A Guide to Quality, Taste and Style (10 page)

Kate Moss in gray skinny jeans tucked into slouchy boots, and a fitted waistcoat. Sarah Jessica Parker in formal shorts and stilettos. Chloe Sevigny in high-waisted pants and a vintage satin blouse. Need we say more?

Signature Look

We can admire, but we cannot endorse. The risk taker approach is simply too risky for a layperson. That said, one big or striking fashion item, if worn in isolation, is permissible. Take for instance the white furry boots Kate Moss was seen wearing on Fifth Avenue . . . nine years ago, just in from Reykjavik. So if on your next trip to Iceland you fall passionately in love with a hat adorned
with antlers—bring it home. But dipping the toes into the crystalline waters of risk must be a slow process. Which means, if you’re wearing the antler hat, you must leave the caribou vest at home.

Patti Smith—Cat Power

Stripped-down and soulful, Patti Smith has not changed her clothes since 1973. Surely the garments themselves have changed, but her look has remained the same. If rock and roll is, or once was, about pushing the envelope, Ms. Smith could be said to have gnawed the envelope before spitting it on the first three rows. Although her baggy jeans, T-shirt or button-down
sans
bra, and men’s blazer is not a look for everyone—or anyone, really, save her—she
is an excellent sartorial inspiration. Three decades ago, la Smith found a look that worked beautifully for her and has stayed faithful. We should all be so wise. Viva la Smith!

And now for a rocker born three decades ago: the singer-songwriter Chan Marshall, who performs as Cat Power. Continuing the rock tradition of loving denim, Ms. Marshall is most often in jeans and either a tank or a plaid shirt. “How thrilling,” you mutter. But look again: She chooses pieces that subtly show her figure and she offsets her utilitarian clothing choices with heavy bangs and eyeliner. It makes the whole thing more Françoise Hardy than farmhand. Ms. Marshall is a great example of a boyish, even gamine look on a woman who is neither boyish nor tiny.

Signature Look

These women wear denim that is sexy because it still retains a little of its blue-collar past. This means you actually have a chance to break in a pair of raw denim jeans. This is also a look about loyalty. Your favorite T-shirt becomes your only T-shirt. Take something extremely basic and make it your own, just as these women have taken unconventional looks and lives and made them art.

Beatrice Wood—Edith Bouvier Beale—Donna Karan

This is the category for the woman who loves to layer. Whether it is strand after strand of beads, wrists a-jingle with bangles, or a snappy sweatshirt head-wrap, for the bohemian, more is always more.

Beatrice Wood, who died in 1998 at age 105, was a potter who lived in Ojai, an orange blossom–scented bastion of bohemia in the mountains of Southern California. A protégé and lover of Marcel Duchamp, Ms. Wood is renowned for her work as well as her liberated lifestyle. Just as she adorned her pots with layers of beautiful lustre glaze, Ms. Wood adorned herself in layers of luminous textiles, topped off by hands and wrists decorated with jewelry, and bright red lips. Her philosophy of life and work drew from both East and West, and her wardrobe followed suit. Her memoir
I Shock Myself
is a wonderful read.

Edith Bouvier Beale had none of Ms. Wood’s artistic accomplishment or freedom, but she just might be more famous. If you haven’t seen the Maysles Brothers’ documentary
Grey Gardens
, you absolutely must. Bump
Doctor Zhivago
if you have to. The film is not only riveting, it is a fashion touchstone, season after season. Edie was Jackie Bouvier Kennedy’s first cousin. She lived with her mother at a compound, Grey Gardens, in East Hampton, New York. Surrounded by cats and raccoons, the two women play out a mother-daughter power struggle that has been going on for fifty years. Through it all, Little Edie, as she is called, is clad in the most spectacularly odd outfits that she creates herself. Her famous “Revolutionary Costume” involves a pair of girdle shorts over nude hose with a skirt fashioned out of a piece of brown material that, as she helpfully offers, can be worn as a cape as well. This is a simple transition because the “skirt” is fastened on with safety pins. On top she wears a brown fitted turtleneck and a black sweater as a head-wrap pinned
under her chin. This is certainly eccentric, but many a designer has cribbed from Ms. Beale. The film is also an excellent cautionary tale for those who feel there is no harm in moving home. Suddenly, thirty years have passed and you are wearing flea collars around your ankles.

In a raccoon-free home also in East Hampton dwells another bohemian, the mega-designer Donna Karan. Although her work has provided a wardrobe for a whole generation of chic working women, Ms. Karan is now an excellent mentor for the polished bohemian looking for something a bit less far out. Present in her wardrobe are all the bohemian favorites—flowing skirts, layered jewelry—but done with enough restraint that she looks like she just came from the beach, not a gypsy caravan.

Signature Look

The bohemian draws from many sources; there is often an ethnic component to the look. A bohemian standby to avoid is the fringed silk shawl that only pianos should wear. While ethnic is great, folkloric is to be avoided. The idea is eclectic, not travelogue.

This world is wide, so feel free to venture into it with as little as an arm full of bangles—or both arms full of bangles . . . and your antler hat.

Deeda Blair—Pauline de Rothchild—Lee Radziwell

Doyennes are not born doyennes. They ascend to this status of quality, taste, and style. Doyennes are haughty, monied, attenuated, and of the highest rank. When speaking about such nobility, one has to reach beyond the
clothes, because it is the context embracing the doyenne that offers the full picture.

