Want to win friends and influence people? Go out and get yourself a jumpsuit.
The term “style icon” is one ripe for examination: Why do we worship others based on their clothes? How deep do these fascinations really go? And what if “icons” aren’t exactly flawless?
Here is the story of our editor:
Last week, I attended to a female writer’s party in a well-furnished home of our literary heroes. Naturally, I fretted over what I was going to wear for a few days before the event. But when I finally chose an outfit, it seemed obvious: a black Steven Alan jumpsuit with sharp shoes and a well-fitting wrap detail around the torso.
It was obvious that this was the right choice for a femme-heavy event because it’s a well established fact that ladies love a jumpsuit. Every time I wear this jumpsuit I get compliments from women. In part that’s because it’s still a little unexpected. Do you remember Emma Stone wore a sparkling Lanvin jumpsuit to “Golden Globes” and social media was speechless about that. It’s chick and sexy without being overtly revealing; in most jumpsuits your legs are covered and your cleavage is obscured. Wearing a jumpsuit says „I’m dressing for myself, not for the male gaze”.
Among my fashionable friends, I’m a little late to the jumpsuit style. For a long time I thought and realized that the human logic is a barrier; namely, how do you pee in it? But honestly, it’s not a big deal to take down the top of your outfit a few times a day. I also worried that the jumpsuits are infantilizing and would make me look like a dumpy toddler. These fears, however, were completely extinguished on the very first time I tried jumpsuit, and I saw that it creates a long and elegant figure.
“I hope they never go out of fashion,” said my friend, lit in jumpsuits. “It dressed from the bottom and somehow it’s not like wearing a dress – even when you dress it up in situations where everyone is casually dressed”. The same friend of mine says that just because overalls are unexpectedly clothing, they are a little more difficult to categorize. If you’re wearing jumpsuit to the informal meeting, it seems like you’re done dressing, but not on the hard way (i.e. – standing in front of the wardrobe and mirror for 5 hours).
“I love that jumpsuits are an easy way to look good”
If you wear it at certain requirements place, you can look as a stylish iconoclast. It can definitely make you feel in unison with this cultural moment in which sexual ambiguity is appreciated, especially in very formal events where all the women are dressed in their traditional dresses. Actually, overalls imply menswear, which is contrary to the boring Hollywood glamour, which occurs more frequently in the traditional black tie.
My mother, who has always been in fashion, was wearing jumpsuits in the 90s. Something in menswear definitely attracted her. “I don’t like fluffy clothes. I don’t think I look good in them. I like strictly clothing” she repeated to me. She wore jumpsuits before, but much more advanced than now. She constantly repeated that she likes to be “slightly” different from the others. I went back in my memories when I hated her jumpsuits and I refused to go out with her in public, when she dressed them, mostly because I was disgusting teenager at that time. My father hated them too. He kept saying to my mother that she looks like someone who works at a gas station.
I recently spoke on the phone with my mother on this topic. The whole time my father shouted in the background: “Nobody looks good in overalls!” which provoked my mother to say: “I’ve never opted clothing because of your father. He has no influence on what I buy or not buy”.
I think jumpsuit holds a special magic, especially, when other women make you so many compliments. Overalls show that you are a woman, which is not influenced by the opinions or views of male community. My friend Nina says: “I wore jumpsuit of a wedding and other women made me feel like a queen!” Compared with women who wear those boring identical bridesmaid dresses, woman dressed in overalls reign as Cleopatra.