that anyone used the phrase back then. Come November 2019, when this collection begins to arrive in store, nylon bags will be a major thing, assuming the high street doesn’t make them a thing sooner. Which it will.
Dainty prints
It doesn’t matter whether they’re abstracts, geometrics or digital, Prada has a knack with prints. Almost every pattern she’s done has turned into a classic. And these, Liberty-esque ones are already classics, yet fresh when layered under windowpane checks or over stripes.
Basketball boots
A worthy alternative to trainers, they partnered everything, from cropped trousers to dresses.
Shirt jacket suit
Prada’s new delicately printed trouser suit has a soft, deconstructed jacket with bracelet length sleeves, 7/8 trousers. It’s part utility, part 18thcentury romance and eminently wearable.
Cotton
Like Dior, Prada has fallen in love with cotton, using it for just about everything in the collection, and splicing stripy cotton shirt sleeves onto sprigprinted dresses. “It makes everything feel simpler and more approachable,” she said, which is pretty much what Maria Grazia said. It takes a woman…
Giant sequin scarves
File under things you don’t need but inexplicably lust after.