Jacques-Henri Lartigue saw the stif, starchy fashions of the tens and early twenties swept away. This wasn’t the hippy revolution of the 60’s or the punk rebellion of the 70’s. No, this was the world of the hedonistic bright young things described in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s ‘Tender is the Night’.
The book’s protagonists, Dick and Nicole Diver were based partly on Fitzgeralds themselves, and partly on the legendary Murphys, Gerald and Sara, who set the tone for the whole of modern society. All of them despised stufy, formal fashions as much as they despised stufy, formal behaviour. Though even the Murphys were said to be a little unnerverved by the Fitzgeralds’ habit of ending their evenings by diving into the sea from thirty-five-foot rocks fully clothed in evening dress.
What kind of evening dress would that have been? Sleek, glamorous, modern for sure, it had to be something along the lines of Max Mara’s 2023 Tuxedo Collection, which features a broad streak of that jazz age chic.
In perennial black and white there are sleekly tailored tuxedo suits, of course, one of which, in fluid charmeuse wraps and the new tuxedo dress with a riviera silhouette created by graduated shine-on-matte godets.
The newest idea of all is the introduction of jewel–like colours; start with a classic tailored tux in vibrant cyclamen. Progress to tailored organza in electrifying cobalt blue. Consider a floor sweeping sunray pleated dress or combinaison in sultry sunset orange with hemlines that swirl and eddy like the deep blue Mediterranean sea.
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