What's that you got on? Comme Des Garcons?

Coming from the person writing on a blog, someone who apparently has a lot to say about fluff, this is probably strange. But I don't get Facebook. Call me stuck in the '90s, but I just prefer email and meeting friends of friends in real life. At least that's my official story, and I'm sticking to it.

Truthfully, I have to admit, most of my reservations really begin and end with the pout-and-shoot-from-above-to-avoid-jowls nature of the "candid" snaps that are part and parcel of most social networking sites. I perennially close my eyes in photos and look shell-shocked at the mere prospect of a flashbulb, so the torment of taking a photo and starting a profile has meant that I have procrastinated on the entire endeavor since the bygone days of Friendster. Besides, I tell myself, do I really want to unleash my competitive streak and become consumed with gathering enough online friends to populate a small city?



That even Barack Obama has joined the Facebook generation before me, however, gives me no shame because I have discovered my own guilty pleasure and online escape in the form of osome.com . This is no forum for sharing witticisms, gossip or music, no this is a site with one very straightforward and unabashedly single mission -- shopping. Think myspace for the Wendy Peppers of the world: "Hey, I'm not here to make friends."

The format is simple: grab clothes from across the internet and pile them up in your own virtual closet for which you'll never need to buy new hangers. Then, fling the wardrobe doors wide open for all to peruse and comment -- no awkward photos required.

As someone who whiles away a little time (ahem) window shopping online, Osome has proved perfect for composing tricky outfits, albeit for the most improbable of social scenarios. "This is what I would wear if I had three black tie cocktail parties to attend in one week and could not be seen in the same outfit. This is what I would wear if I lived in Provence on a vineyard, oh and this would be perfect if I were Christiane Amanpour and about to interview Nelson Mandela." And handy enough for the site's creators there's also a "buy now" option ready to speed you to the online cart of one of their many retail partners.

You may be mistaken in thinking this is nothing but the latest in a long line of time wasters for material girls. But it's actually a savvy hybrid concept that keeps pace with a recent online trend that has seen sites from stylefinder.com (Hearst) to shopvogue.tv (Conde Nast) combine the immediacy of blogging and social networking with fast access to advertisers' web storefronts. As the publishing world awakens to the reality that readers are consuming fashion news and views in increasingly interactive, megabyte-sized portions, the boundary between editorial, shopping and entertainment is becoming blurred. Just take net-a-porter.com, one of several stores that make the urge to ditch fashion fantasy and reach for the credit card even stronger thanks to a sleek mix of magazine-like content and shopping.

This is why, until I find my inner frugal fashionista, I think taking a leap further into cyberspace at http://h30393.www3.hp.com/printing/gwen.html to indulge some of my online daydreaming might be wise. The style hails from Harajuku, the fashions from Gwen Stefani's Galliano-meets-Westwood world, and as for the pouts, they're paperdoll-perfect. More than can be said for what I could achieve on Myspace.

Deco goes PoMo

In fashion as in recycling, everything old can be new again. Reclaim and reuse: it's not just a maxim for eco-friendliness, but also a faithful go-to for designers throughout the twentieth century. And when it comes to the style continuum, no era has been as ripe for reinterpretation as the sumptuous age of Art Deco.


From Barbara Hulanicki's take on Jazz Age chic in the 1960's that brought lifestyle shopping to Biba customers, to the dropped waist dresses showcased by Carolina Herrera in her 2008 Resort collection, no season in fashion is complete without a modern riff on deco. 1001 fashion stories have been woven from the treasure trove of inspiration provided by of Poiret, Chanel, Schiaparelli and Patou. Where simple flapper tea dresses, soft separates, volume and subtle fullness bubble up into the mainstream dressmaker details including handkerchief hemlines and bias cutting reoccur.

And fall 2007 was no exception as the Met's exhibition on Poiret made for the perfect backdrop for Art Deco reinvention, fuelling imaginations and sending stylish hallmarks of the 1920's and 1930's spilling onto the runways. Once again the looser fits, shorter hemlines and progressiveness of this by-gone era added together to create a fashion gold mine. Bold neckline graphics appeared from Chanel to Alice Temperiey's GO range for Target. Giambattista Valli set the runway ablaze with bold geometric patterns, while Marc Jacobs contrasted streamlined looks with bold and chunky jewelry in perspex and agate. For Spring and Summer 2008 Doo Ri took the barely there nudes and paler than pale tones pioneered during the post war period, using them on sheaths, high-waisted pants and shorts.

So much of this ongoing dedication to Deco owes itself simply to the wealth of material that the post war era offers up. It was an age abundant with reform, invention and rich in the opulent glamour of an emerging Hollywood. Fashion was infused with both utilitarian pragmatism and stylish exuberance in what turned out to be a veritable cocktail for fashion-forwardness. As women joined the workforce a new style lexicon was established and sportswear introduced. Fashion history was being made and change was at its core.


