The drawstring is one tie that doesn’t bind. Emblematic of the easy attitude most often associated with sweatsuits and other workout gear, the drawstring has been picked up by designers as a way to gently shape clothes to the body for spring.
These delicate ties close the waistbands of pants and skirts, circle the waists or hems of jackets and add definition below the bust on Empire dresses. Some crop up on U-shaped halter necklines and short peasant sleeves. Drawstrings are also left to dangle from the bottom of a shirred seam on a camisole. Others wind around the body, playing a critical role in the wrap-and-tie shapes so prevalent this season.
The athletic-inspired clothes that inhabited many a runway relied heavily on drawstrings, especially for framing the hoods of zip-front jackets. But the threads also came into play on delicately romantic clothes, which made use of the fragile threads to turn a camisole into a blouson or to wind around the torso of a Grecian gown.
Melissa Ryan, fashion office manager for Marshall Field’s, sees drawstrings as “part of a whole relaxed attitude. We’ve come full circle from body-conscious to a very relaxed ease in dressing.”
If you’re going to add one item to your wardrobe, make it a drawstring pant. “It’s one of those items that many people have been attuned to for a long time, and all of a sudden, it’s come into vogue and it’s trendy and stylish,” says Bill Lasche, vice president of fashion and product development at Carson Pirie Scott. “It also happens to be one of the most comfortable things you can own.” His top picks are fluid pants in a silky fabric in either a solid or a stripe, floral or geometric.
Otherwise, treat the drawstring as a summer fling. “It’s something to pick up a piece in,” says Ryan, “But I wouldn’t heavily invest in it.”
