Graceful Corinthian Muses for the Holidays

By Laura Medina

Tadashi's Winter Wonderland.

If the traditional, frumpy-dumpy, dorky Christmas sweater in cringe-inducing acrylic knit makes you want to itch, here are more elegant options that are multi-purpose for Chanukah/Christmas/Kwanzaa, and Chrismukkah.

For eveningwear, Tadashi Shoji of Tadashi and Binetti are draping women as Grecian Goddesses as Corinthian columns, the more frilly of the three Classical Orders: the stoic Doric, the minimal Ionic, and the ornate Corinthian column.

Binetti flutes of gowns.

The pleats resemble flutes. The long and lean silhouettes speak columns. The ruching and poufs sprout frills, leaves, and scrolls, characteristics of a Corinthian column.

The color palette was chisled in ivory or glided in silver. Sometimes, like in Tadashi, refer to nature as in the blossoming rose pink.

Draping women as Grecian Columns also dress them as the Three Muses in the Classical Arts: Melete for Practice; Mneme for Memory; and Aoide for Song.

These pretty much sums up being a haute couture designer. You need years of practice to learn your art. You need to memorize how fabrics flow, swing, hang, and drape. Hopefully, you will be so skilled that you have clients singing for your creations.

It is not all about the Classics.

It was the reintrepretion of the cuff. No longer restricted to a man's wrist. The cuff is used a meshed overlay for high heel sandals, such the ones by Giuseppe Zanotti. A cuff ring for the entire finger with hinges at the knuckles to bend. Of course, the long, drapey cuff necklace.

Now, these are family heirlooms your future daughters and nieces will be happy to have.