With Restraint

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American Vogue January 2010


Dolce & Gabbana S2010

As you might have guessed, I'm more than a little obsessed by intimate apparel at the moment. Luckily, many r-t-w designers feel the same way for Spring 2010 so there's lots of fashion to discuss. Great show from Dolce & Gabbana who celebrated the female form with many lingerie-inspired styles including shapely corseted looks that work to create a curvy hourglass figure. Just imagine that Vivienne Westwood was designing the precursor to that look over 20 years ago! While many of the other well-known designers had jumped onto the band-wagon of the Grunge movement (flannel shirts! flowery vintage dresses!) on models with super-skinny boyish bodies (the waifs) Vivienne was showing a modernized version of the hourglass silhouette with a variety of structured corsets in luxury materials like velvet and lace, often with gold metallic decoration or even romantic portraits.


Red Velvet Corset 1987, Corset with photographic print 1991

Proof that fashion was beginning to move away from heroin chic came in 1994 when several couture designers like Karl Lagerfeld and Christian Lacroix showed corseted looks that referenced the Dior silhouette of 1947.


American Vogue 1994

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