It's been a very long time since I wore a below-the-knee skirt, let alone an exaggerated pencil line, but if fashion is to be followed, then I should start considering my options, for this is a newly predominant silhouette.
As is so often the case with contemporary design, the look is in part a recycling of the past - back to Christian Dior's 'H-line', otherwise known as the 'French Bean', launched in 1954 (and itself likened to the narrow shapes of the 1920s).
The past is also present in the modern reworking of pencil skirts that appeared to such gorgeous effect in Mad Men and The Hour ; and, to be honest, I preferred the costumes in those television series to the influential pieces by Marc Jacobs that appeared on the catwalk (first at his own autumn/winter 2011 show in
New York, then at Louis Vuitton in Paris), although it is doubtless fashion heresy to admit as much. True, Jacobs did what he is good at: shaking up prevailing convention, in this instance with exaggeratedly narrow skirts.
But I simply can't see the point of suggesting that grown women hobble - haven't we made strides beyond such constriction? Curious, too, that the tight pencil skirt remains loosely associated with female emancipation, at least in the move from kitchen to office; convenient sartorial shorthand for the Mad Men world of Madison Avenue and the early days of female BBC producers in The Hour .
As it happens, the last time I wore a pencil skirt was as a young reporter on a Sunday newspaper, in the days when being 'properly dressed' for work still demanded such requirements. Mine seemed rather boring - grey-green serge, albeit with a slit at the back that allowed me to run for a bus - although in retrospect it was an 1980s take on the 1950s originals that I now admire.
As for what to wear now: I like the latest limited-edition Banana Republic range, a collaboration with the Mad Men costume designer, Janie Bryant (in particular a grey tweed pencil skirt).
Jonathan Saunders has also come up with a collection of below-the-knee hemlines that are undeniably desirable, especially his beautifully printed skirts, as appropriate for an evening out as a morning in the office.
Best of all, or so it seemed, were Romola Garai's vintage-inspired costumes in The Hour ; but it subsequently emerges that the original corset Garai endured beneath her pencil skirt was so uncomfortable 'it made me feel as if I wanted to vomit constantly'. Here's to liberation …
No comments:
Post a Comment