quoted from:huffingtonpost.com/karin-tanabe
I'm with the author, keeping warm is one thing but I need to breathe.
'Glamish': Why Does Fall Fashion Have Us Buttoned Up Like The Pennsylvania Dutch?
The economy is in dire straits. The mortgage crisis is a crisis. We're a nation at war. You would think we might hope to cheer each other up by wearing clothes that screamed, "my subprime mortgage has me putting needles in my eyes but my colorful outfits and angular necklines are keeping me from offing myself." But we don't. This fall designers seem to believe that our outfits should echo these solemn times.
It's time to kiss Irwin Shaw's girls in their summer dresses goodbye. Skin is out of fashion. Long sleeve white shirts buttoned so high and tight that they may cause strangulation are in. So are skirts that barely show half a calf and pants with bottoms wide enough for a child to hide in.
The look being pushed is Amish with a glamorous twist. Let's call it Glamish. What sounds like an oxymoron has been declared not so by influential designers. Ad campaigns from Prada to Furla to Banana Republic show women in clothes that scream: "Banish the BMW, give me a horse and buggy." "Head-to-toe heavy wool," is the trend says the September Harper's Bazaar. This season is not for "escapist fantasy," says the fashion issue of New York magazine. It is "sober, serious, head-down, coolly remote."
I'm certainly not craving hotpants and halters in October, but color and clothes cut in a way so that our skin can absorb a hint of vitamin D from time to time would be nice. But, alas, the zeitgeist of our times is currently a sober one: The fashion czars are pushing a monochromatic palette that calls for a return of Calvin Klein minimalism and a penchant to button up like Hester Prynne.
I blame the economy, the war, homeless polar bears, and the rest of our era's tear-jerkers for the popularity of Glamish, but I might add the FLDS polygamist sect to the list of things to blame.
First it was the hair, the intriguing pouf that the FLDS polygamist sect women wore with their pastel dresses that made a fashion splash. As the bouffant hairdos graced the covers of newspapers, hipper-than-thou women embraced the Glamish coif. Perhaps it was predictable that Glamish fashion would trickle down to our wardrobes, too.
My guess is the apron or the bonnet is not going to make it as daywear but who knows? Maybe it will be the next big thing--the wrestling shoe, the bandage dress of Fall 2008. This season's accessories do help put the Glam in Glamish but large baubles and a pair of platform Louboutins are not enough to brighten up the city streets.
I for one refuse to let Glamish close in on my closet. I'm happy to cover my shoulders and thighs when the leaves start to fall, but my neck might like to feel the Indian summer breeze on it now and again.
I'm with the author, keeping warm is one thing but I need to breathe.
