HATS: THEN, NOW AND IN BETWEEN
A pictorial journey through the hat crazes of the 1900’s, up to the present day, covering every style ever worn by any woman anywhere. If you don’t love hats and consider every outing as an opportunity to wear one, we just might change your mind! coming soon
Valentino
The world’s most prominent fashion designers seem to be confused these days and we are sad to say that a number of our favorites are included. Their concoctions seem to defy everything that was once known as good taste. This doesn’t mean the fabrics aren’t sumptuous – they are more spectacular than ever. In fact, the individual elements of any given “outfit” tend to be impressive. We’re talking about the confusion that results when style, color and texture are thrown together for, what appears to be, the singular goal of achieving craziness.
Formless, loose-fitting stockings in sapphire blue; a gored diaphanous skirt in emerald green and red diagonal stripes and a purple turtleneck sweater trimmed at the cuffs with orange fur are worn beneath a yellow leather midi-coat that happens to have red piping- the entire nightmare topped off with a brown wool hat that looks like a snake on acid. Designers like Hash and Saab are guilty – but so are Jean Paul Gaultier and Chrisian Lacroix.
Valentino has a different message and we like it. Perhaps it’s because he does, truly, understand the female psyche – what it means to be a woman and how women feel about their gender and their place in the world. Certainly, he has proved that he understands the female body. What to show and what to conceal are less important than how to show it and how to conceal it. “How” is everything. Valentino does not forget the anatomy and he will not overpower it with junk.
Dresses and gowns highlight his fall collection and the Crayola peacock creations cannot hold a candle to
them. Valentino’s dresses are sensational without being ostentatious. They are sexy without being trashy. They may be draped around the most gorgeous, runway-strutting women in the world but women everywhere can relate to these dresses; can imagine buying one; might even spring for one and would treasure it always.
Here a few of Valentino’s masterpieces.
