FASHION for this fall is, to say the least, challenging. In the magazines, it’s Kirsten Dunst in “Marie Antoinette” ball gowns, models in horse-hoof boots and something that looks like haute couture fencing masks. It’s all beautiful – and nothing an average person would wear.
Read between the lines, and you’ll find a few trends you can adopt:
platforms, plaid, skinny jeans, shorter skirts and hose, furs and fur-trim among them.
But there’s a whiff of desperation in the magazines’ attempts to make sense of the difficult trends and sell the Bride of Frankenstein chic, the oven-mitt skirts and Olsen twinsesque Medieval peasant layering.
So what not to wear? As a French stylist puts it in Vogue, “When fashion changes, you adjust whatever’s out there to your style.” In other words, unless you’re vacationing at Versailles, pray and hope for the best.
ELLE – Most out-there fashion
Rating: 2 shopping bags
Pages: 560 pages
Price: $4
Weight: 2.52 pounds
Hits: Two Gilles Bensimmon fashion stories, one, “Old School” (P.534), featuring a modernist take on to-the-manor born kilts and classics, and the other “Close Knit” (P.512). “Studying All the Angles” (P. 432) investigates what your face shape reveals about your personality.
Misses: “The Well Dressed Rooms” (P. 449) drawing the parallel between fashion and décor aren’t so well-dressed. “Volume Control,” investigating intrepid new proportions with hoop skirts and collars resembling a leather easy chair, is intrepid all right.
News you can use: Some of the best news pages in the bunch with hits on “Fast Food Nation” (P. 325), George Michael and new show “Six Degrees” in the Elle 25 (P. 348). “Elle First The Look” (P. 209) offers a portfolio of juicy items by trend including a plaid trench coat, a grey dress and a foxy fur bag. “Elle Shops” (P. 271) provides a catalogue of some of the snappiest pea coats and luscious knits around, as well as some easy equations for how to wear the new volume.
HARPER’S BAZAAR – Best clothes
Rating: 4 shopping bags
Pages: 504
Price: $3.50
Weight: 2.09 pounds
Hits: The Gwyneth Paltrow interview (Gwyneth opens her car seat with her head – She’s Just Like Us!); the quotable Karl Lagerfeld delivers entertaining musings on Las Vegas, Lindsay Lohan and Project Runway in “Why Karl Lagerfeld Walked Away” (P.475) (“Ecch!” he says about one starlet); in “The Seductive Side of Martha,” a surprising feature on Martha “Cougar” Stewart, she is pictured with a man’s hand in her shirt. Must be a little insider trading.
Misses: In an effort to pack it all in, some stories feel truncated such as Expert Shopping Tips with the fall picks of Jessica Alba and Christy Turlington-Burns (P. 271)
News you can use: Attention shoppers: Azzedine Alaia has done jeans with Seven for All Mankind among other stellar finds in their upfront pages (P.135). How Much is Too Much explains and justifies the exhorbitant and rising costs of fashion. In “Could You Get a Date in These Clothes?” Glenn O’Brien delivers a hilarious rant on the man’s view of your new weird outfit, which includes some don’ts if you’re on the market.
InSTYLE – Fashion for dummies
Rating: 3 shopping bags
Pages: 604 pages
Price: $3.99
Weight: 2.61 pounds
Hits: They’ve re-invented their perennial “What’s Sexy Now” package to a more playful “Sexy A to Z” (P. 449) with some smashing accessories sprinkled in along the way. “Day Dresses” functions as a convenient catalogue for the easiest way to get dressed in the morning.
Misses: They’ve largely ignored the entire tricky business of the new silhouettes. Overall the design has taken a giant leap forward to a more modern look – if only the cover could catch up. The Drew Barrymore feature is a visual disappointment.
News you can use: “50 Great Styling Tips” is an insider’s shopping guide chock full of easy and useful nuggets from celebrity stylists such as Rachel Zoe to designers such as Vera Wang, Donatella Versace and Giorgio Armani. Their annual “Ultimate Shoe Guide” (P.339) is a comprehensive, methodical primer for the fall footwear wardrobe. A charming charms guide, a guide for lashes, bedding and still one of the best sources for great items, from front to back.
