When autumn days grow shorter, expect to see skirts do the same, say Italy`s fashion cognoscenti. In their collections for next fall and winter, Milanese designers cut to the calendar, scissoring up a tight-fitting season patterned on short days and long nights.
Although there is no hard line on hemlines here, short tops the news. Less is clearly more in the view of many designers, some of whose skirts climb the thigh to the skimpy length of an Arctic winter day, while others prefer to hover provocatively just above the knee. For women less enamored of wearing minis in a shivering season, longer lengths form part of almost every collection, particularly for evening, when slim or full, swirling skirts often sweep the floor.
Milan`s hot and heavy spring affair with frou-frou has cooled to a light fall flirtation, with petticoats, ruffles and lace appearing primarily as pleasant serendipities in an otherwise gently streamlined season.
Last season`s bella donna still lives here, but she whispers her femininity through the curves of a tight torso, the sensuality of stretch fabrics and the softening of shoulders, whose padding has been melted away to the point of evaporation.
Other hot topics on the Italian fashion agenda for fall:
— Bottom lines: The newest hemline turns inward, whether in a subtle bubble or in the most delicate of wineglass shapes. Other favorites: straight or skaters` skirts and pleated pants.
— Tight fits: The closer the better, particularly on the top, where close-fitting jackets and stretch fabrics do the trick. The influence of Romeo Gigli`s skin-tight looks lurks behind the snap in this new interest in elasticity.
— Top coats: The freshest look is shorter in a tent shape that fits snugly on top before breaking into a full skirt that swirls around the knees. — Shearlings: Hotter than ever, showing up in prints, glossily lacquered colors and even pile-side-out, especially in jackets and knee-length coats.
— Textures: Pleated, puckered, waffled and ruched looks.
— Color: Brown, from espresso through palest cappuccino, is the new neutral, with dark or dusty jewel tones playing supporting roles in solids and plaids. Black dominates the night.
— Finishing touches: The big shawl or stole is the key accessory, whether in ribbed cashmere, leather or knitted wool. Also: large button earrings, wide belts or corselets, pale makeup and hair that is soft and loose or caught back in a knot or braid.
Among Milan`s top guns, Giorgio Armani and Gianfranco Ferre kept their aim high and true, delivering the season`s most impeccable collections. Among the younger crowd, Byblos beat out the pack, showing a lively collection, as imaginative as it was wearable.
Set to leisurely, `30s-style music, the gentle collection presented by Armani had the quality of slow dancing: soft, intimate and discreetly sensual. Using a palette based on brown and gray tones in combination with eggplant, celadon green, peach and French blue, Milan`s top tailor played it softly, simply and masterfully.
Armani`s new look
Showing short and long looks, Armani sent out a collection headlined by his new ”harem” hems on skirts and pants. Sometimes this means a fully turned-under, fluid bubble effect, but it is prettiest when it`s achieved by the application of a thin binding just heavy enough to give the hem a subtle, inward curve. Equally important here was the new, long, tight-fitted jackets, in plaids or solids. These topped wide, loose, ribbed wool pants, ”harem”
skirts and straight wrap skirts, short or long. Other highlights included new midriff-cropped vests and shirt trims in matching fabrics to jackets; white silk blouses with trompe l`oeil stylized black bows; and elegant black passementerie-style buttons and frog closures.
At night, Armani dimmed the lights and turned up the romance with short, tight brown velvet jackets over full floral-print skirts riding on a froth of petticoats or full, rippling silk skirts with just a hint of lace peeking out from beneath them. There were also long evening tunics over wide pleated pants and chocolate-brown chiffon strapless dresses with thick wrapping at the bosom.
Some of the same themes came out in his Emporio Armani collection, shown earlier along with his terrific Armani jeans line.
Designed for a younger woman–or man–the Emporio line is about one-third to one-half the price of the regular Armani line; the jeans are even less expensive. Currently available at Armani`s own New York boutique, these lines will eventually be sold in about 150 Emporio Armani stores in the U.S., starting with New York and Los Angeles in 1988.
Meanwhile, Gianfranco Ferre, Milan`s portly architect-turned-designer, took the same idea of luxurious simplicity, rendered it in more dramatically architectural terms and presented an equally stunning collection.
In a show almost devoted to short skirts, Ferre presented sensational collarless steel-blue ribbed cashmere coats lined with glossy black mink;
short and long fitted collarless jackets over narrow skirts skimming the knee; and probably the prettiest blouse in Milan, in white silk with a single black button anchoring the high, stand-up collar.
Ferre`s sleek, strapless navy silk evening dress, with its fan of white pleated ruffles, rising like a quiver from the low back; his full cyclamen-pink-and-black-striped taffeta skirts; and his tight black jersey dresses appliqued with giant corded whorls were among the evening looks that brought this collection a rousing ovation at its finish.
Alpine accents
Alan Cleaver and Keith Varty, the young English designers of Byblos, took to the high ground this season with looks inspired by the Scottish Highlands and the Bavarian Alps. Their classy Scots lassies wore pleated tartan skirts in mini and long lengths, paired with handknit sweaters in hearts-and-flowers motifs. Their coats, in the same dark jewel tones, had neat pointed collars and plenty of swing from an inverted back pleat. On the Alpine front, Byblos sent out short wool jackets embroidered with stylized flowers over short, twirly skaters` skirts and slim, straight pants paired with white turtlenecks embroidered like the trim on Bavarian chalets.
For evening, many of the same themes returned, but this time in velvets, silks and taffetas sparked with jeweled embroidery. Fresh and thoughtful, the collection was delightfully pretty, young and wearable.
Gianni Versace, one of Milan`s most important and talented designers, showed off his superior engineering ability in a collection that was often more technically impressive than it was wearable. This man probably has the loveliest coats in Milan and the most precisely tailored suits, which were the highlights of the collection. Less understandable were the man-tailored jackets over microscopic skirts, which were pleated to look like–and fit like –bandages, and his new ”box-cut” shoulders, which literally look as if milk cartons were stuffed into them.
Animal instincts
Meanwhile, at Fendi, Karl Lagerfeld proved his animal instinct is as sharp as ever, transforming the most luxurious furs into the most alluring shapes. Newest this season: the short, swingy tent coat in both wool and in various furs, such as mink, sable and broadtail. What makes this collection continually impressive is that Lagerfeld succeeds as deftly with the fabric portion of the show as he does with the furs, which duplicate the fabric shapes.
In the skins department, Mario Valentino scored a major coup this season with his leather collection done in simple, elegant shapes by a new designer, a Saint Laurent-trained Japanese named Toshi Moon.
At Krizia, Mariuccia Mandelli turned out some terrific metallic-washed, Chinese-printed shearling jackets, sensuous jersey tent dresses and witty panda-motif sweaters–all of which were almost lost in the glare of her solid gold evening segment.
Milan`s knit wizards, the Missonis and Laura Biagiotti, respectively sent out some of the season`s most vibrantly colored and luxurious knitwear, the Missonis working in a paisley motif and Biagiotti turning ribbed cashmere coats and separates into the softest of fashions.
Franco Moschino, the bad boy of Milan, showed a ”Shopping Bag Lady Collection” this time, making the point that anything goes with anything. Chanel-inspired jackets trimmed in gold over long pleated skirts trotted down the runway beside pink moire frock coats over tight leather minidresses in this pleasant costume party of a collection. —
