I shook my Style File booty at The Roxy in Boston on Friday night. But before I could shake it, I actually had to let it thaw… The Roxy is one of those clubs that feels the need to have a line snaking along outside it, so that is looks all hip and popular. I say if it’s really all that sassy, it shouldn’t need to work so hard to maintain an image.
I went with my friend Nancy and some of her Boston crew, all fashion design majors at MassArt. We were all psyched up, because there was supposed to be a big Dolce and Gabbana fashion show, and I was pumped to do some real fashion coverage. You know what? Two words – lying bastards. But more on that later.
So, my new fashion design friends and I chilled (in more ways than one – oh the humor is lame and painful!) outside for a good 40 minutes before we were let in the door. I was going to pull the whole, ‘Do you KNOW who I am?’ thing, but then I realized that no one knows who I am… so I stood back and eavesdropped on the conversation of these two German guys wearing designer bowling shoes, who were gossiping auf Deutsch.
We got in around 10:45 p.m. and were told the advertised fashion show didn’t start until 12:45, so I had plenty of time to dance, check out bartenders and take notes on the club fashions I saw. It was a very well dressed crowd with a few exceptions. Many of the girls were sporting halter-tops and on-shouldered tanks, with leather pants and skirts with tall boots. Many of the guys were sporting designer duds, though there were quite a few khaki pant-wearing college guys, who seemed to have been dragged in by their girlfriends.
Of course, there were the fiascoes, such as one peach monstrosity… picture if you will a K-Mart purchased, iridescent orange crushed velvet number, complete with Seinfeld’s puffy pirate shirt sleeves, bare midriff and huge flowy bellbottom pants. And to top it off, her blond locks were in a Christina Aguilera at the Grammy’s coif. I know you think I’m lying, and I wish I were… but I have witnesses. Her friend was wearing a gold and black Nanny-esque ensemble that compared to her friend looked matronly and almost classy.
Okay, honestly guys? Girls aren’t wearing that one-shouldered tight white tank top to impress you… it’s so that when they are getting ready in front of their mirror and pumping up the Mystikal, DMX and Brittany, they feel all sass. Oh, and they want to look great because their friends are all doing the exact same thing. I can hear the snorts from the peanut gallery on the campus center couches, but it’s true. Think about it – you go to someone’s birthday party, and it’s the same crowd of kids you’ve been hanging out with for 3 years. Anyone hooking up that night is going to do so because they’ve been dating for two years. So why do the girls still get decked out? Exactly, you have no answer. It’s got nothing to do with the men. I’m not saying that girls aren’t looking for guys, it’s just that guys are not typically the end-all-be-all reason for the hootchie pants and hair straighteners.
That said, back to the club. The bass was pumping, the swirling lights had caused one poor girl to pass out in a corner, and the sweaty bodies were moving to the pulsating music. I was chatting with a head-nodder (a.k.a. one of those guys who lean against the wall all night and never venture to the dance floor), and watched as all the guys on the wall stopped their James Dean ‘whatever’ moves, and checked out a group of girls who had just moved to the dance floor. The girls danced in a little pack, laughing and whispering. Suddenly, from all sides, these guys were slowly surrounding them; there were a good eight or nine guys just chilling around the bevy of sequined girls. The ones that didn’t grab a girl to grind with hung around for a while, circling like vultures, waiting to snag the first girl who ditched a suitor.
It’s true, they were swarming like barracudas. Of course, that’s only around certain Barbie-doll girls, something I’ve only observed while taking notes in the wilds of Boston’s Landsdowne Street, or in the more local nightlife reserves like Delta Chi. And of course, my mom will smack me upside the head, because she’ll say, ‘Shauna, if you say things like that, people will be afraid to dance with you.’ But fear not, barracudas are some of my favorite creatures… they have some crazy teeth.
Now, I didn’t have many circlers… probably because I was the one standing in the middle of the dance floor furiously scribbling notes while my friends got down. And also because at about 12:00, the Roxy sent out two neon-thonged dancers in go-go boots who whipped glowsticks and their black waist length hair around while they got down to the international techno, and those glowing girls garnered much of the attention in the club. Damn them.
