Trendlet: The dickey

These days, fashion is as much about function as it is about style: Oversize scarves are doubling as skirts, cocoon coats are reversible, and fitness trackers look like jewelry. Hence, the latest zip-into-the-blazer, zip-out-of-the-blazer trend, the dickey.

The dickey adds instant, bulk-free texture and layering under tailored moto jackets and fitted blazers you're likely pairing this winter with distressed jeans, leather leggings, and herringbone pencil skirts.

The term dickey refers to the starched shirtfront men tucked into cummerbunds rather than wearing dress shirts that were hard to launder.

Women wore chemisettes - lace inserts that turned corseted dresses with plunging necklines into appropriate day wear. Chemisettes became more like shirts in the early 1900s, when menswear influences infiltrated women's fashion. But by the 1920s, they were out of favor.

After a brief moment in style in the 1950s - think Peter Pan collar meets cardigan sweater - dickeys became popular in the 1970s, smoothing out the turtleneck-under-the-leather-jacket look.

Five years ago, New York sportswear label Veronica Beard, eponymously named after a pair of sisters-in-law, launched its line with a blazer and dickey. As the layered look became trendy, dickeys got hot, and Veronica Beard now offers dickeys in leather, chunky cable knits, and quilted fabrics.

Lupita Nyong'o, Gwyneth Paltrow, Jennifer Garner, and Main Line fashionistas. Word has it Veronica Beard's blazer-fashioned-from-scuba-material-and-leather-dickey combo was on many a suburban mom's Christmas wish list.

Yes. I'm particularly intrigued with the Veronica Beard heather-gray hoodie dickey - with drawstring. But at $195 for a partial shirt, I'm going to have to cut out the sleeves of an old zip-up jacket and pray for smoothness.

Sure. There is no way you can blunder this pairing. Think of it as a sophisticated Garanimals for adults.

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