Sartorial distractions

Yearning for better times often manifests itself in strange ways, especially in the fashion industry. That fashion is cyclical is well known and designers pass off their borrowings from the past under tags from ���retro��� to ���vintage���. With economies plummeting and front row seat networths diminishing, it is not surprising that many designers have been harking back to the good ol��� days to get that feel-good factor back. Milan was no exception, with Italian stalwarts Dolce & Gabbana evoking the exaggerated shoulders of 1940s Hollywood suits and even printing Marilyn Monroe���s famous moue on their showstopper silk gown. But the most pointed reference to past glamour came from Donatella Versace, who reprised that va-va-vroom ���safety pin dress��� which catapulted Liz Hurley from being Hugh Grant���s arm candy at the 1994 premiere of Four Weddings and a Funeral to a global sex symbol. This time Versace went back to those peekaboo seams, albeit using silvery staples embellished with cloth. The sight of flesh and metal glinting through seams that ran playfully over gowns and dresses drew inevitable comparisons with the Hurley bombshell.

While it may be hard to imagine that a mere dress held together with enormous golden safety pins had such an impact, it had to do with the time and the place. It has been argued that had a starlet of similar standing worn it on the red carpet in Los Angeles, it would not elicit the reaction it did; but Britain that year was looking for a distraction. The mad cow disease had jumped to humans, the Conservative regime was hit by the cash-for-questions affair, Rover was sold to BMW and the gruesome murders of his children by Fred West had been discovered; the Hurley-Versace peepshow was the ideal distraction. The situation today is not unlike 1994 Britain, but it���s worldwide. Traditionally, the fashion world is a mirror to the events that affect their buyers; it���s not often they are prophetic. But the collections on catwalks this time do seem to portend a desire to escape the impending summer of discontent; or at least be distracted from it.