Dropping in on the dropped-out generation, British fashion designers tuned in to the Hare Krishna beat and turned out collections that let the sunshine in for spring-summer, 1989.
London`s neo-hippie look, drawn from the `60s street and so-called Acid House club scene here, is an Oriental-Occidental hybrid. Spangled chiffon saris, midriff-baring halters, mirror-embroidered vests, snug sarongs, hip-hugging bell-bottom pants and cropped Moroccan jackets underscore the upbeat, ”Hair”-raising revival.
The Asian, Arabic and Haight-Ashbury themes reflect the Love Generation`s indiscriminate fondness for hashish-scented souks, Tibetan lamaseries and the meditative mysteries of the mystical East.
If tinged with nostalgia for the Swinging `60s, when London rocked and now-moribund King`s Road was paved with fashion gold, this magical mystery tour mood has added some needed zest to British fashion.
It is doubtful that there is a sari in her well-tailored future, but Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher is all for anything that keeps Britain`s third-largest industry alive and kicking up interest abroad.
To show her support, she launched British Fashion Week with a weekend reception at No. 10 Downing Street. Hosting about 200 international retailers, press and designers, including a small contingent from Italy, she also presented the 1988 British Designer of the Year Award to Rifat Ozbek.
Though she got a bit muddled on such details as the location of the 34-year-old Ozbek`s birth (Istanbul, not Liverpool) and his training (London, not Milan), the prime minister displayed a clear vision of the bigger picture when she drummed home the importance of excellent management and efficient marketing in her remarks to the crowd.
As the cocktail party progressed in No. 10`s freshly redecorated blue-and cream-silk-lined salons, the prime minister moved among her guests, chatting easily about her fashion philosophy but less freely about her views on the upcoming U.S. presidential elections.
She said she had caught part of the first presidential debate via the Cable News Network hookup at Downing Street, but she refused to comment on the candidates or their running mates.
A staunch friend of President Reagan, who was elected to his first term the year after she became prime minister, Thatcher and her husband, Denis, are slated to make a farewell visit to the White House next month.
A tall, imposing woman with a sleek blond coif, the head of Britain`s
”governess government” possesses innate sartorial savvy that holds up even against the fashionable Nancy Reagan.
At the reception, Thatcher, who turns 63 on Thursday, looked trim in a silky cocktail suit done in brown and bronze overized houndstooth checks, with hemline 2 inches below her knees. In place of her signature pearls, she wore jet and diamante Art Deco earrings and a lapel pin. Everything came from the British company Aquascutum, which provides her with almost ”everything but her underwear,” according to Marianne Abrahams, fashion director of the company, which recently opened a Chicago branch at 900 N. Michigan Ave.
Knees clearly were still a sore point with Thatcher, who indulged in some spirited mini-skirt bashing at last spring`s shows. ”You really must look at them when you sit down,” she cautioned a gaggle of guests. ”The knee and the back of the knee are not the most beautiful parts of a woman`s anatomy.”
Spying the skimpy skirt on a suit worn by a British editor, she lectured the pained, but rapt, journalist about proportion. ”To be elegant, a suit must be right for you, not for a model in a showroom,” she said, firmly suggesting that the skirt be lengthened by a few inches.
When the editor meekly informed the prime minister that the offending skirt was made by the legendary French designer Yves Saint Laurent, Thatcher shot back, ”Well, tell him to do it, and you tell him I told you to tell him so.”
Among many of the British guests there were murmurs of anxiety over the buying plans of the Americans, Britain`s fourth-largest apparel market. Due to the controversial decision of the French to delay the Paris spring shows, leaving a week`s hiatus between the conclusion of the London showings and the start of the Paris collections, many budget-conscious U.S. stores did not attend the runway shows in Milan or London.
Nevertheless, many, including Chicago`s Marshall Field & Co., came to both cities on buying appointments.
”I try to find something here that`s younger and advanced and that makes a good balance between Milan and Paris,” said Raleigh Glassberg, a buyer from Fields. Noting that she looks to London for its whimsy, she added, ”Not everything has to be so structured and serious. There has to be something that provides a little relief.”
Said Ellin Saltzman, vice president and fashion director at Saks Fifth Avenue, ”I think there are two things we come to London for. There is still an inspiration alive here to be had from the young people on the streets and from the boutiques.”
Indeed, after a two-year dry spell, the streets once again are rich in fashion fodder for grazing visitors.
