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You're either an Eileen Fisher wearer or you are not.

Those simple shapes and clean lines bespeak the life of a wife of a minimalist architect or a Swiss art collector at home on Sanibel Island: undyed pageboy haircuts and artsy, German made spectacles; square shoulders and an eclectic music collection that includes Ella Fitzgerald and Lightnin' Hopkins but lots of German opera.

Eileen Fisher was a graphic designer from the good ol' University of Illinois, with good shoulders and a dream--I admire that. It was a good dream of elegant, relaxed drape and excellent fabrics, it just didn't work on me--more of a baroque odalisque than lanky Pablo Giacometti sculpture or a Calder mobile.
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  1. Susan HinrichsJanuary 25, 2010 at 11:54 AM

    I love the look of Eileen Fisher on the models in the Garnet Hill catelog. Not willing to shell out that kind of money without trying it on first though. Definitely needs a certain physical sparseness. Think I've wandered too far into matronly to pull it off.

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