What Will You Wear Through the Great Depression of 2009?
Erin Fetherston/ J Mendel
“What was your last job?”
“I worked at Maison Chose in Place Vendome.”
“Oh really, you worked for Chose, did you?” His voice is more respectful, “Were you a receptionist?”
“No,” I say, “I was a mannequin.”
“You worked as a mannequin?” Down and up his eyes go, up and down. “How long ago was this?” he says…
Yes my dear sir, I left. I got bored and I walked out on them. But that was four, nearly five years ago and a lot can happen in five years. I haven’t the slightest intention of walking out on you, I can assure you of that…
“Have you worked anywhere else since then?”
“Well, no. No, I haven’t.”- Jean Rhys, Good Morning, Midnight
Your father lost ten million this week and there’s no more work to be found for a “freelance stylist.” You’re on your own, kid. Time to get a real job. Answering phones at a dentist’s office, substitute teaching, trash collecting. This doesn’t mean you can’t look fabulous, you just gotta turn it down a notch. Buy “investment pieces.” You can’t count the stock market, but a chiffon Blumarine frock is forever.
Temperley London/Donna Karan
When a gel is really lonely and hasn’t got a bean it’s no use asking why she does a thing. – Quartet
What will you wear through the Great Depression of 2009? Ruffles are dead, as are the high waist tops that make you look pregnant. Who can think about having babies or wanting to look like you’ve having a baby during a crisis like this? Pin your hair back. No more of this center-part Olsen twin business. Think of Rosie the Riveter. There’s just no time for blowouts or rollers.
You’re like some gal in a Jean Rhys novella: a retired chorus girl, over-the-hill at 30, composing humiliating letters to old flames asking them to cover next month’s rent at the dusty bedbug-infested motel on the wrong side of the tracks, eating stale bread and rotting grapes for dinner, watching the young ladies in their pretty new frocks with scorn as you walk through Montmartre, mistaken for a prostitue…considering it. Every single one of her books is about money, how fast you can lose it and how hard it was for a lady of that era to acquire it. The heroines can’t go several minutes without calculating what the next move is going to cost.
Sophie Theallet/ Diane von Furstenberg
Saved, rescued, fished-up, half-drowned, out of the deep, dark river, dry clothes, hair shampooed and set. Nobody would know I had ever been in it Good Morning, Midnight
The last Ready-to-wear (prêt-à-porter) 2009 spring collections have gone down the Milan runways (Paris is next week.) These shows and London and New York fashion weeks seemed largely inspired by two eras: the 1930s and the early 90s — times of financial hardship and coupon-clipping. The colors — and Pantone’s just announced spring 09 trends support this — rainy and depressed hues — with frugal shocks of a muted jewel-tones. It’s the look of one who’s hiding indoors away from financial and environmental catastrophe. At least one designer — Tory Burch — says she was influenced by the “staycation” trend and how she and all her friends stay in more instead of going out every night (not sure who wears fedoras inside her own home, but ok. )
You’ll wear dress or jumpsuits: an outfit in one garment. If only dresses and jumpsuits came with shoes attached, that would save you even more expenses. Wraps dresses especially. The kind that look like a single sheet of chiffon or jersey pinned at random around the body. If you have any skill at origami, you can easily recreate the look at home. The draping fabric means you don’t have to worry about wrinkles. Lets face it, this is no time to steam press. And that Prius won’t fix itself. You’ll be wearing this dress five, maybe six days a week. Standing up, sitting down, getting on and off the metro, there’s no way these dresses won’t be getting torn and dirty, eventually.
Alessandro dell Acqua/Monique Lhuillier
“Look here, Norah,” said Julia, “it isn’t that I want to bother you, but I came over without much money. I’ve only got a little over a pound left. I won’t be able to stay much longer.”
Norah opened her eyes widely, and said in a cold voice, “I’ve got eight pounds, and that’s got to last for a month, and the doctor comes nearly every day. Count up for yourself.”
“I know,” said Julia eagerly, “I know. I don’t want you to lend me any money. I know perfectly well you can’t, I simply thought you might let me stay at the flat for a few days, till I get an answer from the man I’ve written to.”
- After Leaving Mr. Mackenzie
But maybe that’s what the outfit needs — some wear. These clothes look like they should have tears and holes as if it’s the one outfit someone saved up for and wears everyday.
Another major trend from the Ready-to-wear collections, Spring 2009: loose drawstring pants — pajama pants. Something to wear while sitting at home on your laptop refreshing Monster.com and eating peanut butter sandwiches, skiping pilates classes.
When I thought about my clothes I was too sad to cry. About clothes, it’s awful. Everyone makes you want pretty clothes like hell. People laugh at girls who are badly dressed…And the shop-windows sneering and smiling in your face. And then you look at your hideous underclothes and you think, “All right, I’ll do anything for good clothes. Anything–anything for clothes.”
- Voyage in the Dark
Rather than embroidery and eyelets, Catherine Maldrino added beautiful spiderweb detail — it’s impossible to keep pristine, but the inevitable snags and tears will give the look further character. Meanwhile, Marni’s bobbles and prints are more relevant than ever. You are dressing in the dark now. Pulling every good piece from your wardrobe to make an outfit, whether it matches or not.
Jil Sander/Derek Lam
Sew pockets on your Little Black Dress to hold a hammer, a screwdriver, and whatever else you’ll need. You’re doing hard labor work now, forget the accessories.
Narciso Rodriguez/ Prada
Another hot trend for next season: the bra top. Signaling if you must stay at home, then you ought to at the very least be having torrid affairs.
“It’s not a time to be ostentatious with clothes,” Bottega Veneta’s Tomas Maier told Style.com. His clothes remind me of Bridget Fonda’s Annie Hall-and-grunge mash-up wardrobe in the horrible, but fascinating fashion-wise: Single White Female.
Marc Jacobs’ American-in-Paris looks had some flannel accents, a nod to the 90s grunge look that first made him famous. Several Aquaschutum items had a butterfly-like effect, in bright royal blue and black.
In London, Christopher Bailey for Burberry Prorsum was inspired by the book Garden People, but these outfits could just as easily transition from tending-the-garden-casual to struggling-in-a-rat-infested-apartment chic:
I love everything by Zero Maria Cornejo: androgynous, with strange stethoscope accesories. Black and white, sometimes accented with bright yellow.
She put the light on and looked at the red marks on her arm, where her teeth had nearly met, “And I haven’t got a dress with long sleeves either.” – Quartet
Alberta Ferretti’s made dreamy tiered skirts and watery fluid dresses in moonlight shimmery colors. Loose in the top and structured at the waist and hip.
Blumarine used a deep grey, almost purple but not the dreaded grandmotherly “periwinkle.’ These something somber about all of these dresses.
All images from Style.com
Previously:
Women’s Office Fashions: From Holloway’s Wiggle Dress to Hillary’s Pantsuit
Rip Mix Stitch: Free Fashion Culture
-
Martin
-
BethanyTri
-
metro pcs
-
Haiku575
-
A collection of interesting ideas curated by
Joanne McNeil. About ➚
Sponsors
