Fashion, Darling!

There was a time when I was determined to make my own fashion, and be decidedly different from everybody else. I wore my Mom's shoulder-padded WWII jackets to high school in the 70's (before the 80's when the whole look was tragically ruined). I shopped vintage and super-reduced bargain places for the things nobody else wanted, and went to discos in NY wearing outrageous things. (I went home to CT wearing them, too -- that was fun.) Someday I will post pictures.

But you can pull that off when you're a young woman in a city where heights of audacity generally go unnoticed. (For New Yorkers, there's just too much to see to react to everything.)

When you're a middle-aged person in suburbia, it's a little different. I've still got a closet (or two) of outrageous "pieces," including buys from eBay when steals on 30's dresses, 40's suits and 50's "Lucy" fashions could be had there. But they languish in the dark now, since I can only fantasize about places to wear them. Now I get excited when my Kohl's peel-off sticker reveals a 30% discount. Wheee!! 80% Off Clearance rack, here I come!

("Did nobody else want you, you crazy little misfit blouse?")

But what's happened to audacious fashion on the runway? It used to be that even *I* would see the new fashions and call it all theatre. Something about this silhouette, or that color, or a certain match of the la, the dee and the da, will filter down into The Wearable. There's a level of Wearable that's still a bit avant-everybody-else, a level of Wearable that's way too safe, and then the level of Wearable that's so everywhere, why bother. (Unless you are a certain kind of middle-aged person in suburbia and you can get it for 30% off the 80% off the originally discounted 45% off. Then you MUST have it, whatever it is -- you can sew up something awesome out of it someday... or not.)

But the real couture high-priced snobby fashion shows are supposed to make you say, "Who would EVER wear that? It's ridiculous!! It's hideous! Nobody could want to look like that!" (Five years later something there has filtered its way to a must-have at Macy's.)


Unfortunately, in that regard, I think the 2011 New York Fashion Week has failed. I'm having a very hard time feeling shocked. I haven't even rolled my eyes at any of the photos. Check out the feature article on Yahoo, or see over 500 photos on the AP Slideshow.

Menswear from Tommy Hilfiger. Been there, done that. From Katherine Hepburn to Annie Hall -- this is still in my closet.

From Cynthia Steffe --  Adorable. Not new.

I love this from Marc Jacobs, but I could put together a good knockoff right now. And tell me about hats!! They were required until only about four decades ago. I hope they won't be the next "shoulder pads," distorted into something to make fun of later. If so, I still have my gloves. (Wait, what's that woman in front wearing?!)

But look! There are still a couple of new ideas.

Thank you, Thom Browne. Something I can't imagine myself ever wearing no matter how "wearable" that silhouette becomes. Boiled down to its essential lines, that is exactly the shape every middle-aged woman imagines her body becoming.

YES!! If I could be in a nursing home, visited by high school girls cheering me up with "hip-hop oldies," I want them to be wearing this.... and complimenting me on my incredible shape. 

Something tells me PeeWee Herman's career is over... Yeah I know, I mean even MORE over.

But the best thing there? The fashions for men.

Skirts, from Rag and Bone. Come on guys! I know it's been tried before, but it's time this filtered down to the Men's Wearhouse. We're about out of ideas for women's fashion. It's YOUR turn to be bold!

Go for it!!!