Owing to the Washington, D.C., roots of one of us, we must pay homage to a Mrs. William McCormack Blair Jr. Though she was an undisputed society leader who presided over one of the grandest salons in the nation’s capital, she was also Vice President of the Lasker Foundation. This was no mere lady who lunches.
*

What was particularly fascinating about Mrs. Blair was her hair. It was the biggest ’do ever, complete with Cruella De Vil coloring, but it was stunning, not ridiculous. In her heydey, she was the
ne plus ultra
of D.C. glamour and sophistication, even during the 1,000 glamour-embossed Kennedy days. Forgive us for speaking about Mrs. Blair in the past tense. We know that she remains active and visible: We just saw her in a society column that described her arrival at a benefit being accompanied by a European royal. In the corresponding photograph, she appears infinitely more regal than her titled escort. It’s not just her beautiful clothes and impeccable grooming; it’s her carriage. Mrs. Blair’s posture is Vreeland-like—ramrod straight. But she’s never stiff. She glides across a room as if powered by a small engine under her feet.

Grace Mirabella, who reigned for seventeen years at
Vogue
and later launched
Mirabella
, has said Mrs. Blair would seek her counsel about the couture collections: “What do you think about this dress, Grace?” Yes, Mrs.
Blair was one of the few reliable supporters of couture, but for every
30,000 dress she bought, she would donate ten times that amount to a charitable organization. From the House of Dior to the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, people genuflect to her. That’s a remarkable achievement.

Pauline de Rothchild was born Pauline Potter in the doyenne-hatching town of Baltimore (also the birthplace of the Duchess of Windsor, and Nancy Lancaster of Colefax and Fowler fame), Ms. Potter headed north to New York and landed a position at Hattie Carnegie. Her superb breeding and finishing-school education prepared her well for the social circles into which she would ascend.

When she worked professionally, Ms. Potter was always clad in a suit: a high-waisted pencil skirt with a shrunken jacket, thereby accentuating her height (she was always the tallest woman in the room), her slim figure, and her aristocratic carriage. After becoming the Baroness de Rothchild, her clothing became quite flamboyant (something fierce was hiding under that demure suit). And she was never a fashion victim; that is, she was a self-stylist who mixed unlikely prints and wore mink-lined trench coats (a first) with ballet flats to the opera.

Lee Radziwill, “The Princess” before her divorce, was the more tightly wound of the Bouvier sisters. She is the only one of our doyennes whom we suspect would creak with every movement of her meticulously sculpted jacket or dress. If we attribute “girly” to Pauline de Rothchild, then “deftly tailored” is appropriate for Lee Radziwill. With the exception of a lace veil, she’s seldom seen in
anything other than suits, A-line sheaths, and capri pants. Neither her grooming nor her clothes are ever anything other than perfect. While these characteristics can be intimidating, they account for her sublime grandness. There is an aura about her that goes beyond her bloodline and her celebrity. She exudes an elegance and a confidence that is overpowering.

Signature Look

To be blunt, the doyenne is about power. Hers is a look that underscores the doyenne’s place in the world and, accordingly and not surprisingly, this can cause others to writhe—and shrink—in their seats. Suits suit the doyenne, but not any ol’ suit. The Yves Saint Laurent power suit of the ’70s is the classical centerpiece of the doyenne’s wardrobe.

If you aspire to this look, keep your friends close and your enemies closer! This is the hyper-polished, utterly correct, dress-to-the-nines look that must be executed from sun-up till bedtime. It requires an extraordinary commitment—not a once a week flirtation—otherwise you run the risk of people thinking you’re a drag queen!

The Women of Antonioni and Fellini

Here’s where you can get your Sophia Loren fix, along with the likes of Claudia Cardinale and Monica Vitti. For Antonioni and Fellini, women are often dominant and full of style and sexuality. And teased hair. Even in the murk-filled world of Antonioni’s
Il Grido
, the women smolder.
As one of them lives in a hut, that’s really saying something. Think of them trudging through the marshy lowlands of the Po River Valley, glaring at the empty beach in Rimini, or silently sailing around the cold waters of Sicily. You, too, can achieve their sexy brand of despair. Don’t let the fact that you wear a size 14 and are from Guyana dictate your ability to wear this Mediterranean look. Anyone can don a curvaceous black skirt and a belted wool cardigan.

Signature Look

The key look here is all about hair and eyelashes. Both of them should be prodigious. An ample bosom is suggested, but not required. Think about a thin camisole or slip underneath a fitted skirt or housedress. This is womanhood straining to break free from her bonds—or her peasant top.

Martha Stewart—Vanessa Redgrave—Oprah Winfrey

We would be remiss if we were not to address a high-powered executive of style, and who better than Martha Stewart. One of this book’s key messages is, “own your look,” and, indeed, Martha does. A former fashion model turned style guru
par excellence
, Martha Stewart epitomizes casual elegance. Whether she’s gathering eggs in the chicken coop, planting an herb garden, or baking a soufflé, she’s appropriately garbed. Tweeds, flannels, and cottons are her mainstay. And other than black-tie benefits (or court appearances), she prefers a pant paired with a blouson top. Some attribute Martha’s clear view
of her style self as emanating from her modeling days, but we maintain that the elements of quality, taste, and style that govern her lifestyle determine her fashion. After all, what is fashion without lifestyle and vice versa?