I pass Smock on Drury Street,Dublin every day on my way to the showroom and sometimes pop into say hi to Karen Crawford and Susan O’Connell, the dream team friends and owners of this most delectable indie boutique in Dublin. Today we were all in a giggly mood (not sure why?) when I noticed the new stock that had arrived and just had to share some of it with you. Karen grabbed her Tom Ford Lippy and looking great (she’s taken up running so that explains the happy hormones) and I reached for my camera……
There is a running joke going around our showroom that no woman whatever her age wakes up in the morning and thinks to herself ‘I’d like to dress older today’! Each of us tries to remain as youthful as possible and in the past few years this has become increasingly difficult as we strive to look good but know that we have to avoid at all costs that ‘mutton dressed as lamb’ look. The sales assistants are all younger than our daughters and ignore us and the clothes on the rails were tiny and oh so short.
In the last year older women, once invisible in the fashion industry have become increasingly visible. It seems that the days of the nymphets and size “0″ obsession may finally be over. Next season sees Madonna (51) starring in Dolce and Gabbana’s advertising campaign. Stella Tennant (39) centre stage in Balenciaga and Elle Macpherson and ChristyTurlington (41) featuring for Louis Vuitton.
Of course this new age of austerity may be responsible. The collections have taken a new twist offering grown up sensible yet beautiful clothes. And so the age of the 16 year old skinny model gracing the covers and the catwalk may be coming to an end (for now at least) and if so,I for one am going to enjoy it for as long as it lasts.
The last time the Mini, Midi, Maxi debate was a huge talking point in Fashion was in the 70′s and now it’s on the way back. We have had the mini for the last few years, worn with bare legs or more usually with leggings which had a massive resurgence. The maxi dress, once the preserve of the ‘foreign beach holiday’ has now seen it’s way onto the high street and you are just as likely to meet someone wearing one to go to Tesco now as you are to see a woman in jeans and a T-shirt choosing which washing powder to put in her shopping trolley.
Enter stage left- the midi length. It was seen at the haute couture shows both for Spring and for this Autumn. Christian Dior showed it in his Haute Couture Spring Summer 2010 show and a few days ago Karl Lagerfeld showed lots of midi lengths in the latest show in Paris. Elegant skirts and dresses reminders of the 30′s and worn with high waists. So it’s time to get used to them because they are about to filter into all the fashion collections from the top end down.
The Telegraph’s Hilary Alexander takes us through the Christian Dior Haute Couture Spring Summer 2010 Show
