The Wrong Girls on the Motorcycle

What made Rebecca in the novel The Girl on the Motorcycle sensual, irresistible, strong and independent?

Correct, the black leather suit. When the book was adapted for the screen, Lanvin provided Rebecca with a simple yet striking body suit that soon became an iconic piece for all the fans of the fashion and film connection.

I sometimes struggle to understand why certain designers find extremely difficult to convey an image of sensuality, confidence and power just through tailoring, without adding an unnecessary amount of decorations such as metal studs and spikes.

I love everything metal/metallic, but, honestly, there is a limit to the amount of spikes you can carry on a garment.

Yet it is a common mistake to think that if you’re a woman and want to look glamorous, strong and independent, you should also have a wardrobe full of clothes covered in metal studs.

I assume the woman Christopher Bailey at Burberry Prorsum had in mind for his Spring/Summer 2011 collection doesn’t fly very often, otherwise most of her clothes covered in protruding spikes, would be seized by the police before she boarded any plane as they would be considered as improper weapons.

You could argue that Bailey's woman doesn’t fly because she rides a bike, but it remains a mystery how she can drive a motorcycle without ruining its leather seat or scraping its shiny bodywork with her studded trousers.

If she doesn't drive a motorcycle, maybe she walks, you say? Unfortunately, judging from the models struggling on their high heels or from the ones who decided to remove them and walk barefoot, Bailey's woman doesn't even walk.

What the hell is it that she does, then? Hopefully, she thinks.

Doubts aside it was somehow a shame that high quality pieces in leather and snakeskin accessorised with belts and clutches in vivid shades, softly draped dresses and elegant trench coats with double pleats were almost obliterated by the amount of black, beige and silver tight leather trousers or rather leggings, biker jackets with protective padded inserts covered in spikes, studs and gobstoppers and the occasional yet avoidable leopard print top.

This is definitely not a collection for everyone, given the prices, but also the shapes and silhouettes, yet, for once, you feel almost happy to leave to silly celebrities the pleasure of going around in shoes that aren’t made for walking and jackets made heavy by a ridiculous amount of spikes.  

Before Bailey, Marios Schwab attempted an approach at biker chic gone gothic during London Fashion Week.

His collection mainly featured lingerie-like dresses in pale pink, blue and black with lace inserts or prints of tattoos scribbled here and there and esoteric symbols, from crosses and pyramids to all-seeing eyes.

If Schwab learnt about lingerie from his father who used to engineer women's undergarments, surely you couldn’t detect that from the sartorial accidents that happened on the runway (read: nipples and breasts showing when they weren't meant to make an appearance...).

In fact even lingerie has a structure, indeed the more perfect it is, the better what you put on top of it looks like.

It must be said that there won't probably be a queue to grab the lace-edged pink pale dresses with Masonic Lodge symbols (though they may be a hit in Scotland....) and, while there were no biker jackets in sight, there was one pair of leather trousers and one pair of (badly cut) Bermuda shorts, and Schwab went back to form with a few leather mini-dresses with stretch inserts at the bust.

If you are into the bike look and are going to follow the fashion circus to Milan, check out the one-night exhibition “The Sisley Art Project” taking place tonight at the Palazzo Bovara in Corso Venezia, 51.

The event (on until 11 p.m.), organised by the Sisley brand to benefit the Andy Warhol Museum will indeed feature biker jackets customised by different artists (among them Ronnie Cutrone and Walter Steding; graffiti artists Fab Five Freddy and Lee Quinones; Stefano Castronovo, Rita Ackermann, Duncan Hannah and Tom Sachs).

Probably you will find this exhibition much more fun than some of the S/S 2011 collections allegedly inspired by bikers.

As a woman, I feel indeed rather tired about designers trying to convey romance and toughness through their collections.

In fact I think I will punch the next designer who will tell me he has been mixing and merging "visions of toughness and femininity" or tackling the "hard Vs soft dichotomy", mainly because the idealised kind of tough yet romantic, strong yet fragile woman (who doesn't even seem to have a proper role in our society) they are trying to design for doesn't exist in real life, but it's only a ghost haunting their little minds.

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Comments

[Irene]

I enjoyed the post a lot. As for me, to much metal is a passe. Even when it's made by incredibly cool Lanvin.