Last week I talked about the resurgence of blue and green in our wardrobes for the warmer seasons. Apparently people listened. Or at least, people I work with listened. Today there are four of us in the office wearing cobalt blue tops – different tops – but all the same shade of iridescent blue. Amusingly, one of the girls and I have also both teamed our top with very similar skirts and shoes (although mine have a significant heel and hers are flat).
Style is an individual choice, but what do you do when everyone is wearing the same style? I am reminded of a scene in The Devil Wears Prada. Andy Sachs (Anne Hathaway) is at her first day in the offices of fashion magazine, Runway. She wears a blue sweater and a skirt. Miranda Priestly (Meryl Streep), editor-in-chief of Runway, is choosing belts. A fashion assistant holds up two, almost identical, and advises that she couldn’t possibly choose between them as they are so different. At this, Andy scoffs – to her the belts are identical. I have no doubt that the majority of the people who have seen my colleagues and I in our blue tops today would feel that same way.
But then comes the clincher – Miranda advises Andy that her cheap polyester blend blue sweater was in fact a fashion decision made for her by the people in that office, based on couture collections originally from Oscar de la Renta in a season gone by that had filtered down through the fashion houses, through high street stores and into a local department store collection where possibly Andy had fished it out of a bargain bin, thinking she was making an independent decision about her personal style. Perhaps my blue top came from a high street store, while one of the other girls found hers at a chain store. Perhaps one is wearing couture, another a bargain bin special. Regardless, where did our cobalt blue trend start? Who visioned this gorgeous colour and put it on a runway, to be copied and interpreted so that we could all come to work today wearing our own interpretation?
Miranda Priestly: [Miranda and some assistants are deciding between two similar belts for an outfit. Andy sniggers because she thinks they look exactly the same] Something funny?
Andy Sachs: No, no, nothing. Y’know, it’s just that both those belts look exactly the same to me. Y’know, I’m still learning about all this stuff.
Miranda Priestly: This… ‘stuff’? Oh… ok. I see, you think this has nothing to do with you. You go to your closet and you select out, oh I don’t know, that lumpy blue sweater, for instance, because you’re trying to tell the world that you take yourself too seriously to care about what you put on your back. But what you don’t know is that that sweater is not just blue, it’s not turquoise, it’s not lapis, it’s actually cerulean. You’re also blithely unaware of the fact that in 2002, Oscar De La Renta did a collection of cerulean gowns. And then I think it was Yves St Laurent, wasn’t it, who showed cerulean military jackets? I think we need a jacket here. And then cerulean quickly showed up in the collections of 8 different designers. Then it filtered down through the department stores and then trickled on down into some tragic casual corner where you, no doubt, fished it out of some clearance bin. However, that blue represents millions of dollars and countless jobs and so it’s sort of comical how you think that you’ve made a choice that exempts you from the fashion industry when, in fact, you’re wearing the sweater that was selected for you by the people in this room. From a pile of stuff.
My fashion on film analysis of this scenario is further cemented today after a quick walk around DFO at lunch. Have you seen the Valentino retrospective film? You will remember the white gown with sequined strips that Valentino created, and his seamstresses sewing individual sequins on? The arguments about how many strips to include; how many gaps to leave? The Valentino film was based on collections between ‘05 and ’07 (with the film released in 2008) – fashion decisions that have filtered down through high street and chain stores and finally ended in the wasteland of factory outlets. Strips were everywhere – on skirts, on tops, on shorts, on dresses.
Our blue tops might be different, or the same depending on who you ask, but I think that the distinction lies in how you choose to wear it. Adding the heels over flats; a skirt or pants, perhaps even some shorts. Maybe you have your hair loose or up for a more sophisticated look. Earrings, bracelets, a handbag. Everything you add to that blue top is what makes it your own and what individual style is all about.
~ Thanks to www.imdb.com for quotes