LUCKY – Best how to
Rating: 4 shopping bags
Pages: 392
Price: $2.99
Weight: 1.92 pounds
Hits: Where to start? Fashion director Hope Greenberg’s leopard-print wish list is spot-on. The three little black dresses for under $40 are all finds, especially the Wal-Mart wrap for $20. A slew of cute jackets paired with slim-cut pants and flats show us how to do classic right. The fall shoe guide: mary-janes, platform pumps and boots boots boots – enough said.
Misses: Lucky usually tackles trends into wearable options, but the vogue for volume – an empire waist balloon hem blouse, boxy, origami-like sweaters, a taffeta silk sack patterned in what looks like the back window of a van – can’t cross over. The luxe country layout with lumberjack print silk dress and cable-knit handbag looks tired. And fully half of the eight most important items for fall fall short.
News you can use: Riding jackets from equestriancollections.com for $84; a guide to L.A.’s top shopping neighborhoods (yes, it’s got them); a map of Harlem’s consumer renaissance.
SHOP ETC.
Rating: 1 Shopping bag
Pages: 208
Price: $3.49
Weight: 14 ounces
Hits: Two full pages of daytime and evening flats are fantastic, especially the purple suede Lulu Guiness peep toes with butterfly perched on top.
Misses: Too many to mention. Three variations of navy sweater, black leggings, black flats and leopard bag had us wondering, why bother? The sweater tunic for the full-figured was just plain mean. Also, tartan upholstery?
VOGUE – Best high fashion
Rating: 5 shopping bags
Pages: 754
Price: $4.50
Weight: 4 pounds
Hits: Don’t miss “The Last Waltz” (P.608) with Natalia Vodianova channeling Linda Evangelista; the astonishing “Fight Club” (P.660) which displays Japanese designers fashion take on what’s wrong with the world today; and the grande dame of fashion writers Kennedy Fraser on the real life Marie Antoinette in “Teen Queen” (P.640). The epic dresses on Kirsten Dunst are an eyeful, too.
Misses: Is it so hard to ease in to fall? The full-on fur in Natural Selection (P. 626) is disconcerting mid-August. That said, there are a host of clues for how to wear fall from opaque black hose to above-the knee dresses and fantastic clothes.
News you can use: “What’s Your Shape?” (P.405), a how-to-wear it simplification of the six new fashion silhouettes – from the exclamation point to the triangle – breaks down the choices of fall in a crystal clear way. A hot new denim line out of Stockholm offering jeans for less than $100 (P.494)? Call your friends. Escape to Reality (P.724) shows how to work three of the most challenging trends – the urban warrior, heavy layering and ornate decoration – without risk of embarrassment.
W – Best pictures
Rating: 3 shopping bags
Pages: 554
Price: $4.95
Weight: 3.68 pounds
Hits: Bubbalicious (P.426), an ode to the new bell shape skirts, is freaky fun; Juergen Teller’s portfolio of unretouched Cover Girls (P.504) is the fashion version of Supermodels – They’re Just Like Us! and Bruce Weber’s 53-page ode to Detroit, “Welcome to the Motor City” (P.450) is as much perusable for the fascinating real people as it for Kate Moss.
Misses: Christina Ricci dressed up like Nanook of the North? In August? Is what to buy in shearling a pressing matter?
News you can use: A preview of delightful resort clothes in The Daily Show (P.251) is a portfolio of designer must-haves from start to finish. According to White Nights, cocaine is back in fashion. Who knew? Plus how that set has quit smoking. For a fashion photography and styling lesson, check out Surreal State (P.528).
—
Rating Key:
Five shopping bags: Black Amex in Milan.
Four shopping bags: Dad’s plastic on Rodeo Drive.
Three shopping bags: Bonus check on Fifth Ave.
Two shopping bags: Tax-free week in New Jersey.
One shopping bag: Coupons at the strip mall.
