On The Radar - This Week: Joan Of Arc Dressing

The Sunday Age

Sunday October 14, 2007

Rachel Wells

Who would have thought, asks Rachel Wells, that a cross-dressing heroine with a penchant for armour could be a 21st-century fashion icon?

Joan of Arc might be a unlikely fashion muse but this season references to the French heroine come thick and fast. It all started in Paris just over a year ago when John Galliano turned a Christian Dior haute couture show into a battleground of models dressed as knights in shining armour.

Some wore luxurious gold satin evening gowns accessorised with gleaming metal armour sleeves. Others, copper sequined dresses complete with metal breast plates.

There were embroidered tabard-style jackets, helmets encrusted with jewels, gilded chain mail leggings and jackets with spaulder-style shoulders - an obvious nod to medieval warrior women.

Since then, the Joan of Arc references have trickled through to the ready-to-wear collections and beyond. At Burberry, for winter, there were armour-inspired metal-sequined shift dresses, and coats and knits with highlight chain mail sleeves. In New York last month, Vera Wang trimmed collars and bibs with highlight metal and draped gold chain mail over jersey tops and dresses. In Milan, there were heavy, metal-studded trims at John Richmond and DSquared2; and in Paris this month, we saw metal studs and paillettes and armour-like silhouettes at Dice Kayek.

Closer to home, Joan of Arc references come in more wearable - and somewhat less intimidating - forms. Body armour is replaced with hard-edged details such as metal-studded, sequined chain mail and bejewelled trims on collars, busts and sleeves.

It's a look that has filtered down from ready-to-wear designer brands such as Nicholson and Elsom to high-street stores including Witchery, Country Road and Sussan.

And while a woman burned at the stake for - among other things - dressing like a man might be an unlikely style muse, we shouldn't be so surprised. Joan of Arc has long been referenced and celebrated in literature, art and film, and when you think about it, it was only ever going to be a matter of time before we started dressing as if we were ready to take on the English army.

In fact, in the nonsensical world of fashion, it's probably more surprising that it took so long - almost 600 years, in fact.

STOCKISTS

Country Road 1800 801 911

Elsom (02) 9011 7490

Nicholson 9824 4311

Sussan 1800 035 373

© 2007 The Sunday Age

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