Be Careful What You Wish For

Voilá Mary Alice Stephenson (no, I dunno either; some random socialite) accompanied by Peter Som, whose design she is wearing.

Here is said dress as it shimmied down the runway on the body of Dutch model Iekeliene Stange.

Now, I can see how a person sitting in the audience of this show, or strolling through Mr. Som's showroom, would look swoonily upon that dress and sigh, "Ooh, I looooove that! I want to wear that the the New York City Ballet's Opening Night Gala this year!" I mean, I sure would. It's beautiful, it's elegant, I love the feather thing (although I do worry about what kind of shape those beautiful pheasant feathers would be in after one had sat through two or three hours of ballet).

Except, here's the thing. According to her Wikipedia article, Ms. Stange is 5'9 1/2" and has a 31" chest. The word "willowy" comes to mind. Ms. Stephenson... well, not so much. I'm not saying she's a hippo or anything, please understand, she looks to be an extremely attractive woman, but she also looks a little short-waisted. And, oy. She could really do with a little hoikage. Bottom line (so to speak): the top edge of her belt seems to be only about an inch and a half below the bottom of her bust. Oh, this is SO not the right thing. At the very least, Ms. Stephenson needs a bra that does her some favors, and if I had my way the waist on that dress would have been dropped a couple of inches. It is not easy to wear a garment with three such very distinctive horizontal zones -- if they aren't placed correctly, they are going to be deadly. Conventional wisdom tells us that horizontal lines make us look wider because they lead the eye from side to side, but in this case the horizontal-ness is less of a problem than the disproportion of the three sections. That compressed top part makes her look stumpy. And I'm sure she's NOT stumpy. So I'm going to have to take Mr. Som to task here, because if he knows her well enough to be her date to the NYCB gala, he should do her the favor of an "Oh, honey, no. Let me fix that for you."

That being said -- there was so much in this collection (F/W '08) that I loved. It had a wonderful louche 30's feeling about it, I thought, sort of a glam take on "They Shoot Horses, Don't They?"

I've had a real thing about fur collars lately. There's something so posh and luxe about them. A full fur can be a bit much, but a big fur collar gets the point across without overdoing it. (And no, I don't have a problem with fur. I mean, I want to know the fur isn't from an endangered species and was obtained legally, but as a non-vegan leather-wearer I think whingeing about fur would make me a bit of a hypocrite. I'm sorry if that offends, but there it is.)

Great use of patent, huh?

This makes me nuts. That nipped-in waist (TWO belts!), the cardi peeking out, the layers in the skirt... that's a marvelous combination of detail with sharp tailoring.

Well, no one gets it right every time...

I am kah-razy for these big slouchy pants.

Why, Miss Jones! You're BEAU-TI-FUL! Sexy librarian -- one of my favorite muftis.

Ooooooooooooh. Sooooooo pretty. Let's all swoon simultaneously: ready, set, SWOON!


And check out these lovelies:

Oh, baby, come to mama. From M. Louboutin. If you're going to subcontract your shoe design, you sure could do worse.

Just for you, Style Spy found a little bit of Peter Som on the interwebs. Click photos for links.

Adorable floral print skirt, crazy on sale at Saks.

Hey, look! Big slouchy pants!! On sale big slouchy pants!!

Great skirt. An interesting pattern that doesn't overwhelm.

What couldn't you wear with this jacket? I can't think of much.


Whaddya think? Anything catch your eye?



Photos: Style.com