FORGET about getting a flu shot.
We’re angsty about finding a vaccine for the disease inflicting style-savvy New Yorkers: Tweed Fatigue.
Even though winter hasn’t kicked in yet, tweed – the most ballyhooed trend for the season – is already getting the cold shoulder from the city’s stylish set.
“Tweed is more overexposed than Anna Nicole Smith,” declares fashion publicist Lauren Davis.
“I’m over it – sick of it,” adds Isabel Dupre, Style director at Elle magazine.
The backlash against the prim, ladylike tweeds – specifically, those embellished with brooches or fabric flowers – has been mushrooming over the last month, with tweed fashions saturating glossy magazines, ad campaigns and store windows.
There is, it appears, no escape from the trend red-carpet stylist Allison Dickson describes as “a very New York thing – mainly because it’s so sophisticated and wearable.”
Dickson says that magazine editors chomped down on the look because it is so easy to translate in any price range.
“They also knew it would sell well because tweed is something that anyone – from Catherine Zeta-Jones to Oprah to a soccer mom – can wear.” Dickson explains, “when a trend becomes so overused and abused, it starts trickling down to the point where you see it in Gap ads. And once that happens, it’s over. Dead. The trendsetters think:
‘been there, done that,’ and they want to move onto the next big thing.”
For Michelle Lee, author of “Fashion Victim: Our Love-Hate Relationship with Dressing, Shopping, and the Cost of Style,” our obsession with all things tweed echoes our infatuation with the Burberry check, designer jeans and thanks to “Sex and the City,” Manolos and Jimmy Choos.
“When a trend like this spins out of control, what happens is something called the reverse-bandwagon effect,” says Lee. “In contrast to the regular bandwagon effect, when people want to glom onto something, the reverse-bandwagon effect results in the people who originally glommed onto the trend no longer want anything to do with it.”
Add to the equation the reality of the trickle-down effect. Tweeds that looked feather-light and flattering on the catwalk are knocked off by lower-priced lines that do not necessarily take our comfort level (yes, cheap tweed is itchy) or figure issues (no thanks, we can do without bulky fabrics that add inches to the waist and hips) into consideration.
Cristiana Proietti, the young designer behind the white-hot Cris cashmere collection, says the solution to dodging Tweed Fatigue is to avoid wearing the fabric in a pedestrian way.
“When everyone decides to wear the same thing in the same way, we lose any sense of individuality,” she says. “But if you take tweed to the next level, it doesn’t have to look boring.”
Proietti, who points out that we have been wearing tweed jackets with jeans for over the last two years, suggests skipping the tweed jacket and mixing tweed pieces, such as pants, with polka dots or striped shirts.
Bettina Zilkha, author of “Ultimate Style: The Best of the Best Dressed List,” agrees.
“Wearing tweed can be dangerous because it can go either way,” says Zilkha. “But like any look, if you understand the limitations and have the sense of style to shuffle and mix it up, tweed can look fabulous. I would wear tweed sparingly. Say, a little tank top or a sparkly tweed jacket at night, over black silk pants and high heels.”
Elle magazine’s Isabel Dupre has a different take. “The best way to wear tweed right now is to go for comfortable, relaxed masculine styles. It’s a completely different, and far less effortless look.”
She also warns against one of the season’s most perilous pieces: the tweed pencil skirt.
“It makes every woman look as if she has a big butt,” Dupre sniffs. “It is not flattering – the ultimate faux pas.”
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STOP: Don’t believe everything you read
The glossies may be touting tweed “touches” like pantyhose, but trust us – you’ll just look like a walking fashion
victim.
STOP: Avoid the cliché
The faux Chanel jacket, pinned with the ubiquitous Sarah Jessica Parker fabric flower, is now in its third season. Been there, worn that. Try to come up with your own, individual way of using accessories to feminize your tweed.
STOP: Don’t overdose
Yes, there are tweed suits, coats, jackets, skirts, shoes, boots, gloves (and soon even a tweed sneaker, courtesy of Nike), but that’s no reason to wear more than one of the above at a time. Instead, use tweed sparingly to spice up your wardrobe.
STOP: Unless you are 8-foot-5, avoid ankle-length tweed coats.
You’ll look – and feel – swamped.
STOP: Avoid the emerging fluoro-tweed trend.
Some lines are coming out with tweeds in “trendy” fluorescent tones. Instead of classy, they can look trashy.
STOP: Leave the highly stylized looks to the magazines.
You’ll feel like you’re in a costume drama if you dress up like a uptight schoolmarm. Keep it loose – pick the one
element that really works for your day-to-day life.
STOP: Never, ever wear different colored tweeds together
Your attempt at creating an eye-catching look will result in migraines for everyone around you.
STOP: Skip the too-tight-towalk- in pencil skirts, and think twice about the A-line, multipleated skirts.
Even if you have the stick-thin figure to carry off this look, you’ll feel as if you’re lugging a hundred yards of fabric.
STOP: And for that matter, don’t pair different types of tweeds, either.
Despite what the store assistant tells you, bouclé and traditional tweed don’t mix.