--DESPERATE ROMANTICS--

I often think about which period of history I would choose to be reborn in, if I had the choice. Roman comes out top quite a lot of the time, probably because they were actually fairly advanced in their knowledge of sanitation etc.; however, on days when I'm in a less practical mood I swing from Tudor times all the way through to the early nineteenth century-purely because of the amazing dresses women wore back then. The floaty white dresses of Austen fame, with pastel coloured ribbons around the empire line and lace fripperies everywhere, tend to win over the heavy brocade contraptions of earlier centuries-how amazing would it be to wander around like a wood nymph the whole time with gauzy skirts brushing your legs?

There have been a lot of long white dresses around recently-Rodarte A/W '10 anyone?-which makes me mildly jealous towards the people who get to wear them, but also just gives me a little happy glow inside. I love it when fashion veers towards good old period costume. There was a fair amount of criticism about the latest Dior couture collection, for example, which was rather on the costumey side, but personally I don't think it has any basis-no, there aren't people who wear that kind of stuff any more, but if couture moved with the times as ready-to-wear has done then a whole arc of craftsmanship and imagination would be completely lost. Some things have to look backwards instead of forwards, even in the crazily future-orientated fashion world.

1. Timothy Barnes

2. Susan Eldridge

3. Rony Shram

4. Lauren Ward

5. Laura Sciacovelli

6. ?
7. Josh Olins

8. ?

9. Henrik Bulow

10. Guy Aroch

11. David Bellemere

12. Chris Nicholls

13. Alix @ The Cherry Blossom Girl

14. Camilla Akrans

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