Wowza!
This is SPECATCULAR; high fashion. If you are a shrinking violet or a utilitarian puritan then move on nothing to see here that won't blow your tiny mind.
This is for someone who wants to scream high fashion at the top of their lungs. A gown for a siren. Well, as close as a skirt gets to a gown. Produced around the millennium it reflects the feeling of hope and dreams at the time, and heralded the advent of the new mermaid dress. While it calls on the 1950s for it's dramatic mermaid shape , and the train is supported by a stiff net, the front kick open front and colossal pockets, as well as the 'parachute silk' look crumple, give it a very modern avant garde feel. A taffeta like fabric.
So where do you wear this? Ok feasibly a bride or a bridesmaid/maid of honour at a very chic wedding. BUT hell it is soooo glamorous it can be worn with a bikini top at a glamorous resort such as Monaco or the Italian lake district (Cailin 'd Turin based so not far) on the terrace sipping champagne. I came across this look at the time at such terrace lakeside resorts in Slovenia and Croatia when I was an air hostess....remember in fact one girl descending like a mermaid in such an expensive shimmering skirt down the stone steps to the lake elegantly taking the skirt off handing it to her handsome chaperone who hung/held it for herm and swimming. Sigh such glamour.
So that's not for the likes of us peasants is it? Eh? And why not? Why can't we emerge from the shadows , ascend from the shallows and scrape the sky? Down by the jetty in Southend may not be Cannes or St Tropez but who cares we can make a special moment if we've the courage to dream; and this is such a dream of a gown.
"Some say we walk alone
Barefoot on wicked stone, no light
And sanctuary found never waits around awhile
Marching to the sea
Their dreams stay in the shadows
Their dreams stay firmly rooted in the shallows
See the scraping sky
See my destination, see my destination there tonight"
Thought about shooting this in Southend but the trains were on strike so couldn't get there. The Horrors.... the lines above from 'Sea Within a Sea'...are from Southend btw. So was all set to go but then diverted to the local boating lake in Croydon.
A fisherman there when he saw said....'Well never caught much spectacular in this lake but will keep trying now I've seen you wash up!"
The colour of the fabric is other worldly and cannot be captured well on camera. It is pale peach with a bronzey lilac two tone, and so shimmery in the sun it reflects much light. It would go very well with salmon entree and a fizzy peach bellini ! You'd probably give the elderly navy blazers at the yacht club a bit of a heart attack if you wore your bikini top (recommend a deep teal or purple for contrast) and long gloves on the terrace. But they'd die happy seeing a bit of true glamour back in life ...hell they knew that once upon a time back in the day. Enough with the utilitarian oppression! Glamour is power!
“I design clothes because I don’t want women to look all innocent and naïve… I want woman to look stronger… I don’t like women to be taken advantage of… I don’t like men whistling at women in the street. I think they deserve more respect. I like men to keep their distance from women, I like men to be stunned by an entrance"
"Fashion should be a form of escapism, and not a form of imprisonment"
"The world needs fantasy not reality....we have enough reality today"
If you appreciate these words of wisdom from Alexander McQueen....you are ready to rock this skirt. Take a bottle of champagne to the brutalist sea wall at the Tate Modern at Margate, strike some poses and give the people some real Art to feast their eyes on there's sod all of interest inside heh heh. Let your bad self go....
It's a size UK 10. Has an optional cummerbund affair that ties at the back in a bow should you wish.