We closed out a tasty Fashion Week with a delicious dessert of vintage clothing! We attended a party and fashion show at Marmalade in SoHo on February 16th. While young lithe models paraded in vintage finery in the windows, we vogued outside before and after - mostly for our own amusement - and that of the models.
Our hostess Hannah (on the right) posed with Lisa and Lisa's best bud. We loved Hannah's draped, wide-cut skirt and Lisa's Marc Jacobs baggy pants (and actually her whole look).
As usual, we rendezvous'd at the party, having endlessly quizzed each other about what to wear with neither of us giving or getting any clues. Weather is always a factor (so is work!) and the drizzle only complicated matters. Here we are coming face to face for the great "reveal". By the time Jean arrived, Valerie had already scoped out the jewelry vitrines and had moved on to checking out the crowd.
Hannah's daughter Vita and her friend kindly modeled their outfits from the front and the back. You can see why. Look at the line on that dress! Look at the graphics on that shirt! (Yeah, yeah, we know about the tag. But it's merch, so it has to stay till someone takes it home and snips it off. The dry cleaner will LOVE that. You might want to ask why the manufacturer put it THERE. Good question.)
To match the silver jewelry on her dress, Vita put some pins in the cleverly supplied insets on her vintage hat. The pin on the left looks like a copy of a Mayan bas relief. Yum!
The models wore outfits coordinated from head to toe - from parasols and umbrellas to platform shoes and colored socks. Check out that square umbrella! Square, but not L7. (You young people, look up L7.)
We mentioned last week that socks seemed to be making a comeback.
Those of you too young to remember the Bobby Soxers (geez, even we're too young to really remember them) have at least heard of them. They didn't call 'em that fer nothin'. Note the woman on the left (below) has seamed stockings (what a breakthrough seamless were years later!), and the woman on the right has the saddle shoes that were so popular with the socks. Oy.
You can't tell from the distance, but the model in pink wore the most spectacular makeup. (See below for a closer look.) VERY reminiscent of Serge Lutens' work for Shiseido in the 1980s. Who gets up in the morning thinking 'now where did I put my pink and yellow eye shadow?' or 'oh, I need some blush on my temples'?. But look how great they are on her! Just goes to show how self-limiting we can be. OK, OK, those of you saying 'but it's a FASHION show', or 'but she's young enough to be my GRANDdaughter', are entirely right - it won't necessarily look appropriate on the likes of us, or at the office (well, maybe at somebody's offices, but not at ours...). We just want to applaud the makeup artist for experimenting. And for doing a great job.
Here's a photo of Sayoko Yamaguchi in Shiseido makeup in her heyday in the '80s, wearing those very colors (photo by Noriaki Yokosuka). This one is a bit more operatic than usual, but don't those colors just make you want to celebrate something? We lost Yamaguchi much too soon - in 2007 at the age of 56.
This turquoise pleated dress harkened back to the Mary McFadden look, when she was in her 1980's heydey.
What to wear with a turquoise dress? Silver shoes and blue socks!
This tall slim model topped off her outfit with a vintage monkey fur jacket.
Vita lent this model her vintage crownless straw hat. Much as we love hats, they do retain a lot of heat in summer, so crownless hats are a great idea. Not to mention, they circumvent the age-old problem of "hat head". Some women we know shy away from hats because they can leave an imprint on hair. (It's true, alas. But one must suffer for one's art.)
These Norma Kamali black and white embroidered, lace-up wedgies were our favorite!!! Her stuff never goes out of style. They still look fresh and "of the moment" decades after she produced them. How does she do it?
Color was obviously a hot theme of the evening. This outfit combined pink slacks with a pink print umbrella and bathing suit.
This time, the contrasting high heels are turquoise, with wonderful detailing on the heel, worn with hot pink hose.
This guest was rocking her look. Don't you love the top knot?
We had met these two ladies at the last Marmalade party and stood outside afterward chatting. Check out the leopard leggings.
HE obviously got the memo - he was wearing a lot of color.
These ladies kindly obliged our request for a photo. Polka dots always get our attention.
Mike Bailey Gates was one of the photographers documenting the party.
Here we are before we headed home.
Valerie is wearing: Frank Lloyd Wright window pane umbrella from the Metropolitan Museum of Art, black and gray random striped coat by Pleats Please, vintage velvet and fur felt hat by Schiaparelli, matching vintage Norma Kamali shirt and duster, Comme des Garcons pants, Cole Haan red suede lace-ups.
Jean is wearing a pink and black leopard print umbrella from Trash and Vaudeville on St. Marks Place, black and white polka dot cotton Indian scarf from a street vendor; black coat by High Use, Hello Kitty purse, Ignatius fleece hat, Brigitte harem pants, Underground black and white brothel creepers.
Love all the pop-art colours! By the time I was brave enough to try the pink and yellow makeup combo I was too old to pull it off. I love the grey print dress with the Monkey fur jacket, and those red shoes on the model wearing the crownless hat (which is an excellent idea as most hats flatten my fauxhawk).
ReplyDelete