I Dress, Therefore I Channel My Covetworthy Style Icons
Tuesday, April 13th, 2010
Since everyone and their waitress/porn star/white supremacist lover is claiming an addiction these days, I feel safe sharing mine. I’m a Dress Addict. No rehabilitation on the horizon. I just can not get enough. And though I loved that denim phase (as in, Cute Top + J Brands + Killer Heels. Repeat.), I am beyond thrilled about the latest fashion fixation to rebound around: Dresses, The Sequel. Yahoo.
But a dress, no matter how great, is just a dress if I merely put it on. The real challenge – and all the fun – comes in completing the look. I believe that, if life is theater, dressing the part is only half the show. I’m about owning the outfit and the attitude. Which brings me to today’s tip.
Covetworthy Tip #543. A little roleplay never hurt a thing.
You’re not invoking your style icons by just copycatting their outfits. Transport yourself to that time and place, what were they thinking, how were they were living while the bulbs flashed? Just as star athletes visualize crossing the finish line paces ahead of the competition or sinking the game-winning shot, you too should envision yourself ahead of the pack mentally and physically. Trust me on this one: just thinking about Raquel Welch will instinctively pull your shoulders back, push your cleavage forward and enhance your stride with a game changing booty-swish. This little mental play takes it from cool to covetworthy.
Example? I shimmied into a jaunty Kate Spade coral and pink frock with its poufy skirt, large waist bow and hidden pockets (pockets! I know, right?!?) and became Grace Kelly, mixing up martinis and mint gimlets just like that (insert: snapping fingers,) I pranced around like the Prettiest Girl at the Prom with my 4-inch, patent canary sandals. Even though my “glamourous setting” was an overcast Easter Sunday in Dallas, Texas, my mind’s eye was trained on the sun-drenched stretch of Monaco’s coastline.
Watch me get all Bianca Jagger on your ass, rolling into Studio 54 atop a white stallion, in my off-the-shoulder, cobalt-meets-neon-blue silk chemise by Mason. Ree-DIK-you-luss.
Or I’m Palm-Springs-pool-party-hosting Diahann Carroll in my Thread Social trapeze dress, which is micro mini but in a retro cool geometric so it all works, especially with giant white sunglasses, a teased out high ponytail and glistening skin. You can’t tell me nothin’.
The coming weeks call for even more dress up for me. A corporate-creative meeting summons my Cynthia Steffe body-skimming sheath in gray tweed with the exposed back zip, my HBIC a la Heather Locklear in Melrose Place look. I’m going Elizabeth Taylor stop-the-clock seductress in a D&G, don’t-exhale-or-there-goes-the-zipper stunner that might just send me on a liquid diet for the next week. High school reunion this summer? Perfect time to unveil this white sporty/sexy open-backed dress from Reiss that could outposh even Posh.
Are you ready to elevate your style game? Then suit up and play the role.
It’s not about the price of the dress. When you amortize (yes, children, that does say amortize) the cost over number of wears, that’s when you get the real value. And while I’ve used this formula many times to justify purchases in a price range way north of reasonable, it is with particular joy that I can do so with an item that needs no such vindication.