What is love? Difficult to define beyond butterflies-in-stomach symptoms, love can accompany many major moments in life. This idea is now at the core of Hal Rubenstein’s great new book, “The Looks of Love: 50 Moments in Fashion that Inspired Romance.” Published by HarperCollins, it’s a tribute to how love and style come together in fashion, film, television, music, politics, royalty and advertising.
Such union is demonstrated in this book with many memorable examples. Some are concrete– think a bridal Madonna snaking her way down the giant wedding cake at the 1984 MTV Video Music Awards, a seminal moment in pop culture; or Elizabeth Taylor’s eight wedding looks, including the one she wore to tie the knot, for one last time, with construction worker Larry Fortensky.
The concept is more abstract elsewhere: shoulder-padded Krystle and Alexis Carrington in several legendary catfights; Jennifer Beals, her “Flashdance” sweater suggestively baring the shoulder, and the DKNY wall that was once the gateway to SoHo and, in its own special way, was a love letter to New York City.
“Love is so mystifying and so magical at the same time,” Rubenstein told CFDA.com. “My father was probably the most emotional person. He showed his love so freely, and so openly and strongly. It colored my vision of the world completely, so there is a certain naiveté that I have. My feeling was, ‘let’s look at the things that got us excited, the movies that affected us, the music and that fashion show that changed the way we feel in our heads.”
The book makes a strong case that the idea of love was present in all of the above.
“What’s more expressive than being able to dress in a way that signals to somebody, ‘Am I special to you? am I appealing to you?’” Rubenstein explained. “Everything in life that really matters is about seduction. Clothes are about seduction. I don’t just think of seduction as a plunging neckline. It’s about expressing a belief in beauty. Every designer has a different idea of beauty.”
His favorite ‘looks of love’ in the book range from iconic James Dean in the black leather jacket, the 1950s Maidenform Bra ad, and that Liz-and-Larry moment replete with Michael Jackson in the frame as if Taylor’s love was really reserved for the King of Pop at the time.
“Elizabeth is the greatest movie star, the most beautiful woman who has ever been in the movies,” Rubenstein said. “Here was a woman who, rightly or wrongly, always went with her heart without ever looking over her shoulder or asking for anybody else’s approval. It was only love that mattered to her.”
Rubenstein hopes for readers to reconsider these iconic moments and their impact on popular culture. “When they saw Bonnie and Clyde, or Madonna standing on the wedding cake, or Belle de Jour, or that moment Tom Cruise jumped on Oprah’s couch …I want people to go back to those moments, stop for a second, and realize what was really happening and how it changed the way they looked at beauty and romance.”
Sartorially-speaking, Rubenstein happily recalls his very own ‘look of love.’
“I have been with somebody for 19 years,” he said. “Every time I see him, I have the same reaction. And it’s why I wrote the book. If you can really explain love, then maybe you are not in love. I don’t think you can define it.
“To this day, I remember everything David was wearing when he got off the plane from Tulsa,” Rubenstein recalled. “I didn’t like everything he had on. I didn’t like the shirt, the coat, the jeans, but I didn’t care. It was the way he carried himself, like somebody who was looking for me. That’s why I never threw the clothes away. I still have everything he and I wore.”
