MW’s grown up, very NY,
daughter wore a jumpsuit to her mom’s bday party. It was black, and strapless ,
if memory serves, and pleated around the waistline. A onesie with pleats. Should
have been a disaster but looked fantastically chic.
Until that moment my
opinion of jumpsuits was eminently negative. Overwhelmingly negative. And just
like that it was reversed. I remember feeling that way about leggings. And then
one day I broke down and wore them.
Do I – do we – go
back on our fashion dogmas that easily?
I promise to consider
this at some length and report. Meanwhile lets address jumpsuits.
Jumpsuits have been
popping up on runways for about two years now, creeping into the evening attire
sections of department stores, worn by celebs.
Here are a few recent
sightings, all mostly positive:
Margot Robbie in Paper
London: Slightly too shiny, but not bad overall.
Naomi Watts in Elie Saab
– the lace panels I don’t love (and I actually do like some lace) but lovely
color and good fit:
Charlize Theron in Jason
Wu: ok fine, you will all scream that Theron here will look good in anything.
Sure. But this 80s vibe getup is all kinds of funky.
Kristin Bell in Jenny
Peckham: I think Bell is too petite to support such a strong shoulder but I
actually think she’s rocking this.
And now for the NO,
SHILED YOUR EYES section of our post:
Rosasrio Dawson in DVF:
all kinds of no. Such a deliberately on point interpretation of the late 70s
early 80s look reads almost costume.
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Lizzie Caplan in
Houghton: I love Lizzie Caplan’s look. I can’t say that “Masters of Sex” rocked
my boat in any way (in fact I thought the show succeeded in making sex
sleep-inducing) but I love how she looks in the show, her hair, her costuming.
This, however, is NOT working for me – the lace over all too obvious nude, the
narrow pant leg:
Naomie Harris in Monique
Lhullier: Naomie Harris can pull off tricky looks but this is just too much
lace and cheap stretch fabric:
And, to crown things –
Julia Roberts in Valentino. Where to start? The woman with exaggerated features
wearing an outfit with exaggerated features, in an exaggerated color, making my
eyes hurt.
So why, you may ask, do
some jumpsuits work and other don’t?
1) the sensitive crotch
area – the garment has to be constructed flawlessly, avoiding making your ladyparts an awkward target area.
2) ratio of pant leg to
top part: jumpsuits do not work when too narrow (see: L. Caplan) because they
start looking suspiciously like adult onesies. But pantsuits with too wide a
leg run the risk of making the crotch area look weird (see: J. Roberts) –
because the excess fabric has to go somewhere.
Bottom line: I think
this is one garment that hippy girls should avoid. Height is not key here, you
can be short and trim through the hips and pull it off beautifully. But if you
got hips – girl, stay away!
