Tunic Time

Last month, the Home Shopping Network had a 3-day “Eat, Pray, Love” shopping fest in anticipation of the movie release of the best-selling book. If you missed the event, fear not. You can find the merchandise—pages and pages of it—on the HSN website. Click here to peruse the site. Apparently, all the fashions and products were inspired by Italian, Indian and Balinese culture.


When I heard there was going to be a movie version of EPL, I wondered if there would be a resurgence of Indian fashion. I’ve been a fan of India’s culture ever since college, when I took “Indian Dance” (and got PE credit!), decorated my dorm room with Indian print bedspreads and pillows, wore Indian print cotton sundresses, and even grew to love dark pink. (As fashion legend Diana Vreeland taught me: “Pink is the navy blue of India.”) I'm happy to report designers are showing colorful tunics and embroidered garments a la India and Asia this fall.

Tunics are a great clothing choice for women over 50. They're colorful, offer a bit of interest with their embroidery, and usually have a feminine, open neckline or key-hole opening. And, perhaps, most importantly, tunics cover up the less-than-perfect over 50 waistline. The tunic above is from Kaneesha, an online company that deals exclusively in India and Asia fashions (click on the promo box in the margin to visit site). It's always tunic time at Kaneesha. However, right now you'll find India-Asia style tunics online at Anne Klein, Jones New York, Macy's and others.


A college friend of mine returned in June from two years in Abu-Dhabi. I saw her several times over the summer and every time she wore a colorful tunic with cotton leggings or skinny white pants. (Tunics look particularly fabulous on women with great legs and my friend has to-die-for legs.) Recently, on an unseasonably cool evening, she wore a dark pink corduroy jean jacket over a pale pink tunic, white jeans and sandals. She’s looked adorable—at 52!

My girlfriend said she’s stocking up on skinny jeans, so I suspect she’s planning to wear her tunics right through the fall. And that’s another thing about the tunic—they’re a great transitional garment to take you through the warmer fall days. Right now, you’ll find lots of summery tunics on sale, like this one from Jones New York.



My friend came back from Abu-Dhabi with tunics for all her over 50 girlfriends. I wasn’t sure if I would be able to wear mine. I, unfortunately, do not have great legs. My best feature: my somewhat-still-in-tact figure. My new embroidered, smoky blue tunic is made of medium-weight cotton, so I tried it with a wide black belt, black cotton slacks and black wedge sandals. I think it worked pretty well; the belt gave me shape and the tunic hid my thighs.

If you don’t have a friend who’s been shopping in the Eastern Hemisphere, you can find plenty of tunics online. Here's one from Max Studio...



MANDALA EMB SUMMER KURTA-L-BLUE GREEN