Looks of Love, The : 50 Moments in Fashion That Inspired Romance

332 Pages·2015·55.07 MB·English

by  Rubenstein

DEDICATION
For David.
His is my favorite look of love, ever.
Lucky me.
CONTENTS
Dedication
Introduction
50 Moments in Fashion That Inspired Romance
Where Do You Begin?
Grunge’s Royal Couple
What to Wear in Paradise
Buying Into Her Reality
Love in Death
An Intimate Dinner for Five Hundred
Ah . . . The Smell of It
Stuck in the Garden
Love Flirts
Stairway to Heaven
Designer Clothes Make the Man
Donna Karan’s Big Love
Simply Irresistible
Pay Attention to the Girls Behind the Curtain!
Love’s Not Wasted On the Young
Baby, Don’t Go
Love is Color–Blind
Long After the Camellias Have Faded
Going My Way
Fights in Bright Satin
I Love the Way you Lie
Ain’t Life Swell?
Her Very First Time
What I Did for Love
Class Gone in a Flash
The Great Fake-Out at Versailles
Death Becomes Her
I’m so Into Your Earrings
Don’t Quit Your Day Job
We All Want to Be Sasha Fierce
In Praise of Older Women
You Don’t Remember This
Veiled References
Thank Heaven for Little Girls
Get Me to the Church Somehow
When You Wish Upon A Bra
Batting .000
We Loved You, Yeah, Yeah, Yeah
Leaps of Faith
Lucy is Enceinte
Dancing With Mommy
Close Your Eyes and Think of Me
Here Comes the Bride—Again
Blown Away
Hats Off to Bette
The Last Dance
Like the Bahamian Sun
Family Ties
Her One and Only
Destination: Unforgettable
Acknowledgments
Select Bibliography
About the Author
Credits
Copyright
About the Publisher
INTRODUCTION
Y
ears ago, my parents and I were together at a family wedding. I hadn’t seen
my father in a few weeks and though we talked every day, he wanted to hear
about everything I was doing, face-to-face. It didn’t matter that my sideburns
had already turned partially silver. To him, I would always be that kid on the
tricycle, and to be honest, I kind of liked it that way. Plus, his ever-fervent
interest never failed to make me happy and feel loved. As we were speaking, my
mother walked by, wearing an organza gown with an impressive neckline for a
woman in her early sixties, and a bell skirt that attracted attention in a lush,
vintage gold, blue, and brown floral print. She looked lovely, and I wasn’t the
only one who thought so. My father gazed at her the way he continuously had
for more than fifty years, as if he couldn’t believe how he had wound up the
luckiest guy on earth. He remained staring, straining his neck for one last
glimpse, as if she were leaving on an extended trip, until finally she disappeared
into a gathering of guests. When he turned back toward me, his smile was shy
and his eyes were both glittering and searching, because in looking at her he’d
completely lost his train of thought. “What the hell were we talking about?” he
asked as he blushed in embarrassment. I was delighted, and I was used to it.
Because it happened all the time.
I am my father’s son, and that makes me a fool for love in all its forms and
guises—whether directed toward a person, a city, a movement, or even an ideal
—because of the unmatchable power romance possesses to engage us, to make
us go to extremes, and to alter our reality.
The Looks of Love: 50 Moments in Fashion That Inspired Romance is a
cavalcade of grand passions that opened our eyes; jump-started our senses; threw
us way off the rails; shocked, teased, titillated, amused, horrified, or dazzled us
enough to generate shifts in our social interactions; irrevocably modified our
dating habits, even influenced how and whom we chose to marry. The book
delves into films that offer embraces and entrances we won’t ever forget,
highlights others that remind us how ardor can be one heartbreak away from
insanity, and celebrates those that surprised us with bold approaches toward sex,
the power of women, the vulnerability of men, and other fresh stances for each
gender to try on for size. Of course, some movies are here simply because
they’re meant to be swooned over, since at some point, everyone has dreamed of
falling in love “the way they do in the movies.”
Courtesy Hal Rubenstein.
Television may now have an even greater influence on affecting morals and
behavior in everyday life, so in this book there are some of the shows and series
that became appointment television, either because the relationships portrayed
operated at a level of such heightened reality and mercurial lust that we could
relish them as primers of inappropriate conduct, or because they were as
enlightening as they were entertaining in revealing an acute awareness of the
challenges and expectations we now encounter in facing marriage, friendship,
separation, or loss.
Naturally, how can you thrill to a first date, a first kiss, a wedding, a
midnight tryst, or a hot seduction on a dance floor if you don’t dress the part?
The clothes actors wore to cast their spells on and off the screen, the garments
advertisers chose to outfit models in so we’d crave their products, the dresses
veiled brides donned to walk down the aisle, and best of all, the looks brilliantly
inspired designers sent down runways to offer us new visions of beauty are
literally the uncommon threads that are woven through The Looks of Love. Here
are the women who were courted wearing smart berets paired with maxi skirts or
the soigné swirl of a bias-cut dress. Others unleashed tempestuous emotions
accented by piles of teased tresses atop buttress-padded shoulders or to the
syncopated rhythm of beaded, blond cornrows. There are men we adored who
were oh-so-preppy, and some of the sharpest were natty, thanks to Savile Row.
One man only selected suits from a Milanese designer who changed menswear
forever, and then there’s a singular star who wore a leather jacket men and
women just keep right on buying because no one has ever looked cooler than he
did.
Courtesy Hal Rubenstein.
I know how ridiculously blessed I am to have had the parents I did, to
witness and learn firsthand how much richer life becomes when feelings aren’t
suppressed, when humor and intelligence are sources of sexual attraction, if
constant agreement isn’t a requirement for happiness, and when you know
looking your best for someone else isn’t superficial at all—it’s a total rush. But
my folks were just one couple. Recognizing the rarity of their relationship is
what’s always stoked my curiosity to seek other sources and discover whom,
what, and where people have turned to become activated, elevated, or decimated
by their emotions and urges. Evidently I’m not alone, because it’s remarkable
how intimately so many of us have been affected by the moments chronicled and
remembered in this book.
My hope is that The Looks of Love educates and excites you, makes you
smile as you recall the past, and allows you to go forward just a wee bit more
aware of why we love, how we love, and whom we love. I’d be proud if you find
something in these pages that will nudge you, whether it’s today or sometime in
the near future, into gazing upon the person with whom you’ve chosen to share a
life with a look something akin to the way my father used to look at my mother.
Life offers many choices, but when in doubt, I’ll take romance every time. —
H.R.