Most women shed their ruffly party frocks by the age of 12 (the frilly bat mitzvah? Quelle horreur!). This season, however—and looking forward to the Spring and Pre-Fall collections—the ruffle is the game-changing flourish on dresses, sleeves, and even otherwise sedate trousers. It adds softness to tailoring, movement to minimalist offerings, and always, always a sense of charm and drama, which is essential to survive the holidays. Here, Vanessa Axente shows how easy it is to be both fabulously frilly and unfathomably fashionable.
Holiday Dressing’s New Frilly Secret!
Nine ways to wear ruffles right now . . . and look surprisingly modern day and night.
For the edgy flirt, the leather ruffle as dropped sleeve. Good across the table on a really hot Boxing Day brunch date.
How to get the most use from your flouncy Gucci confection of a dress? Forgo the tights and add architectural curves and swells with cropped flares and deconstructed bell sleeves.
You’ll wear this tank with slim trousers or neat capris. You’ll wear this skirt with a soft blouse or cashmere knit. Or you’ll put them together for maximum, voluminous fun.
Fluttery strawberry organza over nude and blush organza: Two very pretty and girly pieces are the epitome of grown-up elegance when layered and then paired with a flat boot.
A gentle dress sometimes requires a hit of white leather and bold graphics. How to look frilly, not fluffy, in a jiffy.
The great charm of these two pieces—one a slip, the other a diaphanous muumuu—is that together they make no sense yet total sense. You will always feel happy and pretty in these clothes . . . and that is the whole point of getting dressed, no?
Lettuce-edged knit, tiered silk, flanged trousers: Three brilliant new pieces to wear together or separately through August (and look utterly chic at all times). Investment dressing redefined.
Frills top to bottom and a ball skirt for a bustle. New Year’s Eve, solved.
Ruffles!
Hair: Braydon Nelson; Makeup: Jen Myles; Manicure: Geraldine Holford
Music: “Chinese Dance” from The Nutcracker by Tchaikovsky