RITU KUMAR | PAYAL SINGHAL | SANGEETA BOOCHRA | ASHIMA LEENA | AHILYA | SATYA PAUL | SHAZE | AZA | RINA DHAKA | GLOBAL DESI | ZARIIN |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Dresses | Dresses | Designer Piece | Kurtas & Kurtis | Kadda | Sarees | Jewellery | Ethnic Wear | Designer | Women's Shoes | Sportswear |
Kurtas | Western Wear | Jewellery | Salwar Suits | BangleSet | Printed Sarees | Earnings | Sarees | Dress Material | Jewellery | Sports & Shoes |
Jackets | Tops | Bangles | Tops | Pendants | EmbellishSarees | Bangles & Bracelets | Kurtas & Kurtis | DesignerSaree | Fashion Jewellery | Gold jewellery |
Tops | Ethnic Wear | Coin & Bars | Leh Cholis | Kadda | Handbags & Clut | Rings | Salwar Suits | Blouses | Bridal Set | Pumps & Pee |
Skirts | Salwar Suits | Earings | Western Wear | Acessories | Bags & Luggage | Jewellery Sets | Chunnis & Dupattas | Gowns | Jeans | Spectacle |
Jumpsuits | Sarees | Chains | Dresses | Earings | Top-Handle Bags | Sunglasses | Bottom Wear | T-Shirts & Shirts | Jeans & Jeggings | Nightwear |
Wednesday, March 31, 2021
'लवरात्रि' फेम वरीना हुसैन के कपड़े देख छूट जाएगी हंसी, चप्पल देख कहोगे- 'ऐसी तो फ्री में भी न लें' March 31, 2021 at 12:51AM
हॉट पैंट्स पहनी राधिका मदन की सिर्फ 6 तस्वीरें और आप इन्हें देखने बार-बार वापस आएंगे March 30, 2021 at 11:52PM
शॉर्ट ड्रेस और गीले बालों में सारा अली खान को देख छूट गए पसीने, कैमरे के सामने टोन्ड लेग्स ने मचाया बवाल March 30, 2021 at 11:44PM
Tuesday, March 30, 2021
Why Do Fashion People Love Virginia Woolf So Much?
“Vain trifles as they seem, clothes have, they say, more important offices than to merely keep us warm. They change our view of the world and the world’s view of us.”
When Virginia Woolf first wrote this observation in her time-bending, gender-transcending novel Orlando (1928), I’m sure she didn’t envisage that it would eventually become one of those oft-repeated lines about fashion like Oscar Wilde’s (admittedly much tarter) “fashion is a form of ugliness so intolerable we have to alter it every six months.” Nearly a century after it was written though, Woolf’s claim about clothing has ascended to a similar level of quotability, regularly garlanding articles and show reviews and essays about the power of what we wear.
In some regards, this is not surprising. The British modernist author wrote brilliantly about many things, including her strained relationship with style (an equally referenced diary entry from 1925 reads “My love of clothes interests me profoundly, only it is not love; and what it is I must discover”). Her fascination with “frock consciousness” — i.e. the impact that clothes have on both our inner and outer states of being — influenced a number of her works, including the short story “The New Dress” and her novel Mrs Dalloway (1925). Today, it still offers a useful framework for those interested in the complex life of garments. At a time, too, where we seem hungry to read about the difficulties and discomforts of clothing, as well as its transformative potential, Woolf is an obvious writer to turn to.
At the end of January, the quote made an official appearance in the show notes for creative director Kim Jones’ debut couture collection at Fendi. The designer, who is also the artistic director at Dior Men, took Woolf as the main theme for his debut. Like many others before him, he turned to Bloomsbury Group, the wealthily bohemian circle the writer was part of. Having grown up near Charleston — a beautifully decorated farmhouse in East Sussex, England, inhabited by Woolf’s painter sister Vanessa Bell and Bell’s friend and lover Duncan Grant — Jones has said he was inspired by the group’s artistic and intellectual energies from a young age. However, although Charleston offered the backdrop, it was Woolf’s Orlando that took center stage in the show, its themes echoed in the hybrid shapes and silhouettes of the collection. Lines of text from the book etched into mother-of-pearl clutches; passages from the love letters between Woolf and Vita Sackville-West, on whom the titular character Orlando was based, read out by the assembled cast of supermodels and Fendi family members.
