Friday, May 25, 2007

Speaking of designers.....

One more example of their disconnect with the real world...

Over at Coquette a reveal of Diane von Furstenberg's spring line of dresses...

DVF Style: Print and Pattern

Now DVF is famous, and rightfully so, for designing one of the most versatile dresses ever - the DVF wrap. It's a style so friendly to just about any woman's body and age that it is a staple that can have a place in every woman's closet. And the fact that it is "reproduced" across all price points and sizes makes it one of the easier fashion icons to own.

But what the *&@#%! is up with the hemlines! Of the 6 dresses pictured only one - the Kyle - has a hem lenght at any woman over 40 could live with right out of the box - and keep her dignity that is! (Through actually, I think the Cassidy has a better neckline for the 50+ lady! Can these two dresses be spliced together? ;-) )

I'm sure for her more affluent customers, who are most likely ladies of a certain age and who will be buying the ready to wear versions, those hemlines will be dropped down to something reasonable. But if you are of an age and not going to the ready to wear salon to get your togs, where does that leave you?

You can, of course, go to a tailor and get the hem adjusted - if there is enough extra fabric in the hem to accommodate that!

And really, if you are already spending 300 - 400 dollars for a dress (I'm not sure where the very young women, for whom these hems would be quite fetching, are who are buying these dresses for these prices - but then I don't claim to be all knowing! ;-) ), shouldn't it a least be of a reasonable and universally flattering lenght?

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I couldn't agree more. But there may be a glimmer of hope. Often designers create runway/editorial styles with much more extreme hemlines than the versions they sell to retail accounts. If you go to the DVF section of the Saks web site you'll see dresses with reasonable hemlines (except, of course, for the styles designated "mini"). And on average-height women, as opposed to fashion models, they're probably even longer.

Fab50Plus said...

Good point Nancy! Thanks for the comment and the tip!