By Will Milton
OFF THE RACK COLUMNIST
The Flat Hat, College of William & Mary
We've all been enjoying our polo shirts and our pastels. I am as guilty as anyone else. There is something romantic, isn’t there, about wearing what our parents wore when we were six and seven? But allow me to shed some light on what’s really going on in fashion right now. It isn’t all Lily and Ralph, you know, which is good news if polo shirts make you ill.
What made us move away from country-club chic in the first place? The first time Ray-Bans and top-siders were trendy, their audience was more limited than it is today. When America picked itself up from Vietnam and gas-rationing and jumped into Reaganomics, the yuppie was born. (Excuse my history hack-job, but the clothes are what’s important here.) This upwardly mobile set of utter assholes exhibited a sort of neo-aristocratic obsession with luxury. But this was an active generation, not content to spend its money on silver and dusty old homes. Society had become increasingly sedentary over the past century, and most common, low-paying jobs were indoor occupations. These social climbers wanted to sport and travel and distance themselves from the rest of us nine-to-five copy boys, cashiers and receptionists. Rejecting the porcelain skin of cloistered aristocrats past, tan suddenly went from gauche to chic. Popular? Perhaps. Actually attractive? Debatable.
Eager to get the dollars of the nouveau-riche, designers delivered watches that could be worn on the yacht or taken on scuba trips in Fiji. Navy and white Keds-style sneakers skipped off the deck and into the dining room. Madras shorts recalled the golf club your dad belonged to, and then there’s that collar. That collar went up to keep the glaring sun off of the neck while boating or golfing, so your neck wouldn’t be red like a farmer’s. (I hope you can all extrapolate the two catch phrases I,m invoking here; you’re smart kids.)
So here we are, with every store at the mall pushing pink and green. (A jarring combination that makes my stomach turn when pulled off badly, such as that glaring fuchsia tote with neon green handles you ladies insist on carrying. I don’t care if it does have a damn Polo logo on it. It looks like something Barbie’s off-brand cousin would carry.) But this trend is only part of a larger movement that is taking over fashion in a shift at which we will later look to help us distinguish between what was turn-of-the-20th century and what is 21st century. If you hate the childlike vomit-doodles that Lily Pulitzer passes off as whimsical and charming, or if you have an inexplicable urge to rip the popped collars off of sorority girls and strangle them with their ribbon-strung pearls, I offer words of consolation — and the number of a very talented therapist.
The good news is that this too shall pass. But if you missed it this winter, when it was more apparent, what is really en vogue is luxury. Fur, broaches, feathers, ribbons, adornments of all types decorated the runways last winter, and this summer is seeing the revival of looks like aviator chic and Jackie O.’s understated elegance. These looks bring with them kid gloves, sumptuous silk details, gold thread — a return to opulence that was overthrown when yuppies were. It was replaced by sleek, black, adolescent silhouettes.
The mid to late 90s featured a return to 70s nostalgia and even high-end designers were playing with nylon and metallics all in the name of millennial-chic modernity. During what other era could Calvin Klein, with his monochromatic palate and skinny tie, have won his way into the closets of celebrities and socialites everywhere? (The rest of us were stuck with his underwear, but we got Travis Fimmel out of the deal, so who can complain? Although I wonder, can we return Ashton Kutcher without a receipt?)
The point is, if you can manage to look beyond the embroidered critters that have once again plopped themselves on our chests, and even infested our pants, preppy isn’t the only option right now. (Check out In Style’s April issue. Sandra Bullock may not have tempted you, but a series of readers, queries answered with text and a full-color layout should. It also has 156 smart makeup buys all listed on a chart that fits in your purse.) But keep it understated, keep it luxurious and, by God, you,ve hit the very definition of fashionable, haven’t you?
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