Zara ‘Bonsoir l’été’ Wedding Dresses Are A Nod to Strong Backbone Women

Zara calls its new ‘Bonsoir l’été’ wedding dress collection “a fresh proposal for a contemporary woman who is longing for a bright future.” AOC has spent the last week in deep study of Art Deco design, triggered by the inescapable fashion and design references to surrealism and brutalist architecture that are everywhere in recent AOC posts.

Laverne Cox wearing Schiaparelli Haute Couture from the winter collection, January 2022. via

We’ve lived recently with the creative influence of Elsa Schiaparelli — especially in jewelry and body armor design.

Now a January 2022 haute couture presentation by Daniel Roseberry blossomed into a full-blown collection of striking clothes that demand notice.

Laverne Cox helps set our mood, attending the Schiaparelli Haute Couture show wearing fashion from the winter collection.

The streamlined, elongated silhouettes, Jean Harlow glamour, and surreal emphasis on the strong woman’s body prompt us to think of recently emancipated women now able to vote in America.

In America, New York’s Rockefeller Center opened at the end of the decade [1930] as an ultimate symbol of modernism and industrial-technological power.

Think also the modern goddess Dior Resort 2022 collection and its emphasis on a less romantic femininity, opting for a more independent woman silhouette. In the case of Dior, she has sneakers — the ultimate statement of moving out of the very ornate, Art Nouveau style into a more technological and industrial evolution with Art Deco.

This historical evolution was my first reaction upon seeing the new Zara wedding dress collection. The images are not at all vintage — as in Zara’s introductory bridal dresses for 2021. Model Fran Summers seems less fragile, more sophisticated, stronger in Zara’s new ‘Bonsoir l’été’ wedding dress collection “

While the glamour is not full-blown, the halter necks and cutout back drama are all cues from the first debut of art deco style.

My new article — inspired by model Jasmine Tooke’s engagement and wedding to Juan David Borrero in Ecuador last August — ended with a discussion of Smart Sensuality women and the rising important of emerald cut engagement rings.

It wasn’t until women like Angelina Jolie, Beyonce and Amal Clooney all fell into the same ring design category that I backed away and looked at surrealism, brutalism — which really flourished in the ‘40s — and art deco with fresh eyes.

There is a monumentalism to these design trends that some might not like. The looks are not for wallflowers.

Two Big Engagement Ring Trends for 2022: Art Deco Emerald Cut and Lab Grown Diamonds AOC Fashion

But when I considered the steely backbones of women like Angelina Jolie, Amal Clooney and Beyonce, these are exactly the kind of women we need in these difficult times.

If they like big, strong, somewhat masculine engagement rings — or Zara wedding dresses — then that’s exactly what we need in this complicated American moment.

Related: A century after art deco’s birth, designers say we’re due for a revival Washington Post