They do not design floral sarongs for men, just as they do not design thick-soled, masculine oxfords for women.
The background music they choose for their fashion showings is not the screeching of birds mingled with jungle drums, nor is it raucous rock. Their kind of sound is Sinatra and ”Love for Sale” and other such sultry stuff.
After the models have made their final pivots, and it`s time for them to come into the spotlight, these designers do not walk down the runways in jeans and sneakers with hair disheveled or sweat upon their brows. They stride down confidently, wearing pristine shirts with their impeccably cut double-breasted suits that sport the flourish of a colorful pocket square. As they acknowledge their applause, they toss a little kiss here, give a little wave there, bestow a little smile.
These are the ladies` men–the designers who create clothes for women who dress to please men, to upstage other women and to satisfy their particular needs.
They are the tres formidable trio of fashion: Valentino of Rome and Parisians Emanuel Ungaro and Yves Saint Laurent.
They are the masters of clothes that glorify the body, do wonderful things for the ego and make a woman look rich as well. Even their sportive clothes make a woman look as though she`s going somewhere special, perhaps taking a jaunt to the vault to pick up the jewels, certainly not heading for the Jewel to pick up the veggies.
The word ”androgyny” probably has never crossed the lips of these designers of female clothes. They do create trousers for women, but when they put women in pants, they make those pants the ones with the best fit and then make them flirtatiously appealing by teaming them with soft blouses or cashmere sweaters, with sexy high-heeled shoes, divine hats and tons of golden or silver or even sparkly bijoux.
During the fall ready-to-wear shows that were presented here to retailers and press in the last two weeks, this trio of designers won raves for their collections. Though each was distinctly different, their common thread was luxurious, body-conscious clothing for women of the world.
Of the three, no one can do the glamorous sweater or the seductive second-skin evening gown as well as Valentino. But he`s no slouch, either, when it comes to putting together an absolutely sensational daytime ensemble. For fall and winter, Valentino has designed slim skirts that will, of course, always show perfect knees; pleated pants that are slim but not tight. He makes leather blouses for daytime that are tucked and pleated as though they were linen. His sweaters are a combination of cashmere and astrakhan. He uses a lacy leather for jackets and skirts, and quilts suede and satin with equal flair. He piles luxury upon luxury, but it doesn`t look gauche; it merely looks as though someone else is paying the bills–certainly not this damsel with the perfect nails.
But it is at night that Valentino shines with his sinuous gowns, long and short, that are so simple. Just a little bareness here, a little detail there –such as a perky hot pink bow placed at the hipline–and voila: sexy elegance.
A master of detail, Valentino always makes sure his mannequins are absolutely perfect before they appear on the runway. Just-so blue eyeshadow. Red, red lips. There is a story, perhaps apocryphal but delicious nonethless, that for one of his showings Valentino engaged the models for the whole day, even though his presentation was not until 5:30 p.m.
During the day the models were pampered by having their nails manicured and their toes polished in a red to match exactly the red of his collection. The point was to make them feel totally cared for, to give them an attitude of perfection as they walked down the runway.
Attitude has a lot to do with the way these clothes are shown. Everyone notices that the models walk a different way, sway their hips with a little extra sauciness, hold their heads higher when they wear these clothes that are rich lady by day and femme fatale by night.
For example, when wearing Saint Laurent`s clothes, they know that the world is watching and they give off a special hauteur. Though he is often called the world`s most influential designer and the king of fashion in Paris, he has really not revolutionized fashion or created anything that has made worldwide headlines for some years.
What he does, though, is make clothes that sell, clothes that are copied, clothes that women want to wear.
In his fall showing, for example, he used jersey over and over again, in surprisingly short skirts, in a cowl-necked chemise that will become a classic and in pullover tops that sort of kiss but do not strangle the body. Though some of those skirts were jeune fille, the models carried them off with the same sophistication they generally save for evening gowns.
But short is Saint Laurent`s secondary message. More important are his broad-shouldered, superbly cut short and long coats, his new cocoon wrap in jersey and his simple evening looks.
Among Saint Laurent`s best for evening: an understated but drop-dead red panne velvet long wrap dress, a trio of black draped gowns with pastel moire spencers, a mix of textures via suede pants with a velvet strapless bodice and an evening coat of silk splashed with enormous red roses. Best, perhaps, was the utter simplicity of a model wearing a red silk shirt, its shoulders wide enough to make the hips look even narrower in a black silk crepe skirt. A wide belt, a neckline filled with frankly fake jewels, long dangling earrings
–there is hardly a woman who would not envy the throwaway chic of that ensemble.
Understated chic is hardly the forte of Emanuel Ungaro, whose middle name is ”sensual”–the mood he always incorporates in his collection. He certainly did not fail in his fall collection, which was sizzling hot from the opening pink, green and purple jackets through the draped evening gowns in the same palette.
The clothes, as always, are an evolution of his previous designs, since his spirit is always the same: feminine. He says his newest group, though, are even more ”liquid” than in the past, meaning they are softer, show far more draping and shirring, particularly in blouses to accompany his mixed-pattern suits and in his evening gowns.
For fall, he has added many more long skirts than in recent seasons, but they are provocative nevertheless. Some are wrapped softly like sarongs, some are back wrapped in such a way that motion makes them devastatingly yet subtly sexy. They are surely not that way by chance.
The ensembles featuring the long skirts are the best examples of Ungaro`s penchant for mixing fabrics, patterns and colors; this time he does them in a more subtle and gentle palette (avocado, mustard, pale rose, blues and greens, lilac) and in soft silks and wool challis.
But Ungaro will always love the short skirt for his nonexecutive-dressing suits of black-and-white plaids and checks mixed with velvet (or an occasional fur sweat shirt top) and especially for his silk evening dresses. At one point in his showing, he had more than a dozen models on the stage in his short and sassy silk dresses–all draped or shirred or otherwise body-enhancing–in orange and fuchsia and violet and blue and other such luscious colors, with each model wearing sheer black hose and hot pink satin shoes. At that moment, every one in that audience knew that Ungaro`s fall collection was a winner, and any woman who would wear one of those dresses would win just about anything she`d want.
The shoes, of course, helped a bit. They always do. This is something these three designers know, just as every woman knows: Flat heels may be comfortable, but high heels can get you where you`re going even faster.
Until Valentino`s showing, nearly every designer had shown only flat shoes. Valentino didn`t show a single flat, and the shoes he did show had the thinnest heels (often encrusted with sparkles), the wispiest ankle straps, the sexiest cut of all. Ungaro, too, stayed strictly with heels. Saint Laurent did show a flat or two (simple black patent), but even with his shortest minis showed a new style with crossed straps over the instep.
They know that oxfords are not a girl`s best friend.
