As you might have guessed, I’m trying to avoid the subject of primaries.
We went to Vegas in early January. We’ve been going every year for DH’s Birthday, and each year Sin City seems increasingly more depressing. On my first trip I was dazzled by lights and sounds, and all the splendid cheesiness. Now I only notice stains on the carpet, and the typical twenty-year-old casino has plenty of those.
I don’t think Vegas unions are doing any favors to the cocktail waitresses many of whom look shabbier than the carpets they walk. Vegas is teeming with waitresses verging on retirement age, and the hot arid climate and frequent night shifts obviously didn’t do them any favors. Yet casinos that can’t fire a woman because she’s too old have them squeezing their butts into uniforms that are one step from a burlesque show.
One would think nobody wants to look at them, but evidently some visitors find the aging wait-stuff inspirational. I spotted a septuagenarian clad in a sequin micromini dragging her stiletto mules over the Strip’s cobblestones. That lady might’ve not aged badly, but the get up obviously intended for somebody who still gets carded, drew attention to every wrinkle.
I’m glad soon-to-be-twice-divorced Heidi Klum is not hosting Project Runway All Stars. To be sure, she is a better host than that other model, given how Ms. Klum is an authentic airhead. Yet she makes horrible as a judge because the word got out that she likes to show her legs, and the competing designers construct their clothes to placate her. Anywho, it’s my conspiracy theory. She does have a nice figure, but perhaps a forty-year-old mother of four can try a different aesthetic.
Two weeks ago the episode’s theme was a night at the opera, and the winner Austin Scarlett described his gown as modest. The judge Isaac Mizrahi (a far better designer than the regular Michael Kors) agreed with the description. In absolute terms there is nothing modest about a bare-back gold dress, but perhaps what Scarlett and Mizrahi meant to say is that the design is seductive rather than slutty. A very good development, I think.
Austin's opera gown. I'm not loving the black tulle. Does the gown need more of it, should it be heavier weight, a little less translucent or am I just not getting the concept? What attracts me to the gown is the black and white cinema vibe
I liked the runner up Michael Costello who, I thought, was on the trend and elegant. Like everything high fashion both designs lack practicality. If I’m going to the opera, I’m assuming the hall will be cold, so I’ll need a coat.
The runner up: Michael Costello's gown
Aside from the full length opera gowns, Project Runway is still turning out skirts so short, we’d have to wear pants underneath. The entire garment industry seems to be stuck on pants and impossibly short skirts. A year or so ago we were promised falling hemlines which were supposed to signal another year of recession because allegedly there is some sort of a relationship between the state of the economy and the length of skirts.
One of the looks from the Spring 2011 Zac Posen collection when the falling hemline was forcasted. Am I expected to believe someone finds it attractive?
I lived through the 90s economic boom in the Bay Area. I thought the variety of styles was opulent. Virtually every collection featured a mini, a long skirt, a knee length skirt or — if none of that worked — a pant. And, mind you, an average mini hanging in the stores in the “irrational exuberant” 90s offered more coverage than today’s Heidi.
Although I always gravitated to more feminine styles, I started to wear pants when I had to take babies to the park. For a few years I held on to my maternity skirts. Last year I finally decided to ditch my postpartum gear and buy a nice practical skirt. Easier said than done. The skirts were either so long that I’d have to hold them up with both my hands or, in most cases, so short there was no way I could bend over. The Great Hemline Recession look.
In the last quarter the economy might have picked up a little, but the hemlines fell — at least on some catwalks. I can now buy a pencil skirt, for which I credit Duchess Catherine who made a statement of elegant mid-length dresses, and not Barack Obama or the invisible hand. Hopefully the trend sticks.
The classic cinema looks has been spotted on runways.
Spring 2012 Anna Sui
Spring 2012 Banana Republic
Similarly, a structured mid-length pencil skirt was featured in Vogue’s most wanted:
Anna Wintour approves
While young people have more disposable income, I’m surprised that there isn’t a bigger clothing market for middle-age women. One would think that the success of the fabulously overpriced Anthropologie where, at least according to their product reviews, women of all ages like to shop, shows that quite a few of us in the 30+ demographic like something chic and feminine. An American Housewife Formerly in London had similar thoughts on interior design.
When I was growing up we all had young beautiful mothers, and we were very proud of them. While I obviously can’t turn back the clock, I would like to show my kids that a middle age woman can take care of her appearance. What I don’t want to do is to wear skirts so short, I’d pass them when I was in my 20s.
