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Razzle Dazzle! Fashion ‘Stars’ – in Stripes

Looking for a red carpet transformation? It’s tempting to reach for the go-to tools. Even though high heels can make a short frame statuesque, and industrial shapewear can turn a pear into an hourglass, combining stilettos with a cincher could cause a swanky affair to end in a visit to the emergency room. Thankfully, this season’s hot trend offers an alternative for literal fashion victims in the form of high-contrast stripes and strategic color-blocking all perfectly placed to minimize, enhance, elongate, and taper. The fashion world has long used stripes to simply or dramatically change a silhouette. So, what’s the history behind the geometry? This pain-free solution for the shape-conscious started with the nature-proven concept of camouflage. Take zebras as a fashion-forward example. Their alternating, contoured stripes confuse predators, making it difficult to tell their exact shape, size, and speed. In essence, stripes save zebras in the wild. In World War I, the British Navy took this same concept to protect their ships by applying biomimicry – innovation inspired by nature.

Knowing it would be impossible to cloak a fleet from the enemy, the British Navy developed a technique called razzle dazzle – an aesthetic approach aimed at optically altering the shape and size of ships through the use of high-contrast black and white stripes. The trick of the eye, the same natural defense used by the zebra, successfully masked each “dazzle” ship’s size and speed.

While sonar and radar eventually made this technique obsolete, razzle dazzle soon became the craze in British fashion when designers paid homage to the uniquely patterned ships by using bold stripes in garments.

Today’s razzle dazzle uses the same premise to give every body shape the most complimentary accent. Want a taller frame? Ditch the four-inch heel and go for a long pencil skirt with horizontal stripes of an easy maxi gown with alternating light and dark bands.

Playing up curves? Look for alternating light and dark chevrons that taper at the waist.

Tucking the tummy? Toss the shaper and grab a two-tone, color-blocked dress that outlines the silhouette with a dark color while deemphasizing the midriff with a light contrasting color.

After a 100 year hiatus, stripes are back in a big way, so use them to your strategic advantage. Whether traversing the urban jungle, or doing battle in the board room, remember to give them the old razzle dazzle.

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