The Good Life

Return to Article

Fashion Turns Over a New Leaf

Eric Gillin

Turn over a new leaf this autumn.

The fall fashion winds are blowing toward baroque and romantic 1920s-era styles -- a funky, vintage look that's a 180-degree turn from the austere black simplicity that's been in vogue for the last decade. For both men and women, luxurious layers will be used to fight chills while accessories and fine details, like buttons and brooches, will add a personal wrinkle.

Browns, tans, greens and even purple will be the new blacks, with autumn's sartorial sensibility all about being "up" -- covered up, dressed up and grown up. Designers have ditched cotton jerseys for professorial tweed. Belly-baring shirts and cleavage cuts have been pushed aside in favor of cute cardigan sets and conservative lines. Once again, nightclubs and conference rooms are very different places.

This week's Good Life tackles the autumnal majesty of fall fashion, a primer on what you'll see in stores and why everyone's buying it.

Suit Yourself

Dressing up for work is not a new trend, but this season's suits are a compromise between the boxy return-to-form of the last two years and the "casual Fridays forever" mentality of the dot-com era. Expect to see a softer silhouette that, to some, may seem more at home in rumpled academia than a shark-infested boardroom. But the form had the change to become more functional -- people hit the gym at lunch, so much of the padding needed to fill out a suit is natural. Cuts are changing accordingly.

This new ethos in suit-making is embodied in Giorgio Armani's fall line. The designer has two new jackets: a "George" jacket, which is cut with higher armholes and uses less shoulder padding to provide a more fluid look, and a "Beckham" jacket, named for the English soccer player, which costs $1,095 and is crafted from soft wools, so it's even more unstructured and loose. Some of Armani's new jackets are so light, they're almost sweaters.

The look, first unveiled on the runways nine months ago and hitting stores now, is certainly not for everyone -- but the overall aesthetic for fall is a bit more relaxed and a bit more buttoned up. Ermenegildo Zegna, which has been making a power play for young customers with new pitchman Adrien Brody, has firmer, structured jackets in a variety of classic styles. The label's suits start at $1,250, come expertly tailored and can be custom fit.

When it comes to buttons, the best things come in threes. Four-button suit coats favored by former pro football players are obnoxious and passe, while the double-breasted, pinstriped mobster look is rather severe, given this year's return to clothes that drape instead of redefine. Hugo Boss' colorful, slightly mod-inspired fall line features a number of nice two-button suits, as does Perry Ellis, but for the most part, three is the magic number.

Unlike men, who likely will be uniformed in matching pants and jackets, women will be able to mix and match this season. Eclecticism and antique touches are all the rage, placing pencil skirts with jackets and dressy trousers with button-ups and a brooch. Ralph Lauren -- always a good example of classic Americana -- has some nice examples, pairing a vintage-inspired $1,298 wool-and-cashmere herringbone jacket with an $898 tiered skirt, crafted from six layers of paisley printed silk fringe.

The Shirt on Your Back

After a dalliance with diagonal stripes, the fashion world has gone vertical again. Bold stripes, especially variegated patterns, continue to dominate with plaids and checks rounding out the rack. As with the patterns, the colors remain brash and sturdy.

Tommy Hilfiger, who has made the colorful asymmetrical stripe something of a trademark over the last few seasons, sits on the radical end of the shirt spectrum. Although not quite as wild as British designer Paul Smith, Hilfiger makes statements in both color and pattern, offering $70 plaid shirts that have no fewer than seven colors. The fall line of shirts ranges between $60 and $70 and is unrestrained, aimed at a hipster clientele unafraid to wear screaming purples and reds.

Ralph Lauren treads the middle ground, using dashes of color to complement the company's classic line of embroidered pinpoint oxfords. As with Hilfiger, Lauren offers checks, plaids, stripes and even a herringbone pattern, but the line's boldest fall statements are made by a hot-purple broadcloth dress shirt for $69.50 and a shirt with a haberdashery-inspired orange check pattern for $75.

On the more conservative end of the spectrum, once again, is Ermenegildo Zegna, whose fall dress shirts are a melange of low-voltage colors, restrained patterns and classic tailoring. Unlike others, Zegna has resisted the trend toward asymmetry and continues to craft shirts from regulation stripes that would make a mathematician proud. Shirts start around $200, but as with Zegna's suits, they're well made, guaranteed to look good and will stay stylish over the next few years.

Tweedledum, Tweedledee

After years of smooth wools and pinstripes in sleek, ultramodern shapes, designers are looking to fabrics that have more texture, history and character this fall. Enter tweed. Strange as it seems, tweed is hip again.

The fabric will be everywhere this fall, but in leaner and cleaner blended wools, unlike the lumpy, itchy tweeds that tend to smell like a wet dog after a few seasons of use. The tweed offerings for men will be limited to standard jackets and trousers, but women will find it in everything from handbags to dresses. The fabric was a cornerstone of Louis Vuitton's fall women's line and featured in a number of looks, including a dramatic wool tweed coat that served as the collection's signature piece.

Tweed isn't just lighter -- it's more colorful, too. Nanette Lepore has a navy tweed jacket with black satin accenting for $438, with a matching pencil skirt for $196. Albert Nipon features a red-and-white, three-piece tweed suit for $500 that's a throwback to the days when Jackie O was best known for pillbox hats and the color pink. And Theory has a bright green, chunky box tweed for $490 that's about as far from grandpa's closet as you can get.

The trend toward feminine tweed has moved downmarket as well -- the Gap doesn't even offer any tweed in its men's line, but has a lightweight, knee-length, wool-blend tweed skirt for $48 and a very 1950s looking tweed shift dress in a conservative A-line shape for $68.

The Season in Gloves and Scarves

This season, accessories are important, but especially when the weather grows chilly enough to require them. Gloves and scarves are a must.

Leather gloves are an autumn wardrobe staple, but this year, they're more than just five fingers and a palm. Driving gloves, the kind worn by those English road racers of yesteryear, are the hot men's item. Alfred Dunhill -- the British label that first began making gear for auto aficionados in the 1890s -- has a pair of black lamb nappa driving gloves that are a true representation of the classic. If you're looking for something a bit warmer, Coach offers a cashmere-lined driving glove in brown for $148.

The sporty driving glove is being pitched to women as well, but designers have gone in the other direction, returning to more feminine and graceful gloves that end between the middle and the point of the elbow. These new offerings -- usually leather -- come in a rainbow of colors, from hunter green to violet, with linings crafted from silk, cashmere or even fur, which is making a comeback as well. Gucci's fall glove retails for $245 and is made from supple black leather and lined in matching black cashmere. It ends at the elbow and is cinched at the wrist to keep hands warm. If a shorter glove is preferable, Coach makes a stylish silk-lined model for $138 that comes in aubergine and features a thick, violet leather cuff that ends just past the wrist.

As they say, the classics never go out of style. The same can be said of the Burberry scarf, whose patented tan-and-black-and-red plaid pattern has surged in popularity over the last five years. Instead of producing more of the same, Burberry's trademark cashmere muffler, which is 54 inches by 12 inches and costs $225, now comes in pink, purple, turquoise, blue or charcoal. If a scarf just won't cut it, consider a larger cashmere poncho, which is the hot trend this fall. Burberry has a sharp black-and-white number in merino wool for $440.

Don't Fall Too Hard

As any yard sale can attest, today's fashionable flares eventually become tomorrow's bell-bottomed atrocity. To spend money wisely and stay in style longer, be sure to add seasonal elements selectively and avoid trendy extremes, like that all-tweed three-piece suit with matching hat. Don't overdo it, but get ready -- this fall it's time to kiss black goodbye.