Rompers are big again
RALEIGH, N.C. — As a restaurant hostess, Rebecca Elcan works a kind of runway as she leads diners to their seats, and so looking cute matters. As a 20-year-old student, being on trend does too.
So on a recent day, Elcan chose a romper, her first — a strapless number printed with fanciful palm leaves, bought from Forever 21.
“My roommate has always pulled them off really well, but some on me have been baggy,” she said. “I really like them because they’re very in style.”
Indeed, rompers are big this season, and they’re not the only one-piece looks luring the stylish. Model/entrepreneur Iman and singer Gwen Stefani have stepped out recently in sparkly vintage-style jumpsuits, proving the ’70s revival has made that look chic again.
On last month’s BET Awards, singer Mary J. Blige took a distinctly modern approach, opening the show in a skin-tight, plunging V-neck jumpsuit paired with an asymmetrical metallic belt.
And then there’s the trio of hungover Scandinavians who invented the OnePiece, a zippered front jumper, now all the rage in London and Los Angeles, and coveted by the likes of Sienna Miller, Justin Bieber and Lady Gaga.
Divining at least part of the allure of rompers is as easy as putting one on.
As readily as your mama snapped you into those sweet little cotton onesies, you can slip into a romper and be fully dressed. No need to worry if your top matches your bottoms.
And that’s among the reasons some find them fashionably questionable. Or worse.
“I despise them — if you talk to people in fashion, they will tell you it’s a fashion victim getup,” said Sarah Haver, a New York stylist and founder of focusonstyle.com.
“Can anyone over 25 wear them with confidence at all?” asked Susu Bear, of scoopcharlotte.com . “I think of them as a summer fling. They’re cute, but not fashion-forward.”
Rompers do, however, have a long past.
The look started out as men’s underwear in the early part of the 1900s; by the 1920s, women athletes wore them, and by the ’30s, they became an outerwear look for women, said Diane Ellis, a fashion professor at Meredith College in Raleigh.
“They’re nearly always coupled with a blouson top, and elastic at the waist to give room to fit, to bend over,” Ellis said. “Ultimately for women, the look brought evening attire to day wear, a casual evening wear.”
Sounds comfy, no? But some fashion observers don’t think rompers have such an accommodating fit.
“If you’re really curvy, you can’t wear them,” Bear said. “The whole point is the long line.”
Even Elcan, who is slim, had to take the Goldilocks approach to find her romper. “They’ve never fit my body the way I wanted them to,” she said. “This one fit perfectly.”
“You should be 20ish. You should be in tip-top shape; no cellulite, no varicose veins, and let’s add, for my sake, no fake orange tans,” Haver said. In other words, it might not be good to take a cue from tall, long, fit Cameron Diaz, who, at 38, was recently celebrated for her romper choices.
The age-appropriate issue comes up in another way: Rompers can give off a juvenile vibe. “It’s that short Daisy Duke, girly-girl thing,” Bear said. “They’re only appropriate for people who fit that or want to communicate that.”
Still, there are romper fans in the style community. New York style reporter Donna Kim thinks folks should take it down a notch when it comes to romper hate. With availability in stores from Kmart to Macy’s, there’s a cut for everyone, and rompers are good for all ages, she said.
“It’s just shorts attached to a top,” she said. “It’s not as scary as you think.”
Perhaps, but there’s one aspect of the romper, and all one-piece dressing, that can’t be avoided: the potty issue.
“Try to go to a public bathroom in one,” Haver said. “You have to pull the whole thing down and redress yourself.”
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