Marcia Brady is best remembered for her perfect center-parted hair, but in many ways, the fictional seventies golden girl and her back-to-school style—checked A-line minis, graphic floral blouses—captured the spirit of Fall 2015. “Her style feels fresh right now in a retro way that’s somehow not dated,” Vogue.com Market Assistant Elizabeth Taufield explains. Looking back, Marcia handily married the mod sixties (shift dresses and kneesocks) with the hippie seventies (pale yellow flares) for a more refined take on the hip-swiveling exuberance of the decade—which is precisely what designers turned to for fall.
Take the prim lace frocks at Bottega Veneta: Both the color (maroon) and shape (butterfly collar) look as on-point today as they did on Marcia, lounging on her pink twin-size bed. Over at Carven, a simple blue long-sleeved top and black A-line mini—an MB signature—looks of-the-moment, thanks to its proportions, and not fixed to any one era. Marcia wasn’t the kind of girl to take an overly trendy look into the classroom either. Instead, she might search for the stealth hits of the season (ribbed turtlenecks for fall), find one of the best (highlighter orange at Louis Vuitton), distill the look (sans daring chest slit, naturally), and head off to Westdale High School, the most fashionable girl around.
You, too, can learn from Marcia and take a runway look to the street—one that will still look enviably chic twenty years from now. “Stick to simple silhouettes, but try them in loud patterns,” Taufield says, pointing to the wallpaper-style print on a Miu Miu pilgrim dress. “Nothing too over-the-top, or too tied to trends—timeless pieces are timeless for a reason."
