Sanity at last! The LBD’s back in style
THE absolute conviction that I want a black dress has seized me.
This is not the usual ‘little black dress’ of popular perception, because the object of my desire is not a tiny scrap of a frivolous, Audrey Hepburn cocktail thing which that term implies.
What I’m dead-set on is tailored, slightly curvaceous, and with a hem hitting anywhere from below the knee to just above the ankle. It’s not an evening dress, and definitely not a ball-gown.
What it is is a beautifully cut day-dress to take you effortlessly from day to night.
I’m defining it as the new Grown-up Black Dress.
seeing this look heading over the horizon is a function of everything I’ve been immersed in over the past three weeks. It started at the Dolce & Gabbana couture show in Milan.
There, among the gold embroidered gowns and swishing opera capes, was a series of sober, reserved, immaculately fitted suits and day-dresses, all cut in black.
This was old- fashioned elegance of a kind we haven’t seen in donkey’s years: a case of something being forgotten, and so out, that when it returns it feels really modern again.
Colourful, done-up things are two- a- penny these days. Fashion in general has been so over- obsessed with everything that is printed, multi-hued and embroidered in the past few years, that when something comes along which is completely the opposite, it suddenly looks amazing.
Further confirmation that black might be a breakout trend came at the opening of the Vogue 100: A Century of style exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery last week.
There I was, suddenly surrounded by guests in black dresses and suits: Jerry Hall, Eva Herzigova, Kar li e Kloss, Lily Donaldson, Lara stone, Jourdan Dunn, suki Waterhouse.
AND
then there were more on the red carpet: Lady Gaga in an uncharacteristically stunning moment at the Golden Globes, Kate Winslet winning Best supporting Actress at the Baftas, Adele arriving at the Grammys, Katie Holmes ( pictured) on the Tonight show.
Well, that’s quite enough of a cue for me. I’ve no need or desire for a red-carpet gown.
I’m not a celebrity, and a one-wear dress has no place in my wardrobe.
And yet, ladies, I spy something we can all do with this, no matter what age, height or shape. Black is sensible and practical. Moreover, it is something you can only properly graduate to after your mid-30s. Forties, 50s, 60s, 70s . . . 90s, never mind: black works.
We’ve known this for years, of course, but fashion somehow forgot it.
The last time I had an allblack wardrobe was in the Nineties — who doesn’t remember that basic black, minimalist time?
Back then, though, it was more of a utilitarian thing, a daily monochrome uniform which became so ubiquitous, it was boring.
Hours
wasted in the morning with clothes on the bed, going over them with sticky rollers . . . it’s all coming back.
This time around, I think it will be different, more of a throwback to a kind of slightly formal late- Fifties, early- sixties silhouette, but adapted for now.
on the High street, LK Bennett has a beautifully tailored black dress with a Fifties silhouette for £195.
river Island, meanwhile, has a black Bardot-waisted dress for £ 55. simplicity and versatility are key.
From the Thirties to the Fifties, when money was scarce, owning one ‘good’ black dress to go from work to drinks party was the boon of the early ‘career girl’.
Now that we’re back in austere times, that’s the principle we need to follow again.
so this is the mission I’ve set myself: pick something which really suits my shape, not too tight, and maybe a bit flowy in the skirt.
Make sure I can dress it up with jewellery, add a belt, match it with a neat jacket or a short cardigan.
Check it looks good with low heels, high heels and with boots for day.
Be sure it’s a length that works under a coat.
Fashion doesn’t often have moments of absolute sanity, but this one, I think, is going to make women very happy.