spiked, head to foot

Daily Fashion Juice
Tuesday, August 30, 2011

Flare for fall fashion - spiked, head to foot

Labor Day is nearly here, opening the door to many September activities. Schools will reopen. Congress will reconvene - although it is unlikely to accomplish anything. For most of us, however, it's time to consider our fall wardrobes, put away the white shoes and bags and assess our fall clothing options.

Fashion always presents a mixed message - it's forward with new looks and new designers and it's backward with retro looks, revamped for fashionistas.

Referring to retro styles, a friend once wisely told me, "If you wore it then, you can't wear it now." She was right then and she's right today.

The coming season is bringing back flared jeans, but they're not exactly the bell-bottoms some of us wore "back in the day." Two things have changed: one is the actual cut of the pant-leg - the other is your body, which may have done its own flaring already.

"High heels" have literally reached new fashion heights. Some of us once thought being chic was wearing a three-inch heel, maybe with a platform sole. Today it's really teeter time, with heels measuring at least five, very tapered, very skinny inches tall.

Poor men - it's not that males have become shorter, they just look shorter because they now need to literally look up to women, who are all standing on truly elevated, almost dangerously spiked footwear.

Entertainers have tripped and even fallen on and off stages as they walk while wearing towering shoes. Lady GaGa wore one pair that were nearly the height of the legs on the piano she was about to play. To add to her mystique, GaGa's shoes and her piano were equally sequined. Watching her, I wondered if she had ever heard of "Cuban heels," those squat, low, sturdy numbers we once wore, back in our "beehive," teased and lacquered hair days. That was long before spiked haircuts, but it was an age when our hair had even more height than our shoes.

As we add years, we seem to accumulate a variety of clothes that we hope to wear in another season. But first, they need to still fit us, and often don't. Second, they shouldn't look outdated, even if we, ourselves, may be. But most of all, we need to consider the image we want to project as we move through the phases of our lives.

Looking around, it's clear that some of us are several F-stops out of fashion focus. The truth is always in the eyes of the beholder and we all know that beauty can really be a beast.