STYLE : FASHION : MOD IN AMERICA : For fall, designers have come up with groovy looks that Diana Rigg might have worn. But our writer would prefer to let hip-huggers and go-go boots rest in peace
While there are many things in my life for which I am truly grateful, none outshines the fact that I was not an adult during the ‘60s. Oh sure, Woodstock sounded like fun, and it would have been nice to be among the last people on the planet who could make love sans latex. But none of it--not the sex, drugs or rock ‘n roll--would have been worth the damning evidence that would haunt me for the rest of my life. You know, the pictures--of putrid green vests, Barbara Feldon hair framing Cleopatra eyes, white patent-leather go-go boots, hip-hugging bell bottoms and metallic baby-doll dresses. Me and all my white-lipsticked friends (we won’t even get into the ruffle-shirted, ankle-booted look of the accompanying male). I shudder at the thought and count myself lucky to have escaped.
Which, of course, I haven’t. Because the mod look is back. No, you aren’t having an acid flashback, those really are iridescent shirts in Peter Max colors waltzing down the runways. Vinyl, as in dresses, bags and shoes, has resurfaced in all its skin-sticking glory. Fake furs and flares, sling-backs and low-slung belts, hot pants and skin-tight shirts are popping up in the collections of Anna Sui, Marc Jacobs and Richard Tyler. And the hair! Once again, teasing will replace rollers and the manufacturer of Dippity Doo has a shot at the Fortune 500. Result: a mind-bending combination of the flip Emma Peel wore in “The Avengers” and Patsy’s gravity-defying “Absolutely Fabulous” bouffant.
It all started this season when designer Tom Ford decided that horse bits and stodgy silhouettes be damned, Gucci needed a change, a big change. Out with the classic loafer, in with the calf-high royal-blue boot. Why, Ford asked, should men be confined to stuffy suits of wool when yards and yards of velvet are available? His 1995 fall collection hit the runways, the press gasped (but only so their praise could be that much more effusive) and suddenly Julie Christie was not just the actress we all loved in “Shampoo”--she was a fashion icon.
Of course, costumes can be fun. I remember wearing white go-go boots and dancing around the living room to the dulcet tones of the Grass Roots and Sonny and Cher. If you can wear hip-huggers and still conduct normal bodily functions such as breathing, more power to you. And who doesn’t look great in an electric-blue mohair coat?
But this is why God invented yard sales. Anna Sui claims that when researching her latest collection, she discovered that mod is a religion with but one commandment: Thou shalt be cool. Wearing clothes that could have been procured from the wardrobe department of “Love, American Style” is cool if that neon-pink faux stewardess outfit with matching hat and purse was all your idea and cost only $17.50. The point of the whole mod look was that a few young people--Mary Quant, Jean Shrimpton, Marianne Faithfull--thought it up themselves: Who says I can’t wear orange? Who says I can’t wear mid-calf boots with a granny dress? Who says my skirt has to cover my butt? The raison d’e^tre of the style was to give a generation of kids a sense of freedom, creativity and attitude. And that works only one time around.
Americans’ propensity to recycle fashion, fads and politics at a rate just slightly slower than the speed of light has become the stuff of literature and legend. Tom Ford claims this “new” look will help people capture the upbeat mood of the Swinging Sixties. (Hmmm, does he remember Vietnam? Richard Nixon?) Not that what Ford has done is derivative or anything. No, ma’am. “I don’t like the idea of retro,” says the man who has almost single-handedly resurrected chartreuse satin shirts. “We need to look forward and feel optimistic about the future.”
As far as I recall, the mid-’70s come next. So by fall, Earth shoes and gaucho skirts should be back. Oh boy.
