Peplumed waists and squared shoulders: Fashion’s latest erogenous zones

Date March 1, 2012

Fashion show audiences are a mix of customers and the media, and we each tend to read what comes down the runway differently. I am looking for what is new. Customers are looking for that and more. They want to know that the expensive piece they bought last season isn’t going to look dated. So when I told a young fashion enthusiast after the Mugler show that the collection was full of peplums, she practically did a cartwheel. “I can still wear them?” she beamed. Uh huh. And all the rest of us who haven’t bought one yet might want to join in the fun. Of course we probably won’t go quite as far as the undulating peplums at Mugler. In white with fox sleeves and downy helmets, the overall effect was a bird in flight.

Opulence was one of the buzzwords of Paris even before Olivier Rousteng’s show for Balmain earlier today. The collection was inspired by Fabergé eggs and other treasures in the recent Elizabeth Taylor auction. Picture dense embroidery with crystals, pearls, and needlepoint flowers. Square shoulders in the collection signal this area of the body will also be a focus for Fall 2012.