By, Jan Shure
2 min read
By, Jan Shure
It was Valentino’s signature colour; Vivienne Westwood almost invariably uses it somewhere in each collection (one of her ready-to-wear ranges is called Red Label); the high street’s newest superstar James Lakeland never fails to put at least a half-dozen red pieces into each line; and Alexander McQueen’s autumn 09 collection for Dior, Karl Lagerfeld’s for Chanel and wunderkind Frida Giannini’s for Gucci, all prominently featured red.
Red Carpet has become a metaphor for glamorous dressing, and red is the colour of blood, the colour of passion and even a stimulant — studies show that it can increase the rate of respiration and raise blood pressure.
So it is hardly surprising that if you really want to inject some va va voom into your winter wardrobe, a flash of red is the way to do it. It could be a statement piece like a red coat or a red dress, or a top, cardi or skirt. But if even a red skirt or cardi feels excessive, a red handbag, bold necklace, cuff or chunky, cable-knit scarf, can add voltage to an all-black outfit — though not all at once; far too matchy-matchy.
For the current season, red was a statement colour for designers, from the darling of Paris, Alber Elbaz at Lanvin, who did a sublime collarless belted coat in red washed felt; to our own Nicole Farhi, whose clever, covetable autumn collection included a slouchy, red tweed overcoat, a drop-dead simple pillar-box red shift dress with draped skirt and — for those a bit phobic about all-over-red — the season’s absolute must-have accessory, elbow-length leather gloves… in scarlet.
