Wednesday, February 07, 2007

Oh. my. gawd. I would. like, totally wear this Marc Jacobs stuff.

Marc Jacobs is the designer who famously brought us high-fashion grunge in the early 90s and, last year, super-wide pleated and bloused Capri-length pants. In other words, he's always been a trend-setting designers whose actual designs I never found wearable (although I have, on occasion, been known to wear a plaid flannel shirt). So yesterday, as I browsed through the mostly dismal Fall 2007 New York Fashion Week collections, I stopped, stunned, amazed and delighted, at Jacobs' collection. Of course, he laid a trap for me -- the first look out was the orange -- ORANGE! -- coat. And it's not only orange, it's sleek and chic and would probably look good on almost anyone. And he showed more gorgeous coats, and sleek tailored pantsuits that could be worn without embarrassment by, say, a middle-aged professional woman, and chic and tidy skirt sets . . . you know, things that most adult woman might actually want to wear.

Of course, the collection is not without its WTF? moments, and most of the cocktail and evening wear heads straight for Cloe Sevigny country, but if mass-market retailers pick up the tailored day-wear trend, I'll be happy to leave evening wear to the fashionistas.

I couldn't help noticing as I browsed through the photos at Style.com that the models this year are as incredibly, painfully thin as they were in years past, in spite of the recent discussions about discouraging starvation among runway models. Meanwhile, the average weight of Americans is now 188.3 lbs (13.5 stone or 85.6 kg). So who, exactly, is selling what to whom? And why can't we, as a society, work toward a happy medium?

5 comments:

Marie said...

Thanks for posting this. Those are great fashions and I love the hats and color combinations.

janet emmanuel said...

I agree a lovely wearable collection shown with pazzazz

Anonymous said...

one of my friends is really into marc jacobs (sadly, their mens line in japan is limited to a couple of racks shoved in the tiny basement of their aoyama tokyo store, and that's it. we're talking like 5 t-shirts for the whole country) and she was quite chuffed to see this collection during Fashion Week.

I agree with your assessment, some of that stuff looks imminently wearable (as the phrase goes).

I wish they made orange coats for men! I think it's such a bold color, but done right could be very masculine and rugged.

*sighs wistfully*

by the way, thanks for commenting on my blog the other day! I added a link to your page under the "fashion" section on the front page. I hope that's okay! I enjoy reading your reviews ;)

Anonymous said...

These are such beautiful classic looks and the hats are great. Would love to see people wearing them more often.

The models do look a bit emaciated, but luckily many of the outfits they're wearing would also look flattering on those with a little more meat on their bones!

Anonymous said...

Orange! Who would have thought? And it looks fabulous.