After a quick look at the London kids, a glance in the shops and an eyeful of the runways, impressionable, relentlessly chic fashion editors became so ravenous for things Eastern that they seemed ready to trade their Chanels for chadors. Local British writers ransacked the depths of their closets for Indian-printed skirts, macrame tops, embroidered jackets and other forgotten finery; while foreign visitors piled on sequined chiffon scarves, amber beads and every bit of brass jewelry they could lay their hands on.
Indeed, the trend-spotting accessories company Pink Soda, known in recent seasons for playful renditions of Chanel jewelry and Hermes scarves, put some fizz into its spring line with mirror-embroidered bags and vests, peace-symbol jewelry, dangly beaded earrings and, above all, a slew of items sporting the now-ubiquitous yellow Happy Face motif.
Long a favorite of romantic schoolgirls the world over, this sunny disc-shaped symbol has returned as the emblem of the Acid House movement here.
Characterized by a craze for hyperkinetic ”trance-dancing” to fast-paced, up-tempo music and a penchant for acid-toned, psychedelic clothes, the young inhabitants of the Acid House scene are also known for a
relentlessly cheerful demeanor, helped, some say, by liberal use of the designer drug Ecstasy.
”Unfortunately, there is a certain amount of that, but it`s not predominant. It`s a question of enjoying yourself,” said David Solomon, Pink Soda`s managing director.
”It started in the London clubs about a year ago as a revival of `60s and `70s music with a very repetitive beat and everyone wanting to dance.
”It`s really a total revival of the `60s, which has been tried before, but which London really brought back because the club scene is so strong,” he said, referring to the current crop of hot clubs, with names such as the Trip and Hedonism, featuring groups called High on Hope and Baby Love among others. Meanwhile, on the spring runways there was no shortage of the ethnic-hippie influence from the young Ozbek to the grande dame of London fashion, Jean Muir.
In one of the best collections shown here this season, Ozbek rode the Marrakesh Express with a host of clean, elegantly sensuous looks inspired by Morocco, with a whistle stop in Tibet.
Short cropped jackets touched with embroidery slipped over simple midriff-baring tops and striped cropped pants or calf-length sarongs in tones of sand, mulberry, navy, olive and gray, with occasional accents of animal-printed silk.
For evening, the same shapes returned, but were reinterpreted in sheer chiffons or crystalline iridescent georgettes traced with sequins and metallic embroideries of stars and moons.
Richard Nott and Graham Fraser, the designers behind Workers for Freedom, found their ethnic spark in polar regions, with an Eskimo-inspired collection that delighted with its snowy sheer linen petal-collared blouses; long, slim wrapped skirts; smart pleated pants; and short curvy jackets-all done in icy northern lights colors and frosted with floral and totem-motif embroideries.
Katharine Hamnett, the politically outspoken, controversial bad girl of London design, put on a rollicking collection featuring ”funked-up hippie”
looks to an album`s worth of vintage songs by the Rolling Stones.
Highlights at Hamnett included a long, lean Oriental tunic over slim white pants, shapley fitted dresses swirling around the calf and sexy sarong skirts mated with linen vests.
Jasper Conran and John Galliano, traditionally two of London`s strongest young designers, stepped to the beat of their own bongo drummer.
In a collection that lacked his usual spark, Conran pulled out some winners in his skin-baring back-tied vests over full, pleated pants, and with his fluttering tunics over flared skirts in sheer blue-and-white batik-printed silk.
Galliano, an imaginative designer with superb cutting skill, let things get a little too complicated much of the time in a collection that worked best with long, lean macrame tunics over ankle-length silk skirts, and clean halter tops over high-waisted pants with wide pleated legs.
Betty Jackson and Jean Muir also captured the hip flavor with subtle, elegant interpretations of saris, sarongs, wide pants and crystal-pleated chiffon accents of the season.
Showing in exhibition hall booths this season, Bruce Oldfield, Arabella Pollen, Wendy Dagworthy and Ben de Lisi for Benedetto also were standouts.
As usual, London`s doyenne of wacky street fashion, Vivienne Westwood, who mothered the punk look and knows from whence the hippies came, wrapped up British Fashion Week with a brilliant sendup of the season. Spoofing the sari, she sent out Tarzanlike, animal-print versions over platform shoes and a platoon of acid-toned sarongs and bra tops trimmed in dangling sun, moon and stars symbols.
The French spring-summer, 1989, fashion shows will get underway in Paris next week.
