FALL '05 TREND REPORT
In the Golden Era of Hollywood, fashion played an integral role in helping the major studios build the images of their various leading men and women. To be sure, these screen idols were very much aware of their appearance, both on screen and off. As Cary Grant often said about his acting, "All I have to do is point my suit towards the camera.”
Conversely, Hollywood’s stars have always had a profound influence on fashion as well. Greta Garbo popularized the slouch hat. Women around the world copied the eccentric look of Audrey Hepburn who favored boat-necked tops and Capri pants. Marlene Dietrich looked her sultry best when donning a man’s tuxedo. Has anyone ever been more glamorous in an evening gown than Grace Kelly?
Streetwise movies like West Side Story and The Wild One championed the popularity of the white T-shirt and blue jeans as the rebel uniform of American youth. For jewelry designers, having their diamond-studded or bejeweled baubles hanging from the ears or around the neck of the studio’s latest star or newest ingénue invariably led to stepped up sales among the starry-eyed public. In the modern era, Diane Keaton’s character in the film Annie Hall proved once and for all that fashion could be quirky, individualistic and fun.
Where leading men were concerned, personal style made the man and the clothes followed. As elegant as they were, the physiques of some Hollywood icons were less than perfect, yet one would never know it from the way they looked in their clothes. Cary Grant would have his suits and topcoats made with shoulders set wider from point to point to counterbalance his rather large head size. Fred Astaire favored fitted, double-breasted suits with high armholes and virtually no padding to ensure his ability to move through the air with the greatest of ease.
In the modern era, the British government may have given James Bond a license to kill, but Brioni gave Pierce Brosnan as 007 the license to thrill. The domination of Italian men’s fashion began in 1980 on the back of a young actor named Richard Gere who was dressed in American Gigolo by a designer named Giorgio Armani who proved to style-
conscious men everywhere that tailored suits could be both sportive and, well, sexy.
For fall 2005, the influence of sex and the cinema still abounds, albeit in the form of Fifties Hollywood glamour front and center, with the bohemian style of the Sixties serving as understudy. But lest one shrugs off this trend as yet another remake of fashion’s recurring inclination to put on the past as a way of putting off the present, think again. While many collections this season reference earlier eras, the clothes are decidedly modern in fit, fabric and construction. Fine tailoring plays a starring role, as does luxurious fur and entrance-making evening dresses worthy of leading lady status. In the following pages, Americana Manhasset turns the spotlight onto some of the most elegant, sexy, sophisticated and, dare we say it, dramatic looks for fall 2005. Bravo to all.
