A Return to Romance : Fashion: Inspired by recent movies, clothing is taking a nostalgic turn. The look offers a chance for adventure and relief from everyday wear.
While fashion’s mainstream may be a steady flow of classic, cool-headed dressing, other currents are also affecting fashion this holiday season. Designers worldwide seem to be inspired by romantic movies--most recently, the period pieces “Dangerous Liaisons” from last spring and “Valmont” from this fall--and making clothes accordingly.
Their flights of fancy take off from the era of baroque paintings, including Sir Anthony Van Dyck’s and Rembrandt’s lavish portraits, and artfully combine a comfort factor that is part of modern fashion.
“So much of fashion is tailored, staid, clean. But people are buying romance,” says Los Angeles designer Bonnie Strauss. The appeal? “Romantic clothes are special.”
Strauss’ rich-looking designs were featured in Bloomingdale’s “Valmont” shop in New York this fall, as well as in a Bullock’s romantic-dressing promotion. Her lace vest, to wear with an evening skirt or a tailored suit, and her tapestry sarong and velvet jacket, have been in demand, she says.
The romantic style is centered on rich fabrics--velvet, satin, tapestry, brocade and lace. Designers add lavish embellishments, including quilting, braiding, embroidery, fringe, tassels and encrusted jewels.
The men’s version of romantic dressing can start with longer hair pulled back into a ponytail and tied with a ribbon. Vests are a key item, as are velvet jackets; white, wing-collar shirts, and silky poet shirts with billowing sleeves.
On the intimate side, women’s ruffled night shirts and brocade or velvet robes enter the boudoir in a big way.
The period look offers a fashion adventure, a relief from everyday wear, and the option of choosing to pay almost any price. Brocade vests can be found at K mart for $14.99 and at American Rag for about $100. Tapestry shoes range from about $100 at Sacha stores to several hundred dollars at Shauna Stein in the Beverly Center. Satin, ruffled night shirts are $19 at Cacique in the Beverly Center.
At Fred Segal on Melrose Avenue, voluminous sleeved shirts for men start at about $150; brocade and velvet robes trimmed in satin are between $400 and $800. Ecru, also on Melrose Avenue, can outfit the romantic-minded man or woman for a few hundred dollars--or a few thousand--in perhaps the most exotic expression of the neo-baroque mood: quilted velvet vests, silk-cord trimmed jackets and the like.
“These fantasy clothes reflect humor and imagination and show a certain playfulness, just like the characters in the movies,” says Elaine Kim, co-owner of Ecru. “A person can evoke this baroque mood with a lot or with just accessories.”
Indeed, fringed velvet scarfs, gilt-laden belts, shoulder-grazing chandelier earrings and jewel-encrusted handbags can be the little touch that changes a fashion yawn into a seductive sigh.
