Simplicity’s Night Out : Understatement rules for evening. And while women can’t go wrong with a little black dress, cocktail attire has other basic forms.
The cocktail dress is the toast of the fashion world this holiday season.
After many seasons of excess, cocktail dresses are looking understated, elegant and simply fabulous. Glitz is gone. Those “Little Mermaid”-style get-ups with their riot of multicolored sequins now have the look of a morning-after, post-New Year’s party hangover.
They’ve been upstaged by simple satin slip gowns, short sleeveless sheaths with full taffeta skirts, and elegant halter dresses, all with little if any sequins, bugle beads or other adornments.
“It’s an understated elegance. No one’s going for too much flash,” says Sharon Wackeen, a North Tustin resident who recently co-chaired the Sleigh Bell gala for the Junior Auxiliary of the Assistance League of Santa Ana.
Wackeen has been wearing almost nothing but simple black cocktail dresses to holiday parties this season. At Sleigh Bell, she sported a sexy backless gown made of black velvet with a crisscross front.
“You don’t want the dress to wear you. If something is too gimmicky, you’ve lost it,” she says.
For inspiration, fashion designers are looking to party girls of the past. Think Audrey Hepburn as Holly Golightly in “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” in a sleeveless black sheath with opera-length gloves. Think of Grace Kelly, that perennial prom queen, in full-skirted dresses with plain, fitted bodices that showed off her slender waist. Think of sensual Jean Harlow in her satin slips and other slinky gowns.
Laguna Beach fashion designer Sandra Harvey had Harlow in mind when she created a black stretch velvet gown with a high neck and plunging back for her line of form-fitting dresses.
“Cocktail dresses are my specialty,” Harvey says.
She favors sexy stretch velvet sheaths, some adorned with ostrich feathers and beaded fringe. Among her more popular styles: a stretch velvet gown with an off-the-shoulder neckline trimmed in ostrich feathers. The collection ranges from $125 to $300 and is available at Fred Segal in Los Angeles and by appointment at Harvey’s Costa Mesa studio.
When designing little black dresses and other cocktail looks, all designers owe a debt to Coco Chanel. In 1926 she created the first little black dress--a simple sheath made of crepe de Chine with long fitted sleeves and a skirt that hit just below the knee.
“It was revolutionary. It was the first very simple dress, and it was very practical. Women could get around in it,” says Anne Fahey, spokeswoman for Chanel Inc. in New York City.
For holiday ‘95, Chanel returned to the idea of “practical” cocktail attire, offering a collection of little black dresses such as a simple crepe halter dress, a lacy strapless dress and a sheer, to-the-knee black chiffon skirt paired with a shoulder-baring cashmere sweater (from $1,800 to $4,000).
While most women still reach for a little black dress when the party invitation calls for “cocktail attire,” in these days of relaxed dress codes, anything goes for cocktail, from ankle-length gowns to mini-skirts and even pantsuits.
“Cocktail used to mean a short dress, but now it can be a suit, a dressy top or a palazzo,” says Nanci Kapp, assistant manager at Cache in South Coast Plaza, Costa Mesa.
Among the accepted cocktail looks: a pewter-colored chiffon party dress with a sleeveless bodice and short, full skirt ($245); a winter white cocktail suit with fur cuffs ($660) and a black crepe halter dress with a neckline trimmed in satin ($245), available at Cache in South Coast Plaza and Brea Mall.
“There’s been a big return to elegance, to the Sabrina-style gowns,” Kapp says. “People are going back to the classics.”
The simpler designs are part of fashion’s return to 1950s-era classic looks.
“We’re seeing a lot of ‘50s-inspired sheath dresses with full skirts and bare shoulders,” says Ramin Hajipour, general manager of Devon Becke in Fashion Island Newport Beach.
Understated styles get their holiday sparkle not from “full-on sequin glitz,” says Hajipour, but from fabrics that shine and shimmer, including satin, Lurex woven with metallic threads and iridescent taffetas.
Typical of the look: a black satin sheath with fitted bodice and a full skirt accented with a skinny belt ($178), available at Devon Becke in Fashion Island, MainPlace/Santa Ana and Brea Mall.
Metallics have been hot for the holidays for several seasons, and this year pewter and antique gold look fresher than traditional gold and silver. Black remains the color of choice for night, but those bored of black are stepping out in white or baroque shades of burgundy, hunter green and midnight blue.
“I wear so much black that my daughter asked me, ‘Are you only supposed to wear black to these parties?’ ” says gala planner Wackeen.
Lynda Hughes, a Corona del Mar interior designer, has noticed a lot more color at holiday parties this year than in past seasons. She’s stepping out in colorful party dresses such as her “ribbon dress,” a velvet sheath adorned with red velvet, turquoise, yellow and hot pink ribbon.
Hughes has noticed women wearing more unadorned velvets and taffetas to Orange County parties.
“Women got stuck on those sequins,” she says. “We’re finally past that Bob Mackie stage.”
What to wear with that little black dress or ruby red halter? Again, the inspiration for accessories is straight out of the ‘50s. Opera-length gloves that Audrey Hepburn favored, boxy Kelly bags and stoles in lush fabrics, from faux fur to cashmere, are the must-have extras for night.
Jewelry is minimal, a la the teeny tiny crystal beaded necklaces worn by actresses on “Beverly Hills 90210,” “Friends” and “Melrose Place.” Makeup is light, and hair is the opposite of “done,” Hajipour says. It can be swept up into a simple chignon or blow-dried bone straight.
“It all goes back to minimalism,” he says.
