An Evening of Pure Fantasy

Last night I indulged in one of my guilty pleasures – watching the yearly Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show.  And while the garments are certainly not of the same excellence, the deconstructed quality of the outfits (underwear worn as outerwear) remind me of Dior’s Fall 2009 Couture Collection.   

Images from Style.com

Images from Style.com

Images from Style.com

Images from Style.com

Quite a few pieces in the collection have always reminded me of Eliza Doolittle at the Ascot Races gone wild. 

And while Victoria’s Secret lingerie is by no means couture, the designs are tremendous and each is a pure flight of fancy.

Angels Aquatic from the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show 2011

This look was one of my favorites, and with a bit of an underlining for added modesty, one of the few looks of the evening that could actually be worn in real life without getting arrested for indecent exposure.  

Angels Aquatic from the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show 2011

I can picture Veronica Lake wearing it, or any other starlet from the Golden Age of Hollywood.  

It actually looks like a cross between Marlene Dietrich’s beaded cabaret gown designed by Jean Louis and Ginger Roger’s feathered confection.

Or how about Marilyn in Some Like it Hot?  

And that crystal crown would be perfect for Esther Williams, the Million Dollar Mermaid.

While I have a real problem with 15 year old girls getting paid to wear nothing more than their skivvies in front of the entire world, the fashion design and work put into this event is incredible.  The creativity is truly astounding.  And entire articles devoted to the fact that Adriana does not eat solid food for days and does not drink water for 12 hours prior towalking down the runway – gross – well, I choose to look beyond that (as I hope every young girl does, yeah right) and enjoy the clothing itself, not the bizarre bodies of the models!  And did you notice the shots of the men in the audience ogling the basically naked women – a bit off-putting, don’t you think?  So let’s ignore the models and their bodies and their strange dietary idiosyncrasies and the rest of it and focus on the clothes/fashion.

Some of the outfits are totally ridiculous, but the corsets, beading, bows, spangles, not to mention the creative talent would be right at home on the stage of The Ziegfeld Follies.  

Victoria's Secret Fashion Show 2011

Instead of fantastic headdresses (don’t get me started on the awful messy hair) the girls wear wings. 

Victoria's Secret Fashion Show 2011, Ballet Collection

Victoria's Secret Fashion Show 2011, Ballet Collection

While researching a role a few years back, I read that Ziegfeld required that his girls’ hip measurement be 2” larger than their bust.  Now, I would hazard a guess that not a single Victoria’s Secret Angel fits those requirements, but 100 years later we are still watching scantily clad women parade about on stage.  Go figure, right?

And don’t think that I was sitting at the television the entire time.  Each commercial break I would run to the sewing room to cut into my new wool coating.  There is nothing like a bit of creative inspiration to motivate me.

And now I believe I will go and eat a big bowl of pasta on behalf of those deprived models – because I can!