Romance Is Back In Fashion: We’re Talking Gucci, Boulevard Apparel, First Lady Obama
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Loading ...by Marie Marra
Women’s apparel buyers have spied it for over a year. Soft blouse-on tops made from gauzy fabrics, with netting or small crystals and halter or cami-style tops. Floral prints, sheer fabrics and a comeback for flounces, ruffles and tiered clothing … sometimes over leather pants or low-rise denim jeans. Plus, one-shouldered dresses, on sundressses as well as formal evening gowns.
Sharp-eyed clothing buyers are now backed big time in this Romantic Stylings trend for women’s casual and dress wear by Fashionistas. Here are the romance fashion signs, who’s wearing and what’s selling.
GUCCI GYPSY ROCKERS ROCK
“There’s a tempering of the toughness,” noted InStyle fashion director Hal Rubenstein, when he pointed to Gucci’s Fall/Winter women’s collection moving down catwalks in Milan, Italy a year ago.
Floating mini-dresses, “Hippie” tops and gauzy romantic blouses were paired with knee-high studded boots, fringed accessories and fitted dark leather pants in the Gypsy Rocker line from Gucci.
BOULEVARD APPAREL GOES FASHION EXTRAVAGANT AT CLEARANCE PRICES
You’ll find the latest romance fashions — from soft sheer fabrics and ruffle-tiered, camisole-bodice dresses … to the hottest cut denim jeans — at Boulevard Apparel.
Boulevard’s romantic stylings come branded and non-branded at clearance prices: 50-to-80% below wholesale. Get in the mood, for far less than Gucci prices, with hot styles like:
This camisole-top, tiered-skirt dress in dressy black & white. Or
These Sheer … Shirred … Gauzy and Embellished Blouse Ons …
Psssssst: Get a peek at the latest romantic stylings at the lowest prices at Off-Price Specialists Show in Las Vegas, February 15-18. Boulevard Apparel is in booths 4203 and 4204 at the Venetian Grand Ballroom.
FIRST LADY, FIRST FASHION STYLES
Womanliness, elegance and grandeur are back in style on an unexpected fashion star: First Lady Michelle Obama. Whether she wore what she always liked from mass marketer H & M and chain store J. Crewe, or if she went high-end (like independent young designers Isabel Toledo and Jason Wu), the new first lady put feminine styling front and center.
For Inaugural Ball romance, there was the one-shouldered, netting over pale yellow, flower appliqued evening gown. That’s from 26-year old Taiwan-born L.A. designer Jason Wu. As you read this, designer lookalike copies are rolling out from Fabiano and others.
Pulling together all the romance fashion threads — from heavily embellished stitching and small-crystal bejeweled clothing to sparkle and unexpected colors — look to the metallic sheath and coat from Cuban-born NYC designer Isabel Toledo. This was the First Lady’s “official” outfit for the solemn swearing-in ceremony. (Uninspired, boxy and sober former first lady threads are OUT.)
Romantic AND Hopeful:
“I assumed she would wear red. She came out in yellow, and it immediately reminded me of Women’s Wear Daily … talking about how yellow (this particular shade is called “mimosa”) is the color of hope.”
–Professor of Fashion Design Jeffrey Mayer
For more on Romance Fashions and top suppliers of the latest Women’s Wear, see Top Ten Wholesale’s Spring 2009 Apparel & Accessories Trends. We’re talking Apparel, Accessories and Amorous Valentine Gifts.
