The Right Time and the Right Place: “The Pan Am Era”, circa 1963

My NYFW mates, Mark Behnke, Men’s Editor for Fashion Tribes and “Video Vixen” Lisa Johnson, Editor in Chief of Lisa Johnson Fitness, couldn’t wait to meet the crew of “The Real Stewardesses of Pan Am”. Unfortunately, by the time we raced over from the Donna Karan store and the Marissa Berenson Book signing, our targets had flown the coop. We still got our Pan Am Stewie fix though, as there were models dressed in the blue retro uniform handing out airplane snacks and beverages. Once we fueled-up, we settled in and started exploring the all white store. I was transported back to the early Sixties, a period in time I’m utterly enamored with. I actually DID fly Pan Am in 1963, but as an 11 month old infant, sadly I don’t remember much. Ten years later, I caught the end of the “Pan Am Era” jetstream, when I flew Pan Am , New York to Paris, and had one of the best meals of my young life -on a plane! What I remember even more than the food was how utterly beautiful the stewardesses were, with their little hats, perfect figures and immaculate hair and makeup. Barbie couldn’t hold a candle to them. Years later, when the airlines changed their title to “flight attendant”, the glamour left the building. They may as well have called them “air waitresses”.

The Lisa Perry store is a like a very cool apartment you want to spend the day in so you can look at all the coffee table books, [such as Airline], study the Roy Lichtenstein prints on the wall and try on each and every one of the colorful Sixties’ style dresses hanging on the fixtures. For a fashionista who’s enamored of this era, it’s like being deposited into a wonderful penny candy store where you want to try everything on but don’t know where to start.

A Japanese businessman was holding the last Pan Am logoed bag Lisa had designed. He couldn’t decide if he should buy it. It wasn’t leather, but it was “a great design and a wonderful piece of retro. My wife will kill me if I buy this, but…”

I encouraged him, “If you don’t buy it tonight, you’re going to kick yourself later. There won’t be any more, and you know that once you see the show, you’ll want it even more. You can tell your wife you’ll share it with her.”

He bought it.

On our way out, my initial disappointed on missing the cast evaporated when we got to chat with Lisa Perry herself about the Limited Edition bags she’d designed for FNO and to commune about our shared love for this legendary time in history.

Ms. Perry told us her collaboration with the highly anticipated TV show, The Real Stewardesses of Pan Am was suggested to her by Vogue magazine. When I asked if she would design a Pan Am suit she laughed and said she could design a whole collection based on that but only after researching the original suits. Stay tuned for the upcoming show episodes and for Ms. Perry’s Pan Am inspired suits. If the limited edition bags she put out are any indication [most were snapped up on FNO] of the success of this future collection, then she’ll have a gang-busters hit on her hands, as will ABC.

WACOAL’s CLASSY RETRO GLAM
Here’s a company with an appreciation for retro glam. If this brings-up visions of ‘Joan Holloway’ in ‘Madman’, you’re on the right track. Actress Christina Hendricks has eclipsed many of the stars in the hit AMC Series for her killer body and superb acting skills. Her May 2010 Esquire cover put her on a par with the late Marilyn Monroe after Esquire’s readers voted her “hottest woman around”.
The crack shot PR team at La Force+Stevens were on the case way before me.
Ms. Hendricks has already been the lucky recipient of several of the lacy Wacoal lacy retro bra and panty sets. I can’t think of any other actress working who would be a better poster girl for these sexy yet elegant scraps of lace.
The Retro Chic Full Figure Underwire retails for $58.00 and scored an impressive 5/5 customer rating. A customer on www.macys.com raves, “
“An outstanding bra. Great shape and support for full coverage needs. You won’t be disappointed, and this is a beautiful bra without looking industrial!”

*The event LaForce+Stevens held was to introduce the new lines at Wacoal and I got a chance to have a one-to-one fitting with an experienced fitter. As there weren’t any small sizes, I met up with her at Bloomingdales’ in the enormous lingerie department later that afternoon. If the fitter hadn’t been there to hold my hand, I would have bolted, as the selection was simply overwhelming. The bra due to hit my doorstep in a week or so and I’ll be reporting on the fit and comfort factors then. Stay tuned!

To view the entire collection Wacoal offers, visit their extensive website at www.wacoal-america.com

Images of bra and panty sets, courtesy of LaForce+Stevens