FORTIES LOVE

This is a great fashion season this winter. I love anything to do with the 1940’s – big shoulders, pencil skirts, crêpe dresses, floor-length Adrian gowns, platform shoes, and costume jewelry.
It suits me since fashion has given full rein to the “retro” look this year. If you’re in the vintage age bracket and know what I’m talking about, start smiling because the 1940’s are back – and favoring grown-ups before girls.
In the 1940’s, Hollywood and fashion designers knew that they had to keep confidence of a woman who had the responsibilities of working, single-handedly providing for children while men served their country overseas, and who still cared about looking groomed and beautiful.
Look to the design houses of Lanvin, Prada, Dries Van Noten, and Hermès. Between them, they cover all the screen-siren possibilities, from tailored, tweedy or hounds tooth suits and coats to glamorous evening gowns that the movies goddesses like Rita Hayworth and Ingrid Bergman would have worn.
Some the designs are almost identical to the originals which gives us license to rummage in the attic for the stashed-away Forties fashions of our mothers and grandmothers. There are many ways of reviving pencil skirts with a satin blouse dressed up with ropes of pearls and sheer black stockings rather than opaque, or with a tight-fitting sweater and matching cuffs on either wrist.
Under a jacket or a trench coat, with platform shoes, leather gloves, a pair of Forties-style sunglasses, and a slick of red lipstick. This look delivers a zinging adult retort to clothing that young girls are wearing from the local shopping mall. So when fashion veers your way once in a blue moon, grab it with both hands.