Country life
Tell you what they want
Leanda de Lisle
Fancy dress parties have always been popular, but this year there have been even more than usual. Elton John gave a large bash in March and it was in all the papers, but I doubt his guests looked any more magnificent than those at the fancy dress party I went to in Yorkshire last weekend. The party celebrated the 400 years the fam- ily have spent in their 'new' house and began with an aerial display. Two biplanes twisted in the air while the audience, dressed in pre-Victorian clothes, asked each other whether the men attached to the wings were defaulting tenants. 'This is my first party under the new Labour gov- ernment', a gentleman in brocade told me happily, as the characters on the aero- planes waved frantically down at us.
Later the guests danced to rave music as apparently immune to the heat, in their regency bonnets and full-bottomed wigs, as the Victorians who explored Africa in stiff collars and boned corsets. My partner for much of the evening was a handsome 11- year-old dressed in 18th-century uniform. Was this representative of the younger gen- eration embarrassed by his clothes? I don't think so, as I had some difficulty persuad- ing him to part with his tricorn before he swept me off to the dance floor. Had he chosen me because I — having just returned from holiday — was the only woman there in modern clothes and looked tanned and lovely? I fear not. He told his father that I reminded him of his mother, which is, I suppose, the kind of compliment I must learn to accept gracefully.
No sooner had we returned home than another party invitation arrived in the post. This party is being given to celebrate the 40th birthdays of a group of male friends, and the Daily Telegraph's 'Peterborough' column has described it as the party of the autumn. The dress is 'the emperor's new clothes'. An anonymous invitee, quoted in `Peterborough' wondered what this might mean. Well, it might mean our hosts hope the women will turn up in their undies, but I doubt that they themselves will go for such a literal interpretation. Englishmen may have decided that it's silly to go to work in a plumed hat, but they still long to wear extravagant things and I'm sure my hosts' new clothes' will make Louis XIV's court regalia look as modest as a bank clerk's Top Shop suits. Generally, the atti- tude at fancy dress is a kind of post Quentin Tarantino knowingness — 'This is silly and we know it, isn't it fun?' Not so much the Men in Black as the Men in Sil- ver and Orange. However, the kind of Englishmen who have forced female barris- ters to dress in drag just so they can work in costume will not, in the long term, be content to confine their dressing up to par- ties.
Casual clothes are becoming more popu- lar with Englishmen because they are brighter and more interesting as well as more comfortable than black tie. I am sure they will eventually develop into the most fantastical work and evening clothes. What we need is a new fashion leader to invent a new style of dress for the new millennium — and soon.
The current sneering at the Union Jack is a plea for a makeover, but not of abstract symbols. Our emperors are tired of red wool, gold braid, ermine, garters, little black ties. They want new clothes and I fear they'll disestablish the church, oust the monarchy and start tearing down statues if they don't get them.
Just hand me the letter, Miss Dickens.'
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