By this point, citing Woolf’s rollicking story of a hopeless romantic who switches sex and lives for 400 years seems like a rite of passage for a certain kind of designer, doing for vaguely genderfluid fashion what Breakfast at Tiffany’s has done for LBDs and Frankenstein has done for anything patch-worked together with a rough seam. After all, the fashion-minded haven’t been turning to Woolf purely to learn from her meditations on clothing. They’ve also been raiding her personal life and work. Virginia Woolf is now a popular — even trendy — fashion figure.
This is not a new phenomenon. The free-thinking, free-loving, free-spending Bloomsbury Group has exerted an almost mythic hold over the fashion industry for decades, with labels like Dries Van Noten frequently drawing on their creative experimentations and just-so image of disheveled grandeur. But if one were to trace this current surge of interest back to its wellspring, it would probably begin back in 2016 with Christopher Bailey’s Orlando-inspired collection at Burberry. Leaning on a louche vision of historical fantasy comprised of ruffled shirts, silk pajama trousers, and jeweled colors, Bailey’s designs both encouraged a new strain of Woolf-mania and signaled a growing move toward co-ed shows attempting to cater to customers across the gender spectrum.
Over the next half-decade, Woolf and her peers were subsequently name-checked by labels including Alexa Chung, Hades Wool, Preen, and Givenchy (the latter two choosing to focus on the magnetic Sackville-West, who initially made Woolf feel, as she wrote in her diary after their first meeting in 1922, “virgin, shy, and schoolgirlish.”) In 2019, Comme des Garçons designer Rei Kawakubo designed the costumes for the Vienna State Opera’s production of Orlando. In 2020, New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art cemented Woolf’s fashion status by making her the “ghost narrator” for its exhibition “About Time: Fashion and Duration,” which drew in part on Sally Potter’s 1992 film adaptation of Orlando starring Tilda Swinton.
Add this new Fendi collection into the mix, and what are we to do with all of these Woolf references — and all these many Orlandos? Assembled together, what can they tell us about both fashion’s current preoccupations and the narrative arc of a trend more generally?
Some designers talk about admiring Woolf for the depth and foresight of her ideas; others praise her wider cohort for their creative cross-pollination (many of the textiles decorating Charleston, for example, were made by the Omega Workshops, a design studio creating a range of products that bridged the gap between craft and art). But the interest in Orlando is more specific. The novel is an apt reference point for a fashion world increasingly interested in genderless clothing — even if the results still sometimes feel limited.
This more recent renaissance also seems linked to renewed emphasis on Woolf’s own queer identity and relationships. In 2018 her mercurial love affair with Sackville-West was flimsily reimagined on-screen in Vita & Virginia. Earlier this year publisher Vintage reissued the affectionate, searching, often very funny written correspondence exchanged between the pair over nearly 20 years.
It’s notable that Fendi featured some of those letters, cherry-picking quotes to suggest a vague mood of passion and yearning that, much like the clothes themselves, never tipped over into anything too unconventional or risqué (“naughty!” smirks a model at one point). Orlando has become a useful fashion book both because it offers a character who is now shorthand for androgyny and gender subversion, and a way into Woolf’s own biography via her affair with Sackville-West. During a time in which the fashion industry has exploded with references to gay, queer, and trans artistic legacies, but is often unwilling to do anything too radical or subversive with them, Woolf has become a safe inspiration to check off.
