Personalities in fashion

Press, 7 April 1979, Page 17

Personalities in fashion

The Women We Wanted To Look Like. By Brigid Keenan. Macmillan. 224 pp. $19.50. (Reviewed by Leone Stewart) Fashion cannot be forced on anyone, according" to Brigid Keenan, who ought to know. Ms Keenan has had an illustrious career in fashion journalism, beginning as editor of “Young Fashions” for the "Sunday Times,” London, in 1961.

She was assistant editor of the liberated, innovative women’s magazine, “Nova,” and recently retired as beauty and fashion editor ot the “Sunday Times,” London. Her expose in “The Women We Wanted to Look Like” proves her point that the ways of fashion are both perverse and unpredictable. It also demonstrates that the power of personality, plus some shrewd promotion, can be more forceful than the dictates of fashion designers. Of course, the greats, such as Coco Chanel, prove the exception. Madame Chanel is one of the extraordinary personalities, with talent to match, who adorn this glossy complement to Georgina Howell’s “In Vogue.”

Many of them, the early entrants on the best-dressed lists, the socialites, the grand hostesses, the glamorous actresses, seem mere creatures of curiosity now. Is it simply nostalgia, or a dire sign that our civilisation is crumbling around us, with nothing but uncertainty ahead, that in the 1970 s we seem so keen to explore the influences that have shaped our feminine image? For those who wish to press on into a brave new world of real equality for women al! this going back to the indolent glamour of the twenties and thirties may be depressing. But Ms Keenan has a light, brisk, journalistic way with words. Her survey ot the forces that women have imitated, admired, and envied is always entertaining, and often informative. I do not suppose it matters a jot, but did you know that the famous society hairdresser, Antoine, invented hair lacquer? He did it to fix the complicated hair styles he devised for the famous, sometimes infamous, fancy-dress balls of the mad 19205. It was a discovery he later came to regret when he saw its indiscriminate use.

They are all there, these women we

wanted to look like: the daffy debs; the painted and peroxided movie queens; the bohemians such as Juliette Greco who did not give a damn; the super-successful models. From Gladys Cooper to Bianca Jagger, it is a fascinating collection. The sociological study that goes with it, on how black became beautiful, and on when the body was bared for all to admire, seems even more interesting and — dare we say it? — relevant to us right now. The author must be indebted to Ms Howell’s research, particularly in the earlier chapters which come rather too close to a rehash of the opening gambit of “In Vogue.” However, this is a less scholarly work that Ms Howell’s treatise. Brigid Keenan is at her best discoursing on the fashion influences of the last 20 years with which she has lived and been a part. The black-and-white and colour photographs, contributed by the outstanding names of fashion photography, are superb. They are matched by the stylishness of the book’s production. But where, one ponders, will it all end? Will women ever want to look just like themselves?