I wasn't sure at first, but upon further reflection I've decided that I really like the flavor of Stefano Pilati's fall collection for Yves Saint Laurent.He's insisted it has nothing to do with religion (come on. Really? Like with art it's sometimes best as a viewer to run with your own interpretation). Anyway, I really like the clothes' suggestion that a mood of spareness and denial can serve as its own kind of ornamentation (small flourishes aside)....Not because I think that's the way we're supposed to behave because we're working our way out of a recession or something, but because it seems like a contrary little rebuke to excess and it feels fresh. Also, I just like the look.It reminds me of this dress I used to wear when I worked at the watch counter at The Bon Marche in downtown Seattle. I found it in a thrift store — it was all black, one of those grandmotherly woven numbers from the early sixties with a zipper up the back and a plain front with a point collar. At one point I remember the handbag girl telling me that I needed to wear a scarf with it or something, because it made me look like Maria from The Sound of Music. (I guess she meant it made me look like a nun? I've never seen The Sound of Music but I gather that Maria wore a lot of black.)Because that was pretty much the whole point of the dress, I ignored her advice.

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