Just when I thought I couldn’t stand to look at some girl dancing around in neon any longer, I was rescued, kind of, but the start of the fashion show. The show lasted about ten minutes, and displayed the line of clothing sold by Nieman Marcus, at outrageous prices. I was disappointed, as I had been expecting much more of a show, but I did get a peek of what would be big this spring.
The outfits were casual with kick. Dolce and Gabbana is showing knee length denim skirts in jean, Pucci print and black leather, and rhinestoned fitted T’s with location names, like London and New York, or words like ‘me’ and ‘stiletto.’ Animal print is still in for the spring, as they showed a pink zebra denim jacket and matching pants, as well as a leopard sleeveless shift dress. And all the tall girls will be happy, because capris and flood pants are being sold again for the spring. The best outfit of the show was a matching two-piece black rose printed two-piece ensemble with knee length straight skirt and a corset top to match. The show ended with a belly dancer swiping the corset top, and coming out with her crazy flowy dancing skit pared with the D’G top. It was random, but I was just saying the other day how belly dancers don’t get enough employment opportunities, so I was happy for her.
The crowd was a little hostile after the show, since many expected it to be much longer. But the masses were placated when the house music came back up, and the sweaty throngs and the neon-thonged started dancing again. And the barracudas circled the Euro-style girls, and the peach velvet girl stood alone. All was right in the world again.
STYLE FILE SPECIAL FEATURE
Top Eight Fashion Moments of the Wednesday Night Grammy Awards
1.Madonna spent the night in Material Girl T-shirts (a black tank top for her performance and a white one for the rest of the show), but forget diamonds… a true material girl needs a new shiny statement…. A kicking holographic limo. Hands down the best accessory of the night.
2.The low cut suits ala Faith Hill and Heather Locklear were hip and edgy, showing off peaks of lacy black bras. Although this style has been around for a while, it tends to look rather trashy in most circumstances. However, at the Grammys it just worked.
3.N’Sync really stood out during their set, which had them in glowing technicolor and the rest of the stage in black and white. The group looked great in red and orange, especially notable was Lance’s long red leather jacket. Justin’s red shirt was oddly reminiscent of a fencing jacket, though it worked. And J.C. should really have ditched the red velvet cummerbund that matched his sunburst colored shirt.
4.Destiny’s Child looked amazing in matching teal sparkling outfits – one in a mod dress with thigh high boots, another in pants and a mid-rift baring top, and Beyonce in a one shouldered, tummy-showing mini dress. Then the group ripped them off to show some sassy daisy dukes and bikini tops, in the prerequisite shiny seagreen. It was all very Supremes 2001.
5.Too many people were trying to pull off a Jennifer Lopez look at the Grammy’s though. Toni Braxton came out in a white dress with a deep-V and no sides… just one center stri
p. Shakira was in a golden lace barely there number. Why don’t people just skip right to the fig leaf, which is what they’re going for, right?
6.Macy Gray wore her cloud of confusion in style as usual, and had her band backed her up in fun pink wigs that matched the streaks in her sleek and choppy new hairdo. She started the night off in a white coat made from the tails of dogs but she ditched that when it got stuck on the arm of her chair and stood proud in her ‘Goofy’ shirt. I like a person who can admit their kookiness.
7.Shelby Lynne, winner of Best New Artist, who performed with Sheryl Crow, showed off her abs in two different midriff-baring ensembles. However, she was lacking the most important accessory for someone who just won one of the highest honors available to musicians, and no I don’t mean a holographic limo… she needed a smile.
8.When Christina Aguilera came onto the stage, I didn’t know what was going on. At first look, it appeared she was going for the Cruella DeVille look. But on closer inspection it was apparent that the coat was made not from the fur of 101 poky little Dalmatian puppies, but from the lace tatting skills of a 101-year-old granny from Palm Springs. What the doily? That frilly coat was intense. But in the grand tradition of ripping off an ensemble halfway through an act, Christina lost the lace to salsa in a white dress complimented with black embroidered roses and white fringe.
Shauna Billings is a Collegian columnist.