Designers love to tell a story. Whenever a new season of shows emerge, viewers are given anchors and details to make sense of each collection — distinguishing them not just by the execution of their designs, but also their chosen narratives. When some of these Virginia Woolf references first began to crop up, that story felt vaguely exciting. Not novel, exactly, but still fresh enough to trigger interesting re-evaluations of the author’s writing legacy and thinking on gender, sexuality, and clothed identity. Now, though, as with all trends that reach a certain degree of saturation, such references have become so commonplace as to be vaguely predictable. We recognize the intended message. We have more room to judge who is drawing something original from their source material, and who has flattened it into a series of glossy — or potentially even drab — surfaces. To quote another line from Orlando, “clothes are but a symbol of something hid deep beneath.” Now it’s up to the fashion world to decide how much depth it’s willing to give.
Like what you see? How about some more R29 goodness, right here?
Writers & Artists Were The Original WFH Set
रेत में लिपटीं हिना खान को देख आई मलाइका अरोड़ा की याद, बिकिनी लुक वाली Pics लगा रहीं आग March 30, 2021 at 02:06AM
‘मुट्ठी से भी छोटा बैग’ लेकर निकलीं डायना पेंटी, कीमत जानकर यकीन नहीं होगा March 30, 2021 at 01:11AM
सफेद चुनर में प्राची देसाई को देख नजरें हटाना हुआ मुश्किल, तस्वीरें देख हो जाएंगे लट्ट March 29, 2021 at 10:45PM
टीवी के इन कपल्स ने शादी के बाद पहली बार मनाई होली, सफेद लिबास पहन एक-दूसरे के रंग में रंगे आए नजर March 29, 2021 at 09:37PM
Monday, March 29, 2021
Enter To Win $500 To Spend At Macy’s
Like what you see? How about some more R29 goodness, right here?
I Tried A Petite Styling Service To Solve My Dressing Problems — Here’s What Happened
I’m not exactly sure when but, at some point, I gave up searching for clothes in the petite section and pivoted to wearing straight-fit clothing instead. If things had to be a bit baggy or ill-fitting, I was willing to take the hit as long as I had access to the same never-ending string of clothing options as everyone else (meaning those above 5’4″). I took it as part and parcel of my experience as a short woman and didn’t think too much about it until I had a number of shopping disasters buying jeans and dresses last summer. Swathed in reams of fabric going way past my ankles, I finally decided enough was enough and began searching for clothes that were created for bodies like mine. But with many brands seeing the petite experience as an uncommon one, the options for quality clothing were few and far between.
This is something that Jennifer Ison, founder of U.K.-based, petite-only clothing brand Jennifer Anne can relate to, having previously struggled to find clothes for her 5’1″ frame: “Being petite is often seen as a niche thing but it isn’t really. Statistics show that the average height of a woman in the UK is 5’3″.” From her own research, Jennifer found that 63% of petite women in Britain felt that the retail market didn’t cater for their needs, with many discussing difficulties when it came to proportions and lack of variety. “Often the petite shopping experience is about ‘making do’ or not coming back with anything at all,” she says. “I think it means that petite women end up buying things that don’t suit them or reflect their personality because you are just so happy to find something that fits.”
At-home styling service Stitch Fix homed in on this problem. The company carries petite ranges from well-known brands and has added its own petite collections across its in-house womenswear labels. With the pandemic still stopping many petite people from having that all-important IRL try-on experience, the personal styling service aims to bridge the gap, allowing petite shoppers to input their exact measurements and style preferences and have a box of five clothing items which meet their requirements delivered straight to their door.
Keen to dip my toe back into the world of petite brands and clothing, I was curious to know if the service could use my information to dress my frame better than I could. As someone with pretty specific fashion tastes, I was skeptical of coming away with anything I would keep but with a fairly in-depth online survey and the ability to message a stylist directly, I decided to take the plunge and request three petite outfits for a variety of occasions. Ahead are all my thoughts and feelings about using an at-home styling service as a petite woman.
