MANILA, Philippines - On Instagram, my YStyle cohort Celine Lopez posted a photo of a first edition Catcher in the Rye.
“I’ll take the Olympia Le Tan clutch edition,” I commented.
“And who’s the ditz now?” she sassily replied.
“Ditz?” I typed furiously on my iPhone while waiting for the light to change on a Sydney sidewalk. “It’s fashion, gurl!”
And right about now fashion’s love affair with the bookish, the wellread and the librarian is at its zenith.
Le Tan, who gained notoriety for her book cover clutches — hand-sewn gems retailing for well over a thousand dollars — was one of the first to capitalize on the trend. Her ready-to-wear collection, debuted on models styled like Bettie Page, are a cheeky homage to the librarian, albeit with a fetishistic dash that’s not unappealing.
Le Tan’s coveted clutches (available waiting list on Net-a-Porter) subvert the norm, proving that these cozy, felted, hand-stitched morsels aren’t for the dowdy. Brit artist Inge Jacobsen’s take on the trend is to stitch pornographic outlines of unclad female figures over tear sheets from magazines, like YSL ads.
The pin-up librarian, object of fantasy, source of inspiration, has returned to the runway. This time sharply dressed and aggressively accessorized.
Simmering under all that tightly-buttoned, starched prim garb is a fetishist’s dream: Agent Provocateur corset and musky Tom Ford fragrance.
No longer the mousy wallflower, the librarian is strikingly singular, empowered and more than a little sexy.
Beauty Note
Known for its retro-chic packaging, French cosmetic label T. Le Clerc owes its prowess in the makeup field to its origins in the pharmaceutical industry, under the helm of Theophile Le Clerc in 1818. Today, the label’s fall 2012 collection is a paean to the Bettie Page in all of us, with smokey eyeshadow in a rich dark pigment with subtle glitter, evoking the deep night. Dark rouge lips and T. Le Clerc’s new chip-resistant Gloss Nails with ultra-shine finish in Fusion (a pearly silver brown) complete the sexy librarian homage.
The collection debuts next month at Rustan’s Makati, Shangri-La and Alabang.
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Contact Adrienne Almeda of Ienne Minaudiè res at (0916) 327-3767 and ienne.minaudieres@gmail.com