VOGUE – NOVEMBER 2007 – GOING TO EXTREMES – BY SARAH MOWER

NOVEMBER 2007

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CAN TWO OPPOSING FASHION FORCES– THE LONG, LINEAR COLUMN AND THE CURVY, BIG-SKIRTED SILHOUETTE– PEACEFULLY COEXIST? SARAH MOWER SPECULATES. 

'I'VE ALWAYS THOUGHT THAT IF YOU HAVE A SMALL, TIGHT SHOULDER AND LONG, SKINNY ARMS, IT SETS THE HEAD OFF REALLY GRACEFULLY,' SAYS RICK OWENS. 'ONCE YOU HAVE THAT, IT GETS THE EYE FIXED, AND THEN YOU GET AN IMPRESSION OF LENGTH AND GRACE FLOWING DOWN FROM THAT. IT WAS ALWAYS ABOUT FLOWING RATHER THAN GRIPPING.' 

OWENS, WHO IS FITTING GEORGINA GRENVILLE (THE MODEL WHO DEFINED THE COLUMNAR FORMS OF GUCCI IN THE NINETIES) INTO A SLITHER OF BIAS SATIN AND A LUXE MINK BOLERO FROM HIS NEW PALAIS ROYAL FUR LABEL, IS DESCRIBING HIS 'DRIPPY' SILHOUETTE. HIS TEMPLATE– FLUID AS IT MAY BE– IS A FIXED POINT IN THE LONG-DRAWN-OUT WOMAN'S UNIVERSE. I HAD RUNG HIM FOR A COUNSELING AFTER I WAS AWOKEN ONE MORNING BY A FRIEND, R., CALLING DURING RESORT SHOWS IN NEW YORK. 'DON'T YOU THINK IT'S GOING FIFTIES?' SHE ASKED. 'BIG SKIRTS, SMALL WAIST? CALL UP VOGUE.COM, PRADA. SEE?' SHE WAS RIGHT. BALLERINA-LENGTH. DIRNDL-ISH. FEMININE. IN THE DAYS THAT FOLLOWED, FRIDA GIANNINI AT GUCCI AND DONNA KAREN PUT BIG SKIRTS IN THEIR RESORT COLLECTIONS, TOO. AND WHEN NEW YORK SPRING SHOWS HIT, THEY WERE IN BREAKOUT MODE AT DONNA, ANNE KLEIN, AND OSCAR. (GRANTED, THEY'RE USUALLY SOMEWHERE AT OSCAR.) 

'I FIND THAT KIND OF RUDE, LIKE YOU'RE NOT THE RIGHT SHAPE,' SAYS OWENS, WHO RECENTLY WON A NATIONAL DESIGN AWARD FOR FASHION. 'I ALWAYS THINK IT'S MORE POLITE TO LET FABRIC FLOW OVER CURVES.' 

QUITE. NIP ME IN THE PLACE WHERE A WAIST SHOULD BE, KEEP IT FLARING ON OUT, AND I'M A VAST-HIPPED BLOB. QUEEN CELESTE IN BABAR, NOT THE YOUNG PRINCESS MARGARET IN CHRISTIAN DIOR CIRCA 1953, WHOSE IMAGE I SEE BEHIND THOSE PRADA RESORT FLORALS. TIME WAS, THIS WOULD'VE MEANT STARING DOWN THE BARREL OF ANOTHER SPELL IN FASHION EXILE FOR WOMEN LIKE ME. WHEN MIUCCIA LAST GOT UP TO HER INEXORABLY INFLUENTIAL SKIRT-INFLATING TRICKS IN HER 2004 'FIFTIES LADY TOURIST IN ITALY' PHASE, I WAS LOST. THERE WAS NO ALTERNATIVE. 

BUT SOMETHING ELSE IS HAPPENING. WHERE R. WAS SEEING CIRCLE SKIRTS, I SAW NARROWNESS. LOOK AT L'WREN SCOTT: SHE HAS THE GLAMOUR-SKINNY DOWN, NOT JUST IN HER LICORICE-STICK PANTS AND ANKLE-GRAZING COATS BUT IN DRESSES THAT REMIND US THAT THE FIFTIES WERE ALSO ABOUT COCKTAIL SHEATHS TO THE CALF. THERE IS HOPE IN THE DAY SIDE OF RESORT'S NINA RICCI, TOO: THOSE SLINKY DRESSES AND TRAILY PANTS BY OLIVIER THEYSKENS. 

IT'S A STRANGE MOMENT BECAUSE WHEN IT BOILS DOWN TO IT, WIDE AND SKINNY ARE NOT JUST POLES APART AESTHETICALLY BUT PHILOSOPHICAL OPPOSITES, AND NOW WE'VE COME TO A FACE-OFF BETWEEN THE TWO. BIG SKIRTS ARE HAPPY SKIRTS FOR THE DAINTY, WHIRLING OUT OF THE UNIVERSE OF FANTASY CHRISTIAN DIOR IMAGINED FOR THE POST-WWII WOMAN. THEY IMPLY CORSETS, ARTIFICE, THE DECORATIVE LADY– DORIS DAY FOR AMERICA. LONG-SKINNINESS IS ROOTED IN COOL, EDGY REALISM, THE TRADITION THAT WINDS BACK THROUGH THE UNDERGROUND ROCK CULTURE TO (AS OWENS POINTS OUT) THE SOCIAL LIBERATORS OF EARLY MODERN DESIGN, MADELEINE VIONNET AND MARIANO FORTUNY. ('THERE WAS NO ONE MORE PUNK ROCK THAN THEM!') 

AND NOW, INTERESTINGLY, THE REALLY YOUNG ARE ON THE CASE. ALEXA ADAMS AND FLORA GILL OF OHNE TITEL ARE TAILORING PENCIL-THIN SLEEVES INTO HIP-SKIMMING JACKETS AND ELONGATING TROUSERS TO BRUSH THE GROUND. 'FOR US, THE LONG, LEAN, SKINNY PANT-AND-JACKET SILHOUETTE CONNECTS WITH THE FEMALE BODY AND SIGNIFIES A CERTAIN SHAPE CONFIDENCE,' SAYS ADAMS. 'FOR OUR GENERATION, THIS IS A WHOLE NEW IDEA OF SUITING.'