Leaving aside tired interpretations of Deco as simply a play on glamour, it was in this spirit of change and reinvention that designers found favor with Deco for next season. Spring and Summer 2008 runway looks veered from the feminine and romantic to embrace Vaudville and androgyny. At Christian Dior John Galliano punctuated pretty frocks with menswear tailoring and Victor/Victoria androgyny, evoking avant-garde experimentation and Jazz Age sexual freedom. Meanwhile Sophie Buhai and Lisa Maylock of Vena Cava gave Ballets Russes prettiness a rough edge, slinging chains around hips and setting them alongside ruffled necklines. Soft and pretty blouses with a 1930's air were paired with menswear trousers, while long and elegant chiffon pleated skirts in Hollywood-heroine silhouettes were printed with bold, in-your-face typeface patterns.

Overall it was fashionable proof that just as expressions of luxury can cross time periods, so too can ambiguity, contradiction and complexity – all with relevance today. After all, for everything that has altered over the years, many of the issues that energized fashion through social change and political debate are much the same today, albeit in different form. With a woman's right to choose up for Supreme Court debate and gay marriage a hot button issue, the role of government in determining our private lives and sexual freedoms is still of central concern. And while all citizens now have equal rights, key industries rely on an underclass of illegal immigrants to work without access to health care or a voice in society. And finally there is war, the realities of which most of the population today need only face through the privileged window of television.

So forget recycling, because in fashion as in politics, plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose. The more things change the more things stay the same.

It's the Economy Stupid

I’m no Shakespeare, but fashion has always had a funny knack of inspiring the storyteller in me. The morning sample sale that made me late for work as I battled through a stack of “please-fit-mes” becomes an indignant tale about the faults of public transport. And the quest for the right pair of Oxfords, a War and Peace epic.

Though I have an addict’s propensity to twist the truth for a pair of shoes or the right dress, fortunately there are others for whom fashion serves as intellectual inspiration. Take George Taylor and his hemline effect. Tracking the rise and fall of the skirt, in the 1920s Taylor argued that the economy neatly paralleled the hemline. He noted that with post war prosperity skirt lengths and stock prices hiked up, only for them to come tumbling down years later with the Wall Street Crash. The hypothesis makes sense and has been borne out several times. Just think mini-skirt, 1960’s rebellion and the subsequent craze for mid-lengths after the 1973 Oil Crisis.

So if Taylor’s theory is to follow, with current news of a strained economy, budget deficit and mortgage crunch, fashionistas should be setting down their copies of the Wall Street Journal right about now to slip on floor-sweeping skirts. And true to form, many of the Fall 2007 catwalks complied with Marc Jacobs and Louis Vuitton offering up new midi lengths hovering around the knee and mid-calf. As the gamine and carefree matured into chic, bookish elegance, gone were spring and summer’s short silhouettes and in came demure style.

Putting all fashion-forwardness aside, here’s the problem. For those of us unaccustomed to adopting Alan Greenspan as style guru, or Ben Bernanke as fashion doyen, is it wise to invest in a trend that could go bankrupt in a fashionable five minutes? Call me stuck in a rut, but maybe I’m happy flitting around in a loose babydoll tunic and opaque tights, even if it is a sartorial version of rose-tinted sunglasses. In my book, to nix a trend that’s as comfy as pyjamas and capable of stylishly camouflaging a multitude of just-one-more-slice-of-brie sins, warrants more reflection. After all, if a garment can melt away years of deflating experiences in the Victoria Secret dressing room with its flattering fit for smaller frames, then it’s worth gambling on for at least one more season. As we enter a period of belt-tightening, wouldn’t fall’s slew of waist-cinchers would be more apt?

In the interest of not finding myself on What Not To Wear, I eventually decide to give the long trend a chance. As I envisage myself tearfully ditching familiar shopping instincts and venturing into the unknown territory of a new silhouette, I turn to the retail powers that be. Picturing a new fashion narrative of long skirts, I push visions of frumpy grunge ankle kissers to the back of my mind and focus on a chic future in Roland Mouret-esque pencil skirts. But from Bergdorf to Banana Republic, Net-A-Porter to Old Navy, online and in store, nobody it seems has deemed the long trend an entirely bankable look. In fact, aside from the occasional glam gown, the long and short of it is that if any leg-covering austerity has filtered down the fashion food chain, it’s manifested by a renewed interest in pants.

Rails I imagined burgeoning with frocks in the new length are replete with trousers. From sophisticated takes on Miu Miu’s full-leg trousers, to Balenciaga’s jodhpurs and riffs on Derek Lam’s long and lean slacks, the buyers have spoken: if it’s not short and sexy, they’re voting for pants. There’s a fit for everyone, including drainpipe pants that are so straight they could pass for leggings. Perfect to pair with those tunics -- now we’re talking.

Has the hemline effect been dethroned, and can we forget about looking at the bank statements before embarking on fashion statements? After all, what could say more about women’s attitudes towards the economy than this clear lust for take-charge, menswear power dressing? To wit I dub 2007 the year of pant leg economics. Who cares about long versus short, or midi versus maxi? Wide leg versus, skinny or low rise versus high-waist: now that is the question.

I guess you can call me Shakespeare after all.