Spring should be one of the prettiest and perkiest fashion seasons in years, with all of its flirty flounces, gentle pastels and posy prints. Surprisingly, it also will be quite palatable to women who like their clothes sleek and unencumbered with fussy details, as well as to those who prefer the quirkiness of retro dressing–the ones who think ”cutting-edge” means looking back to the `50s and `60s.
The most blatant fashion message focuses on petticoats and ruffles. Even Donna Karan and Calvin Klein included frivolous underpinnings in their collections. But they also show totally modern clothing, which indicates that spring will be a season of contrasts–in moods, silhouettes, colors. There are clothes that clutch the figure and others that skim it, hues that are strident or soothing, shapes that are familiar and others that haven`t ever been seen by the women expected to buy them. Occasionally, some collections have all of the above.
Still, there is at least one common denominator in next spring`s clothes: Most are very, very female. There is nothing androgynous about these offerings. Jackets are shaped; if they are oversized and boxy, then they are teamed with a bottom that concentrates on the figure. Even pants–be they `50s capris, palazzo pajamas or softly pleated classics–certainly can`t be mistaken for men`s trousers, especially when they are coupled with the season`s most ubiquitous signature: the strapless or off-the-shoulder top.
HEAVY HITTERS SCORE
Though the two weeks` worth of showings got off to a dangerously beruffled start, last week the heavy hitters came on strong with their own unique styles, sometimes distinctly American and clean-lined, sometimes with a profusion of ruffles that would put some French designers to shame.
This diversity really hit home on the day the show schedule included Adrienne Vittadini, Ralph Lauren, Oscar de la Renta, Mary Ann Restivo and Norbury and Osuna.
Vittadini came through with her usual array of working-girl knits (long, short, easy, skinny), plus lots of tight knit cropped pants, some little ribbed numbers reminiscent of `60s poor-boy sweaters and even squiggly patterns that looked psychedelic.
Ralph Lauren`s four-star collection centered on long, graceful silk skirts, first in ivory and pastels in tiny rosebud prints worn with bare-armed tops that fit closely, followed by a group in black-and-white prints.
There was a new sophistication in the Lauren woman via softly tailored jackets (in glen plaid or florals) shown with bias-cut flared skirts, plus black lacquered hats with brims like those that were once called cartwheels, crocodile high-heeled sandals and belts. Lauren`s only concession to ruffles: Two silk organza blouses (worn with black silk pants) had some subtle ripples around their necklines. Pretty, not razzmatazz.
Lauren retains his own style, yet grows with every collection. He does things like petticoats and flounced prairie skirts when the mood strikes him, not when everybody else does them.
De la Renta, no stranger to the world of fit, flare and froufrou, delivered the expected and then some: flamenco ruffles and petticoated dresses and some of the crispest peplums to hit New York. He did it with such wit, such joie de vivre, even ruffle-haters had to smile.
There were fitted torso taffetas with an explosion of ruffles that continued into a train; princess-styled dresses in red-on-white stripes, over innumerable petticoats. But for every bit of fluff, there was a simple something: a long column of hot-pink silk baring one shoulder; a black wool crepe gown, absolutely minimalist except for its feminine shaping and its brief bolero jacket. One of his best collections, it was a refreshing balance of two totally different types of drop-dead dressing.
Off in a different direction was Mary Ann Restivo, a friend to the career woman, whose forte is in the area of things like white cotton knit shirt-styled dresses with long flared hems, a terrific navy crepe jumpsuit gently gathered below the waist for a softening effect, slim and short tobacco cotton dresses primly trimmed with white collar and cuffs, plus a flounced skirt or two for evening. Restrained, but not boring.
And at dusk came Norbury and Osuna, as different from their predecessors on the day`s schedule as Jean-Paul Gaultier is from Yves Saint Laurent, as different as Liz Claiborne from Bob Mackie. Their shapes are extremes:
bubbles; a two-tiered tent dress giving the body the appearance of a triangle; a tank-topped trapeze.
They are avant-garde, they are inventive, they are for the young woman who wants something totally different–someone who would die for a pink wool suit with long, boxy jacket over an off-the-shoulder cuffed top, with rows and rows and rows of tiny ruffles from beneath the bust to the hemline, becoming so wide that the skirt becomes almost horizontal.
And so it went.
The day before, Calvin Klein made news by including some crinolined dresses in his collection. But the bulk of the clothes were truly Calvin:
long, flowing checked coats over classic wide-cut pants; some evening beauties in white silk, consisting of pants with crew- or halter-necked tops banded in navy, and suits in one of the silhouettes of the season, the long jacket over flippy skirt. He proved that he could do petticoats, but when his model, Josie Borain, came out as the bride in the finale wearing pants and a cuffed, off-the-shoulder blouse, his statement on simplicity was clear.
David Cameron put modern and retro together with his jeans-type jackets in leather with big circle skirts in matching leather over a bevy of crinolines. His flare-back coats go over tenty dresses. With him, everything is short.
Bill Blass provided the best bubble skirt of the showings (a purplish-and-gold-printed taffeta) with marigold linen jacket, plus some of the most ladylike tailored suits (Chanelish in snakeskin) and a few suits with full skirts underscored with a petticoat or two. He also created little black dresses with discreet as well as indiscreet ruffless that will sell, sell, sell.
Louis Dell`Olio called cropped pants the pants of the season, and if Dell`Olio says so, it might be worth a listen. The designer of the Anne Klein collections, Dell`Olio (just dubbed by Newsweek ”a singular sensation”) was the first American designer to show short, flirty little dance-hall-girl numbers (velvet turtlenecks with full satin skirts over petticoats) for this current fall season, and they`re enjoying tremendous success with his customers.
Now, he says no to crinolines and instead says bareness is the signature this time around. His own favorites for spring: strapless tops, tight pants, drawstrings and easy, boxy jackets, plus a flounced skirt or two in leaf and zigzag patterns.
Juxtaposition is also a favorite theme with Dell`Olio and other designers: loose over tight; curvy silhouettes ending in pleats or flounces;
mixes of patterns.
And Donna Karan closed the week`s showing with one of her most comprehensive spring collections. She discovered the most beautiful pink in the world (pale but not babyish), expanded her repertoire of pants to include free-flying pajamas and made the blazer look new as well as the pivotal part of her collection by lengthening it to below the hips, extending the shoulderline and showing it with everything from pants to bowed dance skirts. Her wrapped tops are winners, along with her color palette and a skirt with a sophisticated bow–a contradiction in terms that only a Karan can manage.
SIGNATURES OF SPRING
Other signatures of this particular spring include:
— The off-the-shoulder cuffed neckline, a specialty at Calvin Klein.
— A penchant for the nautical, particularly at Carolyne Roehm, where the theme ranges from simply elegant navy jersey strapless dresses edged in a bit of gold braid to more noticeable bodices beaded by Francois Lesage in navy, gold and white seagoing themes.
— Bows. On bodices and behinds–and occasionally on shoulders as well.
— Flowers. Pretty lavish fakes, studding skirts at Blass, necklines at Norbury and Osuna, waistlines at Roehm.
— Glen plaid, diversely treated: a double-breasted suit with full skirts and petticoats at Blass; a short jacket and bubble skirt over pink draped blouse at Roehm; long, belted jacket over flippy, flared short skirt at Calvin Klein; a brief, flyaway-back jacket in an oversized pattern, worn with slim pants in normal-sized glen, by Joan Vass. —
