Wednesday, October 24, 2007

Your Underwear Is the New Black


Designers who hope to titillate may take their cues from that professional provocateur Marc Jacobs, who engineered waywardness into his designs by incorporating brassieres and panties into their construction. It was a stunt to be sure, the models' look of studied disarray suggesting the outward expression of a crack-addled mind. But merchants viewed the R-rated display as a welcome corrective to a somewhat uptight fall season.

"The looks we saw for fall were very put-together and polished, with not a hair or thread out of place," said Michael Fink, a fashion director of Saks Fifth Avenue. “Maybe it was time for a little vulgarity to creep back into fashion."

Ms. Solomon viewed the trend as more mysterious than vulgar. “When you're not baring your breast outright, that to me is more romantic than it is overtly sexy,” she said. Indeed, some would insist it is curiously stripped of eroticism. -- NY Times