The older "jaded" eye

Although I've been in and out of fashion for almost 40 years, and my eye is a little jaded (having been from hip-huggers to low rise), I still believe in the classic and well-designed (which is another way to say well-cut) style. From Hubert de Givenchy (who did so many wonderful designs for Audry Hepburn's movies) to......

Yves St. Laurent, who mastered the pants suit for women, classic never goes out of style, and it's always admirable.

Designers like Oscar de la Renta, Reem Acra, Amsale, Carolina Herrera, Geoffrey Beene, Valentino, Pauline Trigere, Christian Dior are all masters of the cut and line of designs.

Dior and Bacall practically institutionalized "The Look" during the '50's.  After WWII, rationing was no longer required, and idea of a luxuriously full skirt cut with a long jacket with a cinched waist, was not only new, but original.  Bacall, in her biography, said that she created the face of "The Look" because she was more frightened than anything else, especially starring next to the handsome and established Humphrey Bogart.  Watching "To Have and To Have Not," is almost like reliving their wonderful romance.

Oscar, Reem Acra, Amsale, Carolina Herrera have all made their name in the  wedding and debutant fields and have since branched out into color and the formal wear, and even into sportswear.  The queen of classic, Vera Wang, has such a classic reputation, that she has been able to parlay it into trade name products.

Pauline Trigere had words with John Fairchild, then publisher of WWD (Women's Wear Daily - a daily rag for the fashion trade and forerunner of W Magazine), and she was hardly ever featured in any of his publications after that.  I would see her periodically in Vogue or Bazaar, the even her fabulously classic designs did not win her any press.  It must not have mattered, cause she designed and had a house named after her to her death.

Hanae Mori is another classic designer as well as Valentino.  Bill Blass is probably America's most well-known designer of classic clothes as is Halston.

I always thought the two real masters of the classic look were Yves St. Laurent and Geoffrey Beene (see "Blog Along With Me - Formal Duds").  Beene really understood cut, and St. Laurent knew is being steeped in the design world of Paris.  When St. Laurent was asked after the fall of the Iron Curtain, what women in the Eastern Block should wear on such a limited budget, he come back easily with black turtleneck and black pants, as a palette that everything can go with.

Been had a different take on classic, but was just as classic as YSL- even though it was innovative cuts and styles that made his work exceptional.  He was ahead of his time as the Japanese designers, headed by Issey Miyake, furthered the architectural and design-obsessed cuts.  Beene never became a slave to these geometric designs, he simply used them to further his own style which was completed innovative and original.

This turned out longer than I had intended, so will continue tomorrow