Was it just a year ago that ”mini” and ”pouf” were the only words in fashion? That Lacroix was the only designer being talked about, praised, copied? That Jean-Paul Gaultier was practically the only designer anywhere who was turning out floppy, wide pants?
It was indeed in the fall of `87 that designers here and everywhere were enraptured with the mini-so much so that Emanuel Ungaro, for example, presented dresses for spring that looked exactly like swimsuits.
It was just last fall that Christian Lacroix introduced his first
”Luxe” collection, awash with poufs and posies that inspired manufacturers everywhere to go on a binge of color, flower power and short-and-puffy clothes.
And it was just last fall that pants rarely were seen on a Parisian runway, except for some designed by a young French rebel who showed them with bare-shouldered jackets encircled with a chiffon scarf.
Now it is fall of `88 and Women`s Wear Daily has coined yet another theme-”Pants Power”-and calls the Luxe collection of Christian Lacroix ”an homage to `60s kitsch” and describes his ready-to-wear line for next spring as ”flawed.”
Where`s the mini?
Poor ”pouf” is absent from the fashion lexicon-and scene-and pants proliferate; nobody mentions the word ”mini,” even though short skirts are abundant on the runways and on women of both the Right and Left Banks.
”Simple” is in; ”frivolous” is out; ”sheer” is now divine; once-popular taffeta is now absurd.
What a difference a year makes!
What happened from October to October, the month when European designers show what they want women to wear the next spring?
There is the swing-of-the-pendulum theory, of course; fashion wouldn`t be fashion if it were not to change. But it`s no secret that retail business has been bad and everyone is searching for the secret that will make women start buying again.
”Women rejected short skirts,” says Ellin Saltzman, senior vice president and fashion director for all Saks Fifth Avenue stores.
”Women wanted the freedom to choose from a variety of clothes, to look au courant without being in a uniform,” maintains Daria Retian, vice president of creative communications for Neiman Marcus.
The boredom factor
”Any time that there is just one idea dominating, fashion becomes boring and women get bored of shopping and seeing each other in the same kinds of clothes,” according to Ultimo`s Joan Weinstein.
So fashion is all over the place right now, as designers apparently attempt to create what they feel women want.
There are some common themes, including soft and often transparent fabrics, a triangular shape called the pyramid and generally looser silhouettes, simpler lines, wide pants and a palette of pastels as well as neutrals.
Beyond that-well, almost anything goes.
Many designers seem to be casting about, doing their versions of the sort of compulsory trends and then doing their own signature looks in this effort to find out what women want to wear.
This includes Lacroix, who received mixed reviews not only from Women`s Wear Daily and other press, but from retailers as well.
Weinstein continues to call him ”a genius designer. This time he has done a little of everything, with real sparks of brilliance. Within the potpourri is a modern designer.”
Post-crash sensibility
Lacroix has admitted that his newest collections are ”a bit less eccentric” than those of recent seasons. ”Since the (stock market) crash, everything is more simple and serious. But there can still be individuality.” During an interview at his atelier on rue du Faubourg Saint-Honore, Lacroix says his ready-to-wear is in the same mood as his couture, ”but simpler, less dramatic. Some of the ready-to-wear is very `30s, some inspired by the south of France, some soft colors and some acidic colors.
”Then there are things that are more exotic-not Mexican, not African-but from my heart in warm, deep colors like burgundy and green and gold-very deep colors for summer. Some things are very clean; some are very patterned and alive.”
Then Lacroix revealed the challenge of trying to be a designer of today-and commercially successful-and a designer who is true to himself:
”I am keeping an exuberant color range, patterns from Provence, accessories. I need these things.
”I am not so happy with the new quiet chic. Chiffon and crepe are not my materials. Things are more simple today, but we have to stay who we are. I have to be faithful to what I am. Fashion must evolve, not change just for change. I want to keep designing for the free woman, not the bourgeois-meaning those who are waiting, expecting the recipe on how to be fashionable. Each has to build her own way, mix her own things.
”I have done simple because I wanted to prove that I could do easy clothes, but even my simple has a touch of difference: a color, a detail, a way with a button, a cut. Couture will always be more intense for me. That is working with my heart. In ready-to-wear, there must be a balance. I must be commercial, but I must keep my own taste. In ready-to-wear, I work with my brain.”
Shirring right along
Obviously Ungaro is another who follows his own instincts-and also does what his customers love best.
Even with all the talk about loose and easy clothes, Ungaro just keeps going along making those shirred tight and sexy dresses. He has some pants-mostly very easy florals for evening-and some very long skirts that flare or trumpet out around the calves for movement and, unfortunately, he also has some billowy knee-length bloomers, but his very long collection still focuses on clothes that hug the body and end at the knees.
Yves Saint Laurent is very classic for spring, and therefore very typically Saint Laurent. He continues to use sharp, angular shoulder pads in his tailored business suits; and while almost everyone else does wide pants, he makes his quite narrow and crops most of them at the mid-calf.
The collection is reworked couture, and other themes from the past revisited-including his forever love affair with leopard prints. There is barely a nod to any of the prevailing trends, yet Saltzman says it is ”money in the bank,” and Bloomingdale`s vice president and director of fashion, Kal Ruttenstein, calls it ”perfection.”
Both, however, also raved about the collection of Claude Montana, who rated four stars from everyone-including Women`s Wear Daily. His collection`s themes center on pants, very pure lines, an emphasis on an easy, A-shaped silhouette and womanliness via very sheer and flowing fabrics.
Karl Lagerfeld`s Chanel collection-with its wide, almost skirtlike pants, and its very long skirts-is definitely Chanel with a flavor of the late `20s and early `30s.
And Gaultier is very definitely Gaultier, with his mad assortment of ideas that always show up everywhere a season or so later, as pants have this year.
Retian and Weinstein are among retailers who are anticipating a good season because of this variety, and because many designers are doing the looks they do best.
Retian says that ”the beauty of what we`re seeing for spring is that there are ways to look different. No one has to look like everyone else.”
Weinstein says she likes this season ”a whole lot. It`s very pretty, especially with all those pliable, moving sheer fabrics.
”And best of all, a women doesn`t have to be a toothpick to wear the clothes.” –
