Take Your Pick In Fashion: Mod Or Lady Some May Choose To Mix Elements Of Both Styles

The ancient Romans had a twofaced god called Janus. The theater has its two-faced mask of comedy and tragedy. “Batman Forever” has its villainous Two-Face played by Tommy Lee Jones. And fashion will have two faces this fall: the mod and the lady.

Now is one of those happy times when there isn’t just one way to look to be in fashion. Shoppers can choose a character to play.

The mod will wear hip-huggers or minis, stick-straight hair cut in a bob or falling below her shoulders, piles of black eyeliner and frosted pale lipstick. The lady will wear a suit or dress that skims the knee, flip up the ends of her hair or pull it back into a soigne twist and jettison last year’s red lipstick for a soft coral color.

“Both of these styles have slight retro overtones,” said Kalman Ruttenstein, vice president for fashion direction at Bloomingdale’s. “The mod is the way London girls dressed in the ‘60s and American girls caught on to. Think of Twiggy and Jean Shrimpton.

“The other look, which could be called classic, is inspired by the way elegant ladies of style dressed in the ‘60s. Babe Paley, C.Z. Guest, Jackie Kennedy and Audrey Hepburn are reference points.”

While there are distinct differences between the two looks, they are not always mutually exclusive. And often the style statement lies not so much in what is worn as how it is worn.

“The same little black dress can go mod or lady,” said Joan Kaner, a senior vice president and the fashion director for Neiman Marcus. “Wear it at the top of the knee and you have the Jackie O. look. Cut it off at midthigh, and a 16-year-old can be as mod as she wants.”

Sandra Wilson, Neiman’s accessories fashion director, said the mod will go for a hip-slung belt with a silver buckle or a silver chain belt, lots of silver zippers, and patent leather in black, white or what she calls “car-paint metallic glazes” in blue, brown, red or dark green. And, of course, there is the go-go boot with a square toe and a chunky heel.

Wilson sees the lady wearing a feminine shoe with a low, curved Sabrina heel rather than a stiletto; nude-tone hosiery; a structured bag with a top handle; and wrist-length gloves. She also sees the return of the status designer scarf and of exotic skins like crocodile and lizard, real and fake. Jewelry will include ladylike pearls, small earrings and brooches.

Nicole Fischelis, fashion director of Saks Fifth Avenue, also expects the ladylike style to include oversize fabric flowers in silk or velvet.

And she expects jewelry to be important.”We’ve already been selling rhinestone pins reminiscent of the ‘40s,” she said. She considers midhigh

heels newer than stilettos and suggests that brown shades will be popular.

The mod will wear black or white, she said, especially white accessories.

“She’ll wear black legs with white shoes,” Fischelis said, “and faux fur in leopard, zebra and pony patterns.”

After seasons of minimalism, now may be the time for accessories to take a leading role in fashion.

That ladylike dress and jacket need the perfect shoe with the curved Sabrina heel, the delicate earrings and elegant strand of pearls, the proper small handbag, the gloves, the scarf, the sheer hosiery and the makeup in pretty colors.

The mod look could fall flat without the chunky-heel boots, the hip belt with an oversize silver buckle, a big soft bag on a short shoulder strap, a silvery watch with a big round face, the touches of shiny patent leather and the frosted white lips and nails.

But a word of caution. Going mod head to toe, as shown by Tom Ford for Gucci in Italy and by Marc Jacobs in New York, can be the hippest look under the sun for a very young woman. But her mother has two concerns: She risks looking like her grandmother if she follows the ladylike look slavishly, and she can look as if she is trying to recapture her youth by reliving her mod years.

So it is likely that anyone with a true sense of style will mix up elements of both styles. Remember Jackie Onassis in hip-huggers?

“There’s a crossover in many cases between the two looks,” said Ruttenstein of Bloomingdale’s.