Playing Dress Up

New Designer Spotlight: DoucetteDuvall

I don’t know about you, but I love wearing dresses. Dresses—when worn well—are so liberating, so feminine, and so effortlessly chic. Now this may sound like post-post-feminist backlash, but wouldn’t the world seem like a prettier place if we all wore dresses all the time?

Whether you share this nostalgic notion, or you're simply in the market for a fun, flirty frock, DoucetteDuvall’s new line of vintage-inspired dresses and jackets beautifully blend old-school glamour with modern practicality.

“I hate fluff pieces,” says Stephanie Ann Doucette, one-half of the design team behind the line. “I’m not going to make a trench coat if you can’t wear it in the rain.”

In addition to their functional femininity, Doucette, and her partner Annebet Duvall, have romanticized the notion of getting dressed. “The day should take you wherever it may, without needing a wardrobe change,” says Doucette. “So the line is about transition pieces. These dresses will take you from day-to-night.”

When the small collection debuted last fall, the line suggested 1940’s Hollywood glamour. But this spring is about all the casual vibe of the 1970's. The early spring collection includes two styles of dresses. Both designs are reminiscent of sundresses our mothers donned in their youth, with high elastic waistlines and sweetly tied spaghetti straps.

Each style is available in two fabrics; one a boldly striped silk charmeuse, the other a paisley-polka-dotted silk-lined polyester. Later in the season, DoucetteDuvall will release long, casual dresses made of cotton and gauze, and possibly preview some of their fall trench coats.

The line will make its official debut in fall 2006. But while we’re being nostalgic, the New York-based design duo met as neighbors in Little Italy where they used to chat the night away on their fire escape. How undeniably charming, in an old-school sort of way.

Final Word: The dresses—sold exclusively at Intermix Fifth Avenue—arrive this weekend. Call 212.533.9720 to order your own little piece of the past.