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The Serious Woman’s Guide to Dressing Sexy

 

This year, the fashion world lost one of its most boldly influential editors and stylists: Polly Mellen. She worked at Harper’s Bazaar in 1951 under Diana Vreeland and then at Vogue for 28 years. When I learned that she passed away in December at the age of 100, I went back to one of her most iconic spreads, “The Story of Ohhh…” photographed by Helmut Newton in 1975.

At the time, the unabashedly sexy images of a photographer, his muse, and a mysterious third interloper ruffled some feathers—and today, of course, a stunt like this might get you fired. But it’s hard not to look at these images without feeling…something! Even the copy is erotic, a reminder that sexiness is in the details. Mellen focuses on fragrance, suggesting that you wear a scent “tucked into [your] episternal notch (the little hollow at the base of the throat),” and “accessories for bareness,” or long necklaces that fall in between cleavage. She calls out sensual fabrics like “a sigh of white chiffon” and small styling choices like “the dégagé charm of a neckline left untied.”

All of it feels very adult. It’s not Sabrina Carpenter looking flirty in a vintage Victoria’s Secret teddy or Anora with long nails and a huge fur coat. In fashion today, sexiness can be so surface-level and verge on cliché: T-shirts that look like lace bras and underwear that looks like pants. You can even buy a skirt that literally says “sex” on it. Not only do pieces like this lack real sex appeal, but they can read as coldly commercial and depressingly un-serious. Gazing at Mellen’s spread, I thought, Okay, these people have actually gotten down and dirty. It’s seriously sexy, not va-va-voom.

With so many holiday parties on the calendar and New Year’s Eve around the corner, I’ve been thinking a lot about sexiness and how I’d like to embrace it as an adult woman over 30. Of course, it’s a completely subjective thing: Whatever makes you feel sexy is what will make others feel the same. There is no right or wrong way to do it. But below are some accessory and small detail-related tips that I’m keeping in mind this year and next. I think they’re easier and more universal to implement than, say, a skirt that says “sex” on it. But hey, whatever turns you on.