Let's admit it - at this time of year all we really want to do is have some fun. As we imagine our mailboxes filled with party invitations to chase away the winter blues, the question arises: what to wear in the midst of all this merrymaking? When our spirits most need a lift, just any old frock won't do. We need to find something perfect, something fabulous, something divine, before we can kick up our dancing shoes and hit the party circuit.
In search of the perfect party wear, I decided to visit two fashionistas on Park, Phyllis Thompson, SM '96, and Rob Haskell, MC '96. Both have a style that successfully bridges the classic and the novel, with wardrobes spanning these two extremes.
"You can never have too many hats, gloves, or shoes," Rob tells me, martini in hand, as he sits in Phyllis' apartment. "It's a line from The Women, but it's true."
Rob should know; he recently went for a look that can only be described as mad Chanel - black shirt and pants topped with fur Chanel scarf and hat, a gold-chained fur Chanel muff, and Chanel sunglasses. "The turtleneck and pants were from Gap. We got the black faux fur hat with the camellia in Chinatown. Everything else was real. It was a parody of excess. Thank God I was able to borrow everything for the evening."
Tonight Rob is wearing all synthetics - polyester shirt, nylon pants, and vinyl jacket. "These pants are by a small designer in New York. I like to support new designers who are kind of eccentric." What are Rob's favorite stores in New York? "If, Untitled, and Steven Allen," he tells me. "Really, though, it's all about fitted clothes. I mean, the most exciting part of a man's pants is from the thigh up. That's where the fit is important no matter how the legs are cut."
What are Rob's fashion secrets? "The most important things are accessories. You can be dressed in tatters if you have nice accessories. A belt from Hermès is classic. It says that you've been around the block - stylistically speaking, of course."
As soon as I tell Phyllis that I want to look at her closet, she becomes coquettish, to the great amusement of her friends.
"Show him the dog collar," her friend Danielle says.
Phyllis begrudgingly lets me paw through her closet, in which I find a beautiful black velvet with gold brocade dress, a summer hat fitting of Holly Golightly ("I got it in Florence - I had to carry it on my lap all the way home on the plane."), and, lo and behold, a yellow rubber skirt purchased under my advisement at New York's Trash and Vaudeville. Phyllis admits that her personal tastes run to black, ivory, and brown, with some red thrown in for color. "Those colors are classic. They're all I ever pack when I go on a trip. One can't go wrong mixing them up."
How is her closet organized? "I organize mine by color and category," Phyllis tells me, with more than a hint of self-consciousness. And her favorite find? "My camel coat. Much better than anything you can get from Prada - fitted waist, full skirt - from the ASPCA thrift store in Maine."
At a recent party, Phyllis wore a floor-length black velvet dress with a slit up the back ("Vintage," she tells me - I never would have guessed). Armed with a cigarette holder, black Egyptian cigarettes with gold filters, false eyelashes, and an ever-full martini, Phyllis enjoyed herself in true diva style. Who are her style idols, I ask, expecting to hear a roster of screen stars. "My aunts," she says sweetly, pulling out a picture, "and my grandmother. The 1940s was the era to live in."
I ask Phyllis how she prepares for a party. "First," her boyfriend Alex tells me, "she packs twenty-three pounds of make-up. Last weekend, she took her entire make-up drawer and dumped it into a big duffel bag."
"That and the black dress section of my closet," Phyllis chimes in.
Can Phyllis and Rob sum up their fashion philosophy in a few words? "Fashion is all about attitude," Phyllis says. "It's an interesting diversion, but I think that some days one should have the freedom simply not to care."
"You don't need a lot of money to look good," Rob says. "You just need to know where to shop."
Any final words from this duo? "Buy a lot that's classic and a little that's outrageous."
Copyright 1995, The Yale Herald, Inc. All rights reserved.
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