The most famous designers of our time are men. Think of Valentino, John Galliano, Giorgio Armani, Ralph Lauren. Yet some of the most wearable clothes around now are made by women.
Women have always played their part in fashion’s Hall of Fame. Jeanne Lanvin, Madame Vionnet and, of course, the visionary Coco Chanel spearheaded French fashion in their day, but during the Forties and Fifties female designers dropped out of the limelight somewhat.
In the Sixties we had the wonderful Mary Quant and Barbara Hulanicki of Biba fame, but they were often overshadowed by the talented male stars of the day, such as Ossie Clark and Yves Saint Laurent. Now, though, women are steaming ahead again, both in the international league and heading up smaller, British brand names.
Of course, it makes sense that women should be first-rate designers as they know all about the issues of bras, hips and bosoms, wobbly arms and the other ‘defects’ we torment ourselves with.
They know about how we need to move in our clothes – female designers tend to be more generous with their armholes – and they understand that woman cannot live by ballgown alone. Party-girl designer Alice Temperley, for instance, always ensures that dancing is possible in her chiffon, silk and knit dresses.
When I look at my own wardrobe, I see that around 70 per cent of it is from female designers – Miuccia Prada, Alberta Ferretti, Consuelo Castiglioni and Donna Karan, for instance, but also a wealth of smaller brands headed up by women.
In the British fashion industry, there are a number of great companies which are female-led and owned and make the kind of clothes that make you feel you really can get your money’s worth out of them in terms of wearability.
The girls at Saltwater, Irishwoman Orla Kiely and Victoria Stapleton at Brora specialise in the colours, knitwear and simple shapes that are perfect wardrobe staples. Betty Jackson is known for comfortable clothes in gorgeous fabrics, and also for being a good bet if you are tall and not the slimmest of size 10s.
Margaret Howell is a longstanding British success story, with a palette of neutral colours and regularly updated classics. Her clothes have a vaguely utilitarian, even androgynous bent, and include everyday items such as shirtdresses and wide-legged pants.
Another good tip for everyday wear is Lindy Ross and Serena Bute’s collection, Ross & Bute, which you can buy online as well as in stores.
Male designers often start with a more rigid view of women – and are heavily influenced by the style of those women they admire. They will experiment with dramatic silhouettes, sometimes working on shapes that owe more to architectural design than they do to a woman’s body – but often, too, creating groundbreaking designs which totally change the way we dress.
Think of Christian Dior’s fullskirted New Look. It is, for instance, Alexander McQueen that we should probably thank – or blame – for a decade of low-slung hipster jeans, and Alber Elbaz at Lanvin for the puffy tulip skirt shapes around.
On the other hand, women are in general (and I know there are exceptions – Rei Kawakubo of Commes des Garcons comes to mind) concerned with the feel of the garments. They veer towards more colour (why is it that male designers so enjoy seeing us in black?) and work with fabric to make it more flattering.
It’s interesting to note that the Versace range, now that Donatella has inherited it from her brother Gianni, employs more ruching and draping and use of heavy soft fabrics in the dresses. A clever drape and a successful ruche are brilliant devices for disguising unwanted bumps.
In this area, you could look at the Gharani Strok collection or Diane von Furstenberg’s range – Diane, of course, being mistress of the flattering dress.
Dressing up to please her man
Cooking for people is one of those double-edged swords. There’s something unbelievably satisfying in making a good meal for a large table of friends and family. However, it’s far from rewarding when your guests make you feel like the meal you are serving is a sophisticated instrument of torture.
At this time of year, when everyone’s feeling a bit blob-like and underexercised, I’ve noticed that almost every woman preludes the meal with several minutes of monologue along the lines of ‘Phew! I can’t get into any of my clothes (much patting of invisible stomach bulge); don’t tell me you’ve bought cheese? I think I’ll explode if I put one more thing in my mouth .. .’ When you’ve rushed home from work to whisk up a delicious feast (no time to bathe, no time to change, no time to wash the lettuce), I regard it as the height of bad manners for guests to say anything other than: ‘Can I have some more, please?’ It’s fascinating to see the way some women change their look to match their man.
Jemima Khan, the most high-profile example, has gone from a life of partial purdah – no bare skin, veils and a wardrobe of shalwar kameez – when she was married to Imran Khan, to skin-tight vamp now that she is with Hugh Grant.
Dressing to please your man is regarded by many as a bit of an old-fashioned notion, especially if you’re using your own credit card, and many men bemoan the waning of the old days.
But do men really try to dress to please their woman? Most of the couples I know have long ago come to a slightly disappointed compromise with each other’s sartorial habits – he wishing she’d ditch the smocks, she wishing he’d bury the leather blouson jacket.
My favourite film of the moment is Notes On A Scandal. There is a marvellously observed scene where schoolteacher Judi Dench is invited to the family home of her pash, Sheba (in the form of Cate Blanchett, looking incandescently beautiful). Dench, as the prudent spinster Barbara, puts on her best togs for Sunday lunch and is greeted by the posher Sheba and family tumbling around in jeans and old sweaters. So embarrassed is Barbara by her unsophisticated faux pas in overdressing that she pretends she has another engagement to attend later. It brilliantly illustrates the sometimes confusing, careless casualness of bohemian middle-class life and also captures perfectly that moment of horror when you know you have got your look so wrong.
Spring is the perfect time to pick a parka if you want to get a fashionable spring coat, you should check out the many parkas there are around.
Parkas don’t have very glamorous associations but, following on from their success in the winter season, there are some lovely lightweight ones to be found. The main appeal of a parka is its comfort level – nice deep pockets, lightweight yet warm, and nothing tight anywhere. It’s like walking around in a lowtog rated duvet – though hopefully a touch more flattering.
Many of the ones you will find in the stores now have drawstring hems, which create a trendy but rather more bulky shape and they look better unzipped. Roll the sleeves up a bit and let them float above a pair of narrow pants or a slim skirt.
If you are very slim, you can belt them.
Marks & Spencer and Gap have some excellent ones.
For something more extravagant, you could look at the silk versions I’ve seen by Belgian designer Dries Van Noten. Incidentally, Dries has opened a store on the Left Bank in Paris which, even if you don’t like his clothes (cropped pants, box pleat skirts, apron dresses in exotic fabrics), is worth a visit for its interior design.
Beautiful silk walls, huge sofas, Fifties photographs of French socialites and oriental carpets combine to make a shop that’s more comfortable than most people’s homes.
No Comments on this post