Date Night Outfit
When it comes to wearing midi dresses as a 5’2″ woman, I know that the majority of the ones I try on will turn out to be maxi dresses. It’s something that I often consider while out shopping during the warmer months and the majority of the time I just opt for trousers to save myself the hassle. Surprisingly, this dress from the petite range of Stitch Fix’s in-house label Mauvette felt quite flattering on my frame. Sitting at a nice spot on my ankle, with both heels and my old faithful Birkenstocks, the dress fit my brief for an easily wearable date night look for dinners and picnics alike. However, when it comes to personal style, I can’t say floral is particularly my thing (the majority of my wardrobe is comprised of plain block colors). While the service listened to my love of dark hues, the bright ditsy print was a little bit loud for my liking, meaning although the dress fit well, it wasn’t a match when it came to individual taste.
Office Outfit
Okay, this outfit could have come straight out of my own wardrobe. While filling in the styling survey I made sure to emphasise my love of all-black looks and Stitch Fix definitely delivered with this jet black ensemble. As someone who works (worked?) in a fairly casual office, I normally gravitate towards tailored trousers and a top, which made these cropped All Saints pants the perfect pick, sitting just above my trainers when I got up to walk around my flat. Similarly, the ribbed short-sleeved shirt from Samsoe & Samsoe was a bit of me, fitting close to the body and easily tucked into the trousers. As many petite gals will know, oversized knits and tees can look like you’ve raided your dad’s wardrobe so tight tops always help me feel a little more put-together. I appreciate that this might have been a consideration in the stylist’s process or a happy accident but, either way, it made me feel smart, which was my main goal for the outfit.
Weekend Outfit
You probably can’t tell by my face but these jeans were a revelation. In recent years I have opted for baggy, wide-leg jeans after seeing them on every supermodel in the game. Why did I think that my squat legs would look like theirs? I have no idea but I didn’t realize how much I missed well-fitting denim until I jumped into these cropped Lee jeans. While I would have perhaps gone for a black jean over a blue, the delight I experienced at having them caress my body in all the right places was a major win, which only got better when I realized they hit exactly on the ankle to show off my boots. The fit of the YAS jumper worked fairly well with the jeans, allowing me to tuck it in without tons of fabric swamping my stomach. While the jumper was perhaps a little mature for my taste, this outfit made my proportions look pretty damn good so I’m happy to call it a success.
Considering the difficulty I’ve had in finding clothing that fits, it feels like styling services for petite bodies can only be a good thing. While customers are limited to the brands that Stitch Fix carries, it’s nice to see a variety of petite-friendly labels on the platform that step outside the usual realm of high street stores. As someone who enjoys fashion (and having control over her clothes), the service isn’t necessarily something I would use on a regular basis but with only a $20 styling fee and the ability to try before you buy, it’s definitely worth looking into if you have sizing issues.
With questions about height, weight, and proportion alongside color, fabric, and print preferences, it’s nice to feel like petite concerns are being considered without having to compromise on personal taste. As Stitch Fix’s petite-specific service grows (no pun intended), hopefully the inventory of brands will expand with it, giving shoppers even more options. Plus, with the service showing that there is a market for petite shoppers searching for catered clothing, hopefully it’s only a matter of time before other styling services join the petite revolution, too.
Like what you see? How about some more R29 goodness, right here?
A Petite Girls' Guide To Successful Shopping
Which Fashion Identity Reflects Your 2021 Style?
Personal style is one of those nebulous, ever-changing concepts that can shift and morph based on something as small as your mood or as big as catastrophic events (see: year 2020). So, it’s absolutely fair to say that your aesthetic today is nowhere close to what it was a year or even six months ago. That’s why, in partnership with Macy’s, we’re featuring Refinery29 editors to shine a light on how their personal style has evolved into six fashion identities that offer both: a glimpse into who they are and a reflection of the times we’re living in.
Like what you see? How about some more R29 goodness, right here?