How to wear this season's trend: lace

Tag : lace

I’m all for making an effort, but I’m not convincedthat getting dressed ought to take several hours. Lace will takeyou several days, maybe even months. That’s because you willspend ages deciding whether you like it, and even longer trawlingthe shops for something that doesn’t look bridal. Ifit’s paler than crimson, you’re dicing with danger.Ideally it won’t look cheap (clue: if, by some Proustianreflex, the first words you think of when gazing at yourself in themirror in your chosen lace are Ann and Summers, you’vefailed), and you won’t want it to look horribly, hopelesslyinappropriate.
Lace is damn tricky. It is no coincidence, we can be sure, thatsome of the most unhinged characters in the history of culture– from Miss Havisham to the terrible Seventies band PaperLace – have a thing for it. Regardless of these dire warningsand the gallant efforts of numerous celebrities who’vealready tried it out, with the sole intention of putting the restof us off, it’s quite the fabric this season, because MiucciaPrada did her entire collection in lace on the grounds that shehates it and wanted to see if she could overcome her phobia.
That doesn’t mean we have to be foolhardy. Discretion is thebetter part of lace. That means having it peek out from beneaththings, like wool, tweed, leather – anything to take theinherent sickliness out of lace. Actually, at this nauseatingjuncture, let us take a break to explore why lace is sicklybecause, really, it should be a thing of beauty. The finestexamples are – and until the last century or so, theirloveliness underpinned the wealth and industry of fine Europeancities such as Brussels, Ghent and Venice, which between themproduced many different kinds of lace, from the thick, crunchystuff called guipure to the frothy chantilly lace. In Venice, lacewas called punto in aria, or stitches in the air. How heavenly isthat? The wealth it generated, not to mention the guilds oflace-makers it spawned, helped ensure gorgeous bastions ofcivilisation across Italy and Flanders. Surely it deserves betterthan being the trim between some lap dancer’s buttocks, orthe see-through statement of some Z-lister?
But how to resurrect it? Prada’s collection is an (expensive)start, although it’s already been photographed so muchit’s becoming ubiquitous on our retinas. Finding somethinggorgeous to slip under something else is another route – aslip under a dress, a camisole under a blazer, a trim on a shirt,or a little lace jacket to slip over a dress and veil arms. Black,chocolate brown or possibly navy are the best options. Or, ifyou’re brave, Tilda Swinton puke (not literally, obviously,but the colour she wore to the Oscars). Brave, a bit weird, butdefinitely not cheap.