The Woman is back!

By Caroline Healey

Men love a lady’s behind…and bust and bits to hold and admire. This is the biggest joke of the fashion industry - the designs of the day are created and worn not to impress the opposite sex, but to gain approval from one’s female peers. The early nineties hailed the revolution of the waif. Heroin chic was in, but of course stick thin first came into vogue with the social jolt of the sixties and the iconographic Twiggy. Never has this style truly been challenged until now. “The hourglass is back” is the cry of the media, and so it is, bringing with it visions of secretaries’ wiggling rears bound in pencil skirts and voluptuous Marilyns in flowing dresses with nipped in waists.

There are strict rules for winter – belted everything and luxe galore. Roland Mouret is being credited with starting the stampede for the look of the womanly goddess. Last autumn heralded the first sightings of the accentuated waist and sharp tailoring on the catwalk that were to dominate this seasons’ shows.

Alexander McQueen is a firm lover of the strictly cut skirt suits and structured dresses that take their inspiration directly from the cool as ice actresses of Alfred Hitchcock’s films. “Hitchcock’s heroines” describes not only a complete look, but also a definition of femininity that is now being fantastically revisited. The curve of the stilettoed calf, half visible from a low hemline expresses more allure and mystique than the poker straight exposed thigh. The hips softly round from the waspish waist, which of course is clad in compulsory belt or ribbon. The trend of the corseted silhouette is followed in every type of wear, not least the cinched winter coats. Stella McCartney’s Hepcat coat is destined to jump off the rails and almost every house had a sexy hourglass outer garment to show off.
Ultimately this look works best on the fuller figure, and so we see the wheel of trend turn full circle once again and hear a collective sigh of relief that the real woman is back.

Illustration by Luis Felix Rodriguez.