Women in Red

As the New Year's Eve celebrations are usually associated with the colour red, I would like to talk about the clothes in red or crimson in this post. Before moving to examples from runways, I just want to start with a red dress that I very much like. In fact it is my favorite in this post

The most striking aspect of the dress is certainly its skirt with its numerous leaf-like folds. The thin yellow stripes at the edges of the folds enhance the look, give a delicate appearance to the dress like the petals of a flower. And the flower connection also fits into the green background that reminds me of lush green grass. The ribbons and embroidery at the body of the dress are beautiful, too. The model's pose, deep in thought, enhances the sensualty of the image. This gorgeous dress deserves another look.:

Now, let us see Linda Evangelista in a red gown from Valentino's 1987 collection:

Red hair suits Linda well indeed! She reminds me of Milla Jovovich in the movie The Fifth Element. Move 20 years forward and have a look at Linda in a haute couture dress by Dior.

The purple-blue-bordeaux-red colour harmony is splendid. At first sight I found the crimson red gloves a bit odd since they looked more showy and less elegant than the colour of the dress, but thinking again I admit I was wrong.

 

I would like to talk about an Indian bride gown. This glaring red bride's dress is dazzling with its golden lace and semi-precious stone embrodiery. In fact, the bride's gown is red in our (Turkish) tradition, too. Likewise it has lots of embrodiery and it definitely includes "bride's golden filament." Nowadays white gowns are in fashion, following the European influence but this ancient custom is resisting in the form of a red ribbon that is tied over the white gown. I think a red ribbon is a bad compromise, it is better not to have any reds in a bride's gown if it is not drenched in red.

The harmony of red and golden colours in the following outfit from Dior's 1990 collection inspires an association in me with the Indian bride's dress above. Though a closer look reveals that the texture of the fabric of the jacket and the skirt is very different; the fine red-pink knobs are made from velvet or a woolen fabric, but then such misalignments may happen in an inspiration. (In fact, I remember another haute couture dress that is more reminiscent of this Indian dress, but I could not find it. Let me have a look around, I might stumble upon it, hopefully soon...)

We see another red gown from Dior's 1992 collection, this time on Helena Barquilla. The embrodiery on the dress and the golden detail at the breast cleavage look great. When I take into account all the outfits I have presented above, I come to the following conclusion. Red is such an outstanding and attention-grabbing colour that while embrodiery and golden lace are normally considered to add some flare to outfits in other colours, when red is the main colour, these embellishments work towards balancing the severity of red's purity.  

I would like to conclude this post with a crimson ensemble Eugenia Volodina presented in the Valentino Fall-Winter 2004 fashion show.

Though her shoes are not visible at all, she is immersed in red from head to toe, except the shoes. The skirt of the gown embellished with ruffles is delightful, but I am still thinking about the red flower in the first image above! The beaded embrodiery extends down like a feather and it's a fine detail. Of course, the fur stole gracing Eugenia's shoulders, made from dyed fox fur is dazzling. While the satin-silk fabric of the dress reflects light in a shiny way, the fur stole's softness is apparent from the distinct way it reflects light. For that reason it looks as if its colour is slightly lighter than that of the dress. The fur has its own texture, which leaves a distinct imprint even when dyed to a uniform colour

The opaque, android looks of these Slavic women (and of men too!) are killing me! When one's gaze is moved from the crimson red fires of the dress to Eugenia's eyes, it has a chilling effect...

When all the pictures in this post are taken into consideration, an interesting but tentative result emerges: With the exception of the first dress, none of the models were blond! While Linda makes me think that red looks too exaggerated on redheads (keeping in mind the fact that the clothes were haute couture, hence exaggeration their part and parcel), it seems as if red looks best on dark haired beauties. Well, it's not without reason that Spanish and Gypsy women are reknown for their love of the red dress!

So, did you like this selection of red-crimson outfits I have presented above? (Clue: If you liked it, there will be more!)