Why don’t you match your seams to your lipstick?
A scarlet mouth, a red line climbing the back of each leg and a black dress providing the setting: sometimes an entire outfit begins with one magnificent detail. To style red accessories with vintage clothing, think about where the colour appears, how it moves and what you want people to notice. Red shoes announce themselves. A red seam waits until you turn around.
Our inspiration is Diana Vreeland, a woman who understood that getting dressed could be an exercise in imagination.
Diana Vreeland: fashion’s great fantasist
Before she became fashion editor at Harper’s Bazaar and editor-in-chief of Vogue, Diana Vreeland ran a lingerie business in London. Naturally, this endears her to us. She later brought her extraordinary vision to the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute, helping turn fashion exhibitions into spectacles that captivated audiences.
Her celebrated “Why Don’t You…?” column at Harper’s Bazaar offered extravagant suggestions for living with more imagination. Vreeland’s subject was ostensibly fashion, but her real invitation was to become more interesting: to pursue an idea, cultivate an eye and enjoy the possibilities of presenting yourself to the world.
Red was a particular passion. Her famous scarlet drawing room was an immersive expression of it, but you do not need to redecorate to borrow her conviction.
The styling ideas that follow are our own tribute, not instructions from Vreeland’s column. Begin with something you adore; a lipstick, an extraordinary bracelet, a pair of red seams; and give it a starring role.
How to wear red accessories with a black dress
Black provides a magnificent setting for red because it allows the colour to remain distinct. The interesting decision is not simply which accessories to choose, but how much red each one introduces.
With a fitted black cocktail dress, try champagne hosiery with scarlet back seams, red lipstick and black heels. The narrow line of the seam keeps the silhouette uninterrupted, while the lipstick carries the colour back to the face. A substantial bracelet or dramatic earrings can add evening grandeur without introducing another colour.
For a more emphatic interpretation, exchange the black shoes for red. Now the colour begins at the foot and continues up the seam, creating a deliberate relationship between shoe and hosiery. A black evening bag leaves that relationship clear; a red bag makes the coordination more pronounced. Neither is forbidden. The question is whether you want a suggestion or a declaration.
This is where vintage dressing becomes so satisfying. The dress may be familiar, but the choices surrounding it can change the character completely.
Match your red seams to your lipstick
Our contrast red seamed stockings pair a sheer champagne leg with a vivid red back seam. They require a suspender belt; our red contrast seamed tights offer the same colour combination without one. Both are made in Italy in sheer 15 denier fabric with stretch.
Choose stockings if the lingerie beneath the dress is part of the occasion for you. Choose tights if you prefer them, or if your hemline would reveal stocking tops when you sit. A shorter skirt does not have to mean surrendering the red seam.
When choosing lipstick, aim for a sympathetic shade rather than an exact laboratory match. Hold the hosiery beside your lipstick in daylight: an orange-red and a blue-red will create a different effect from two closely related scarlets. Neither combination is inherently wrong, but looking at them together makes the choice yours.
Nor does every evening require lipstick red. Burgundy and berry have their own richness. For this particular look, however, we favour the clear, saturated red of Technicolor glamour.
Once dressed, check your seams from behind and sit down to check the hemline. Then put the mirror away. The preparation should allow you to enjoy the evening, not spend it inspecting your legs.
A red petticoat beneath a full 1950s skirt
A fitted dress gives red seams their moment. A full skirt offers another possibility: colour that appears as the fabric moves.
Wear a red frilly petticoat beneath a black full-skirted dress and the effect changes with every step. Standing still, the skirt holds its shape. Dancing, the red frill becomes part of the performance.
Our petticoat has a smooth nylon upper section, an elasticated waist and a deep frill at the hem. It comes in two lengths: 26 inches and 22 inches.
Choose the length in relation to your skirt, measuring from where you will actually wear the waistband. For colour revealed mainly through movement, the petticoat should sit slightly above the dress hem. For a deliberately visible frill, try the two garments together and decide how much you want showing.
The skirt needs enough fullness to accommodate it. Beneath a close-fitting pencil dress, the frill will compete with the cut rather than enhance it.
With a full black skirt, red lipstick and matching seams, the petticoat carries the colour through the outfit at a different scale. The seam draws a line; the frill opens into a flourish.
Wearing red with navy and floral prints
Black is not the only setting worthy of scarlet.
Deep navy gives bright red a rich, crisp contrast. Picture a navy dress with a sculpted neckline, red seamed hosiery and a red evening bag. Keep the shoes navy or black if you want the bag and seams to command attention. Add red shoes if you enjoy a more fully coordinated vintage look.
With floral clothing, examine the print before choosing your accessories. If it contains red, repeating that shade in your seams or lipstick draws attention to a colour already present. A dark floral dress with scattered red blossoms can look particularly beautiful over a red petticoat: the colour in the print seems to continue beneath the skirt.
If the print contains no red, scarlet becomes a deliberate contrast instead. Try one red element first and look at the whole outfit before adding another. The aim is to make a decision you love, not obey a rule about which colours are allowed to meet.
Do all your red accessories need to match?
They need not, although there is enormous pleasure in making them do so.
Matching shoes, bag and lipstick can create a wonderfully composed vintage effect. Red gloves introduce a larger area of colour and draw attention to gesture; red jewellery brings it towards the face or hands. A back seam is more elusive, visible only from certain angles.
Consider those differences rather than counting accessories. If the gloves are spectacular, give them room. If the shoes are the reason you got dressed, let the skirt reveal them. If the seams are your favourite detail, choose a hemline that allows them to be seen.
You can also connect different reds through a print that contains both, or keep lipstick and seams closely related while choosing black for your bag and shoes. There is no compulsory number of scarlet objects beyond which glamour expires.
What matters is that the outfit feels like an expression of your taste, not a checklist.
Diana Vreeland’s enduring appeal lies in that invitation to imagine something beyond the expected. For us, it begins with lipstick and a pair of seams. Where you take it next is entirely your affair.