As a young girl, I had a very great obsession (well to tell the whole fashion truth, I had many, but I'm writing a column, not a memoir so I'll err on the side of brevity for your sake, dear reader).
She was glamorous, international, musical, and quite the femme fatale--and my dream was to one day fill her shoes. Her name was Evita. I first fell under this Argentinian diplomat and dictator's wife's spell when I saw the film adaptation of Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical, but it wasn't the rags-to-riches tale, the many lovers or the pure ambition that first caught my impressionable eye. Oh no - it was the montage of the song "Rainbow High." Fur after necklace after hat after shoe is presented in this scene to Eva Peron with unabashed glee. If you haven't seen it, YouTube now, please--you'll never be the same.
If she was going to be the first lady of Argentina, she needed the wardrobe to match. If she was going to be the people's savior, she needed to look the part, Christian Dior-ed from head to toe.
While political science fashionistas among us may stop me right here and argue the Machiavellian tactics behind my idol's ideologies, we all must admit the desire to celebrate oneself through dress is common to us all, and secretly, or openly as is the case here, don't we all wish we were in this Argentinian rose's shoes? There are certain times, fellow fashionistas, which call for unabashed, look-at-me-now-I'm-fabulous fashion.
At this moment, we Notre Dame fashionistas are partaking in one of them. Spring has finally arrived, spring break and its restful days have given us renewed vigor, and some of us are just a stiletto heel's length away from graduation. If ever the time to celebrate was at hand, it is now. Even the weather finally seems to be cooperating! For Gucci's sake, what kind of Evita followers would we be to contest? This spring season, designers are urging us to create our own spotlight--in neon.
The Street Style of Paris, New York and Milan Fashion Weeks turned up our fellow fashionistas in the most eye-catching colors: neon pink, blue, green and even orange.
Instead of those telltale t-shirts that we collegiates are often fond of wearing to sporting events, these neon items come in your classic tailored pieces--cuffed pants, blazers and exquisitely-cut blouses. These key pieces morph into colorful, eye-catching highlights, proving these colorful bursts don't just need to draw our eyes to key pieces of academic information as highlighters do in our textbooks. They can also serve as a useful reminder to our audiences of our fabulous physical attributes.
The key to the trend is to pair neon with neutrals - match a neon pink skirt with a beige top, a neon blue pant with a white blazer. Going head-to-toe neon would be too '80s- we want modern neon-minimalist, not retro-eighties time traveler. The most titillating accessory in stores is the strategically-neon stiletto--no one will be able to keep their eyes off your gams when your heel is bright neon yellow. Don't cry for me, Evita - I'm neon high now.
