All Gussied Up

So I’m back to the velvet underground
Back to the floor that I love
To a room with some lace and paper flowers
Back to the gypsy that I was, to the gypsy that I was

It wasn’t a reference cited by Kate and Laura Mulleavy but as their gossamer-thin shimmying and shining frocks (and yes, these really are frocks as opposed to merely dresses…) walked amongst their neon tube jungle, all I could hear in my head were these words of Stevie Nicks.  And Nicks’ particular mix of Victoriana-tinged folksy sultriness could be seen throughout, what I think is one of my favourite Rodarte shows in recent years.

Mentioning poets like Emily Dickinson and Elizabeth Barrett Browning already partially immerse you into the Mulleavy’s hypnotic cosmos.  But it’s all about that final evocative rendering that really slays you.  That Victorian and Edwardian buttoned-up and corset-tied poetry ended up colliding with coquettish glamourama of the 1970s, from repeated listening of ELO.  It’s how all that lace, bugle beading and embroidery remained light and unapologetically frivolous.  It’s why in my own head, I thought of the vibes of American giallo classic The Eyes of Laura Mars, touches of Studio 54 and all its fur chubby-wearing revellers, and of course Nicks, who you could certainly see sashaying about in these frocks.  And so it wound up being a potent mix – one that affirms Rodarte as one of those labels that you appreciate for its very existence, as it occupies its own unique magical bolthole, away from the sea of ‘brands’ and ‘product’.  You’ll be hearing those two two words frequently of course, as New York Fashion Week will be kicking off on Wednesday.  Hurrah?

Stevie Nicks

English novelist Mary Ward

Emily Dickinson

Stills from The Eyes of Laura Mars (1978)

Photographs of the character Laura Mars by Rebecca Blake

Still from Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (1954)

Bianca Jagger in British Vogue 1974 photographed by Eric Boman

Yves Saint Laurent Rive Gauche photographed by Deborah Turbeville 

Vogue 1977 photographed by Deborah Turbeville

Still from Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975)

Nova magazine 1970

Photography by Rebecca Blake

Callot Sisters Salon in Paris photographed in 1910 – they were known for using antique laces and metallic lamé on their couture dresses

Halston dresses in action in the 1970s

French singer and entertainer Marcelle Lender

Photography of the May Queen Festival in 1892

Stevie Nicks