NYLON Magazine - September 2007 - (Page 114) FAR AND AWAY THIS FALL, SOME DESIGNERS WAX NOSTALGIC FOR THE GOOD OLD DAYS, WHILE OTHERS BOLDLY GO WHERE NO MAN HAS GONE BEFORE. JENNY FELDMAN AND APRIL LONG EXPLAIN WHY TIME IS ALWAYS ON THEIR SIDE. PHOTOGRAPHED BY TODD SELBY RETRO Misty eyed recollections they are not—I remember my four years at Berkeley Preparatory School as defined by code: the code of honor (um, sure, I pledge not to cheat on my math test when no teacher is proctoring the exam) and yep, the glorious dress code. No skirts shorter than four inches above the knee. No jeans. Crested blazers and buttondowns on Friday. And nevermind that this was Florida and temperatures hovered above 70 degrees most of the year, absolutely no shorts. Like any girl who feared resembling a Dave Matthews Band-listening, ribbon-belt clad member of the varsity soccer team, I quickly found a loophole. The idea first occurred to me on our school’s Gatsby Day, a dress-up tradition intended to pay homage to F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel by encouraging students to attend class in flapper dresses, elbow-length gloves, and felt cloches or Garbo-esque brimmed hats, pulled down mysteriously over the eyes. We were even allowed to carry cigarette holders (empty, bien sûr). A beacon of light in a sea of J. Crew! For the next two years I showed up to homeroom in everything from a ’50s wedding dress to a bodice-ripping, Shakespeare-worthy floor-length red velvet gown. The Episcopalian rule-makers who’d penned the handbook had been too prudish to address the idea of cleavage, and no one had thought to make a fourinch below the knee rule. Baseball caps were verboten but there was no restriction on Derby hats. In 1997, I graduated from high school. The following year my alma mater amended its dress code: No costumes. And thus I left my legacy to future generations of Berkeley preppers. OK, I grew up, and I no longer roam the streets looking like a lost extra from a Merchant Ivory film set, but when, at fall fashion week, Marc Jacobs sent every model in town gliding down the runway in wide-brim hats and small caps custom-made for the designer by Britain’s own Stephen Jones, buttoned-up-to-there tuxedo blouses, ladylike clutch bags, and smart gloves, I rejoiced. It was a return to glamour, but of a dark, brooding sort. Think Marlene Dietrich in top hat and tails, crooning ominously as Amy Jolly in Morocco, or smoldering on-screen in Shanghai Express. There was a definite ’30s vibe, as if the brash café society ladies of Otto Dix’s hard-edged paintings had walked right off those canvases and come to life wearing nipped-waist skirt suits. Faye Dunaway looking devastatingly beautiful in her ’30s-meets-’70s ensembles in Chinatown also came to mind: It was enough to make me want to slink into the nearest restaurant and murmur, “Tom Collins—with lime, not lemon, please.” Unfortunately, I live on New York’s Avenue D, and the closest establishments include a bodega, a greasy spoon take-out, and an imitation KFC— hardly an appropriate backdrop for taking on the role of my ultimate fashion icon. While Marc’s women set the mood, other designers have also been pondering a more grownup, sophisticated way of dressing. The prevalence of headgear this season—from the flapper style toppers by milliner Albertus Swanepoel for Proenza Schouler, to Stefano Pilati’s severe, slick hoods at YSL—is the first indication that a fully-accessorized, meticulously turned-out look (hat, check; sunglasses, check; gloves, check) is back. And, while my grandmothers will undeniably approve when I show up to dinner in a mid-calf grazing skirt and patterned silk scarf knotted about my neck, I’ll be taking greater satisfaction in exposing my high school dress code scribes for the complete ignoramuses they are. After all, taking our cues from the past is always the best guarantee against sartorial mediocrity. Any true student of history would agree. JENNY FELDMAN mania stylist: jaclyn hodes. hair: klara at bumble and bumble. makeup: diane da silva for make up for ever at dianedasilva.com. model: gaby at next. this page: dress by louis vuitton, hat and gloves by yohji yamamoto, fur stole by zucca, black tights by donna karan, pink tights by the sock man, shoes by marc jacobs. opposite page: jacket by yohji yamamoto, dress by jovovich-hawk, hat by marc jacobs. dianedasilva.com
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