Picture Books

The Neiman Marcus Christmas Book arrived today. It's a picture book, and I sat down ready to make jokes about anything St. John, white dresses with black hose, and old lady suits on young models, but those items were pushed aside by costumes that reminded me too much of art, too much of needing to be touched, to poke fun. NOIR designer, Peter Ingwersen, said that the purpose of clothing is for sex. When I look at a slim silk chiffon Marhesa dress in cream with tiny fur cuffs adorned with chrystals, my mind turns to everything tactile - harsh and soft and simple. The same with a DvF tank dress in black velvet with a low, low cut. It's hardly naked; maybe a better invitation. Or the Prada or McQueen offerings in black, which, although always unaffordable, can still service an imagination. How have they learned to style so much material, so much shine and zipper and fluff and collar to conjur up dominatrix? The tops are marmish, the coats too often a joke, but the dresses are probably worth every penny in an Ingwersen sort of way. If I could only think of a way to make animal print go away forever. NOIR is not in the NM catalog. It should be.