Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, March 22, 1990 TAG: 9003222295
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: E7 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: From wire reports
DATELINE: PARIS LENGTH: Long
But eventually, inevitably, what comes down the runways here at the weeklong fall pret-a-porter, or ready-to-wear collections influences what's on the racks in American department stores, what's sold at the local mall and pictured in the Sears catalog. As a supply-sider would say, it trickles down.
An itinerant, jet-lagged throng of nearly 3,000 buyers, store fashion directors, journalists, photographers, fashion magazine editors, stylists and video directors (an estimated 2,842 of them wearing black) is on hand to encourage the trickling. The horde hit Milan earlier this month, invaded Paris last week - some sandwiched London in between - and will recongregate in New York in two weeks.
So the laugh, ladies, is on us. Give these looks a few months for the junior lines, a year or two in better sportswear, and even the majority of women who couldn't think of spending designer prices ("the mass-mass," as the lady from Neiman Marcus puts it) will be faced with Lycra bodysuits and coats with Grim Reaper hoods.
As for skirts, none of which demonstrated even passing acquaintanceship with a kneecap, maybe they no longer matter, because Karl Lagerfeld of Chanel has just decreed, in verse no less, that the skirt is a dying concept. Distributed at Monday's hot-ticket show was a bit of bilingual doggerel that among other things announced:
jupe s'est rendue
Elle evolue sans malentendu.
Which Chanel translated as:
Skirts are on their way out
But there is always something new about.
The Washington Post
\ Christian Lacroix showed how to think '60s and dress '90s in one of the strongest collections of this season. He presented it in his couture salon that featured orange walls and a shrimp-colored fashion runway.
Using warm shades of pink, violet, moss green and chestnut, with bits of chartreuse thrown in, he built a collection around unitards and leggings: short, trapeze-shape dresses and coats; fitted suits; and long, full evening skirts.
Without question, the unitard is about to become as basic to a modern woman's wardrobe as a slip used to be. Every top European designer now uses it as a starting point for a wardrobe.
Lacroix's versions were in harlequin prints, shown with only a silk velvet hood - for women in perfect shape - or, as a first layer followed by a suit or a hooded duffel coat.
His daytime wardrobe relied on suits, some in Lurex-shot patchworks of plaids and checks, some with floral-print velvet jackets and nubby wool checked skirts. A pantsuit had a longer, fitted jacket and full trousers in matching green plaid, spiced up with a metallic tapestry vest.
The best evening suits were cut close to the body with knee-baring skirts in mahogany-colored silk brocade.
For informal formal wear he revived poor boy sweaters (heavily ribbed, with a crew neck) shot with Lurex, to wear with enormous, iridescent taffeta evening skirts. His two-layer dresses in gold lace and sheer silk had a dressier feel.
Both Karl Lagerfeld and Gianfranco Ferre designed one collection under their own names and another collection for a long-established French fashion house (Lagerfeld for Chanel; Ferre for Dior).
Of course, the danger is that they will design old, venerable clothes for old, venerable houses. But both men seemed more comfortable than ever borrowing good ideas from their signature line and adapting them to their new fall collections for the other houses.
It worked out well.
For Chanel, Lagerfeld showed elongated jackets over very short pleated skirts, a look he used often in his own line, shown earlier in the week. Evening suits that mixed sheer with solid black silk were part of both collections, too. All his variations for Chanel were a little more structured and ladylike.
He used the gold chain links of Chanel handbags to trim little black suits with cropped jackets and short narrow skirts. Red woolen suits were trimmed in multiple rows of black and white rickrack, as were some new-looking, short, narrow coats worn over skirts just an inch or two longer.
The bold houndstooth jackets he introduced several seasons ago were in strong supply. This time they were shown in black and ivory, over short black skirts, some narrow, some pleated.
Ferre's fall collection is his second for Dior. Unlike the first, this one showed off more of his personal talents and tastes.
Ferre's skill with uncluttered sportswear in luxury fabrics translated to black leather turtleneck tops tucked into narrow wool pants, camel colored leather parkas with mink-trimmed hoods, and a number of straight-line narrow suits, especially one in red with covered buttons down the back of the skirt. The clothes were simple but not boring.
Los Angeles Times
\ Valentino clipped a couple of decades off the age of his clothes by the simple expedient of puffing out his skirts.
The full-skirt trick showed up for day in short checked or plaid styles mated to long coats with hoods. The hood is becoming a signature of the season as the fall and winter openings continue.
It turns up on everything from blouses to fur coats and usually is dropped to form a cowl at the back of the shoulders. Jackets with the full skirts are often quite long.
Valentino also loosened up the prevailing passion for short, skinny skirts, using pleats and full tiers, which make it easier to walk.
For the ethnic theme that is considered obligatory here, the designer chose Etruscan vases. This gave him the chance to mix terra cotta with black and ivory with brown, both attractive color combinations.
\ Emanuel Ungaro received an ovation for his rousing medley of flowers, checks and plaids in shapes that suggested Russian peasant clothes.
His line also included long velvet Chinese dresses over flowered pants, big colorful shawls with sexy western black crepe dresses and the short draped skirts he has made famous.
There were calmer styles for day, like straight, square-shouldered jackets, and colors that by Ungaro's standards were quite muted.
But then the Day-Glo coats arrived in purple, green and orange, followed by the dense floral prints. Gold leather dresses with high boots provided spicy interludes. The overall impression was of a free, romantic spirit.
The New York Times
by CNB