Fill out this form to email this article to a friend
Threads
The shape of things to come
By SHARON FINK
Published July 22, 2006
Fall's New Silhouettes: The Bustle, the Bell, the Big Shoulder. That's not a cover line from the July 1896 issue of Vogue. It's from the July 2006 issue. Calling this fall "the most radical fashion season in a long, long time," the magazine says that the bustle - padding in the back of a dress right above the rear end that makes the skirt fuller and drape better - is making a comeback. Which would be its first. A bustle is not to be confused with the butt padding inspired by the 15 minutes of fame enjoyed by Jennifer Lopez's healthy posterior. But the bustle and the padding are good examples of why style and its hype should never be taken too seriously. Here are some more recent ones: * At other times it's been called the Braveheart influence, the Madonna influence, the Bay City Rollers influence and the Brigadoon influence: Plaid is back for fall, too. One thing that revived it came from John Galliano in his runway show: He whipped up a red and black plaid dress with a black lace hem. That has a bustle. "The Victorian era greatly influenced me: the austerity, the severity, the melancholy," Galliano tells Vogue. * Women's Wear Daily reported this week that retailers expect spring and summer's strong dress sales to continue through the fall. No word yet on how the bustle promotion might affect their outlook. * The most radical fashion shift being pushed for the average female older than 5 is the one from flared jeans to skinny-legged ones. The stovepipe jean has been promoted for months already, but at least in the Tampa Bay area, it hasn't broken out yet. Hip-hugging flares still hold their place as the casual-dressing version of a school uniform. * The fall scene is so radical to Elle magazine that it has declared that almost everything is in: plaids, feathers, gold, silver, red, jewel tones, long dresses for day, shorts, layering, fur trim, silk, the '80s, ruffles, shearling, animal prints, even over-the-elbow gloves. But not the bustle. * The biotechnology industry is pitching in to help make environmentally responsible fashion sexy. At a recent conference in Toronto, it held a fashion show of one-of-a-kind clothes that big-name designers made from material created from fermented corn syrup. The outfits by designers including Oscar de la Renta, Stephen Burrows and Elisa Jimenez included a strapless beige ball gown, a pink and yellow taffeta skirt with a silver recycled polyester bustier, and a men's transparent dress shirt, Reuters reported. The corn-syrup fiber can be made to seem like it's silk, polyester, leather or elastic. Natureworks, a company in Blair, Neb., makes such a fiber it calls Ingeo. Designer Linda Loudermilk, who makes clothing with fabric created from self-sustaining plants, next year plans to offer five items made from Ingeo, including jeans. No word on whether any of the other four features a bustle. Sharon Fink can be reached at 727 893-8525 or fink@sptimes.com.
[Last modified July 21, 2006, 12:01:55]
Share your thoughts on this story
|
News
Fifty years ago, they were screwed-up kids sent to the Florida School for Boys to be straightened out. But now they are screwed-up men, scarred by the whippings they endured. Read the story and see a video and portrait gallery.
Print
Email story
Comment
Email editor
