Though confectionery clothing seems to dominate next spring`s fashion by its very festive nature, there really will be an alternative way of dressing. Both are short, of course, but while one deals with bouffant silhouettes and highly decorative accents, the other is lean and clean-in some instances, so forthright, so pared-down that it`s almost minimal.
Sort of like wedding cakes and breadsticks, as it were.
After two weeks of spring previews here for retailers and the press, this sleek and racy, thoroughly modern look emerged as a major factor in the season ahead, particularly among designers from the sportswear branch of fashion.
What they have in common is a focus on the body and a distaste for unnecessary detailing. Fabric doesn`t play as great a part in differentiating their style philosophies.
Take lace, for example: An omnipresent trend for spring, it`s a favorite among the designers who adore looking back to the 18th Century for their panniers, bustles, leg-o`mutton sleeves and petticoats, as well as among designers who espouse mini-dresses of the sexiest sort. Witness Calvin Klein`s little silver lace number on Style`s cover.
Granted, Klein did show some playful little short-skirted dresses in iris-printed ivory silk, but he was really among the leaders of the short, sexy and unadorned school of thought (with his charmeuse Jean Harlow dresses, his strict high-rise trousers and crisp boleros, his stringbean silhouettes and siren moods), while Louis dell`Olio interpreted the contemporary image in a different way in the Anne Klein collection.
Dell`Olio maintained the all-American wearable look with easy-fitting print shorts and big knit cardigans over halters and bras, but also included some second-skin jerseys with shirring details. Though shirring is almost synonymous with the decorative school-the Ungaros and de la Rentas-dell`Olio merely shirred the midriff of a turtlenecked halter dress and came off looking very forward indeed.
BODY LANGUAGE
In still another interpretation, Cathy Hardwick created mostly stretch dresses and items that might have to be peeled off for her downtown girls. Carmelo Pomodoro, known primarily for his easy-fitting knits, stayed very close to the body in his primarily monochromatic peachy, ivory and khaki collection, while Michael Kors, who also preferred soft colors, often juxtaposed shapes (big straight blazers over tube skirts that fit like bathing-suit bottoms, voluminous shirts tucked into little-nothing shorts, blithely mixing textures along the way such as suede, linen and silk).
In a surprise move, Carolyne Roehm abandoned the shirred-and-flounced group, of which she was a charter member, and reveled in the `60s with a collection of welt-seamed, nearly architectural dresses and suits, with low-slung belts often her prime accessory. Though Roehm worked in some of the strong colors of the season, such as hot pink, orange and purple, she chose glaring, almost harsh, shades that made her architectural mode even more intense.
Patricia Pastor, in her first solo collection for Perry Ellis, walked softly but in a fairly straight line. Certainly more simple than frivolous, she concentrated on variations of a double-breasted waist-length jacket and very short skirt sculpted into a curvy shape via diagonal pleating from the waist, plus cropped pants, toreadors, capris and shorts with a variety of cropped sweaters and good-looking shirts. Her big floral print in magenta, black and burgundy and her little Empire dresses put her in the gentle camp, but not exactly with the pouf crowd.
THE SPORTIVE LIFE
Ralph Lauren most successfully married contemporary and romantic, particularly with his simple little sporty tops (even a racer-back style) in jersey worn with double-tiered taffeta skirts-or crew-neck sweaters over double-layered twirly chiffon skirts. Reflecting his alliance with the sportive, he also put together a little navy cashmere sweater with lean pants, but he chose pink satin for the pants and added a sweet note by outlining the neckline and sleeves with white organza ruffles, one of the season`s most charming juxtapositions.
So totally modern and totally distinctive that it belongs in a category by itself was the collection of up-and-comer David Cameron, who introduced zoot suits (high-waisted pegged pants and big, long coat-jackets in red stripes on yellow), long jackets over short skirts, black leather jackets over stretch tops and the tiniest wrap skirts shown anywhere, plus the smallest
(and sheerest) sequined dresses. Though a little bathing-suit-type dress had some flippy little ruffles at the bottom, they were sassy, planets apart from Scaasi`s and Victor Costa`s-as far apart as the Upper East Side and Harlem, Cameron`s inspiration.
Donna Karan, who closed the spring showings with yet another super-sophisticated collection, said her inspiration is her customer, and that woman wants ”shapely, sexy, flirty clothes.” So Karan delivered.
Though she pretended to be just an old-fashioned girl by putting bows atop her models` French twists and including lacy garden-party hats, she is very today with her tied, wrapped, draped skirts and bare-shouldered or bare- backed tops, her very long jackets draped just across one hip and
”buttoned” with a big black silk flower.
Karan uses carnation and daisy-patterned stretch lace and even hand-crocheted shells, but these softening touches don`t detract from the modern message. Karan, incidentally, has as many pants styles (including jumpsuits, culottes, shorts) as she did skirts.
Geoffrey Beene, who preceded Karan`s presentation, showed a collection that was pure signature Beene: a very strong show of tent dresses, even more little boleros and big puffy skirts, lots of pants and jumpsuits (but wider than last season`s skinnies) as well as clothes that fit his favorite word,
”modernity”-long lightly shaped jackets or neat spencers over slim skirts, often in a favorite pattern of the season, polka dots. Beene goes his own way, no matter what other fashion arbiters are saying or doing; he even included a few (no more than half a dozen) ankle-length dresses (granted, for late day, not daytime), which were greeted by little spatters of applause.
The strongest advocates of the effervescent school of fashion continue to be the designers who cater to ladies who lunch and who buy in salons, though even these couture-level types had their moments playing around with things tailored as well as frothy.
Carolina Herrera, for example, was one of the strongest advocates of shorts for evening, especially tailored tuxedo versions, though she made a bigger splash with her black sequined ones worn beneath a long, trailing ruffle-trimmed organza skirt.
Bill Blass, too, acknowledged pants by turning out some pantsuits dandified with the aid of a walking stick, as well as some daytime suits minus petticoats. But his heart is obviously more attuned to the youthful gingham-checked dresses with puffy sleeves he showed, or the strapless dresses with ball-shaped skirts. Nevertheless, a star in the Blass collection is a long, body-skimming red silk dress-with simple long sleeves and high round neck-with a very gentle swirl of overlapping ruffles at the hemline. –
