New York: Fall Options Narrow Down to the Lean and Essential
Oversize is over. Over here.
Fit is back. And fall fashion is everything you ever wanted in a look. And less. Fewer calories. Less filling. One long diet drink of slink.
The New York designer whose collection most exemplifies the new lean and hungry look is Geoffrey Beene. He tells Fashion85 that his new fall designs are so fitted that for the first time in 15 years he’s had to throw out all his old patterns. (Designers are usually able to nip in or ease out existing patterns in their seasonal determinations of fit. Beene says the new narrowing is so significant that he had to construct entirely new patterns.)
Translated into clothes, this means a new body consciousness guaranteed to send women running for the nearest gym. Because the new clothes are an unforgiving lot, even New York’s string-bean models have been seen pulling their tummies in this week. Cottage-cheese thighs have been detected under sheer cashmeres, and matte jersey has become the curse of dimpled derrieres.
Perhaps because the shoulders are still broad, the lean looks of fall ’85 are not the curvy kind that cling to the body like wet T-shirts. They are much more refined. And they are the work of designers who know the difference between plaster and fit. Result: The clothes
are more ladylike than sexy, more rich than racy, more a flaunt of gaunt than a tease of sleaze.
In many ways, fit is the one ingredient that separates the good designers from the also-rans. During the years of oversize clothes, a jacket didn’t have to fit properly. In fact, it looked more fashionable if the shoulders were too big and the sleeves too long. Now that clothes are coming back to the body, there’s no disguising a jacket that has too much fullness at the waistline or too little give at the hips. And there’s no justification for a dress that ripples at the lap line or buckles at the back buttoning.
Beene’s jersey dresses are amazing testimonials to his talent at being able to make some of the skimpiest designs in the world look easy and comfortable. And his new featherweight tweed suits skim in and out of curves like satin nightgowns. There is fullness in the Beene coats; there is even a full-skirted navy dress, but the fullness is controlled, flaring out at exactly the right spot.
As the designer who first brought wool jersey to the ballroom, Beene continues to refine the jersey look after dark in long columnar dresses, some with tulip hemlines and others with wrapped halter bodices. One of the most perfect dresses of this or any season is his navy wool jersey gown with slender satin skirt. The long sleeves end in beaded cuffs.
Beene’s long evening coats over long jersey dresses make the little wrap obsolete. This look of the long, instep-length greatcoat over dresses, pants, short skirts or even leggings is one that differentiates the American collections from the European collections.
Some of the best long coats of the season are at Stephen Sprouse, where black gabardine officer’s coats shield matching gabardine chauffeur’s jackets and long gored skirts. And gray denim “bob coats” cover long wool jersey Camelot dresses. And long red melton-cloth coats mate with long red T-shirts and red jeans. And long Day-Glo tweed overcoats cover psychedelic print shirts and bell bottoms in New York City graphics drawn and colored by Sprouse. And a Day-Glo fake-fur cape salutes the American flag in red and white stripes and white stars on a blue background.
Sprouse, whose entire collection is long and often princess-seamed, features some of the most amazing accessories of the season. The range includes fake-raccoon Davy Crockett hats, purple satin combat boots and sequined army field boots with cleat soles.
This young designer, who single-handedly brought back the micro-minis and neon colors of the psychedelic ‘60s, says goodby to short skirts in favor of floor-sweeping hippie looks. One of his best dresses is a black crushed-velvet sweetheart-neckline gown, which he wants his ’85 hippies to wear during the daytime.
This night-for-day look is one of the few trends for fall that encompasses many price ranges.
The designer who does the dress-up-for-day look best for the you-can’t-be-too-rich-or-too-thin crowd is Bill Blass. In one of his best collections ever, fashion’s most timeless designer switches the clock around to bring us bare, halter-neck jersey dresses for day and long printed coats over matching overblouses and jersey pants for evening. His floor-length navy cashmere officer’s coats over sable-collared navy jackets and matching pants represent Blass at his best and are perhaps even more important in that they can function day or night.
Blass’ new covered-up-for-night looks includes such beauties as long black velvet sheaths with rhinestone buttons on the long sleeves; long black wool sheaths with sequined leaf appliques; long printed satin coats over velvety satin pants and black jersey tops; long red crushed-velvet gowns with draped bodices, and matching red crushed-velvet pumps by shoe designer Manolo Blahnik. Every gown has long sleeves.
Blass makes black look new again by combining two black fabrics in one outfit, as in a long, slender, black velvet gown covered with a short black wool bolero with rhinestone buttons. Another designer who features this black-on-black look is newcomer Carolyne Roehm, whose first collection on her own after 10 years with Oscar de la Renta is being hailed as one of the best first efforts since Jacqueline de Ribes’ premier collection in France. Some of Roehm’s most memorable gowns include a long black velvet reed with long sleeves and an embroidered lacy bodice, a black crepe gown with jeweled black velvet hip wrap and a black jet-embroidered lace gown with dropped torso and a black-on-black Jacquard-dot full skirt.
Carolina Herrera has long championed the sleek, svelte look and she continues to narrow in on the body for fall. Although her silhouettes are slender, her signature fabric insets make even the skinniest dresses and suits as easy to wear as they are to look at. Her standouts include a covered-up cocktail sheath of aubergine velvet with satin sleeves and bodice, a green velvet-and-satin pants outfit and a red wool crepe, floral-embroidered jacket over a long silk print gown. Just when it looked as if there would not be an oversize blazer, an easy shirtwaist dress or a full skirt left in New York along comes Louis Dell’Olio and Calvin Klein to the rescue.
Dell’Olio’s first collection on his own for Anne Klein is proof positive that he is able to carry on without the help of his longtime design partner and friend, Donna Karan, who shows her first collection today.
In addition to the perfectly executed cashmere suits, pants and the spiffy all-American sportswear one has come to expect from Anne Klein, Dell’Olio introduces two other all-American fashion ideas for fall--Western and Navajo Indian.
Dell’Olio salutes the Marlboro Woman with suede chaps, suede big shirts, stirrup pants and some of the most beautifully cut leather pants and Western-stitched vests since the late Nudie first took up the cause of cowboy couture. Dell’Olio’s Navajo hand-knit sweaters and pony patterns are accessorized with real Stetsons, cowboy boots and belts with inlaid lizard details. His big, full skirts and bib-front Western shirts are a pleasant relief from all the strict looks at most houses.
Calvin Klein is another name designer who forsakes fashion’s new straight-and-narrow path in favor of a road less traveled. There’s not a short, narrow skirt in the collection, no sheaths and not one single tight-fitting suit. Skirts are all mid-calf or longer, many of them flaring out from high-rise waistlines, and pants are either high-waisted cuffed trousers or classics that taper gently to the ankles. There are even a few stirrup pants. The overall mood of the collection is clean, simple and devoid of extraneous details.
Some of Klein’s sure-to-be-copied ideas include hand-knit sweaters with beaver collars, the full flared skirts, the cropped jackets with wide lapels and high-notch collars and the Georgia O’Keefe looks that combine flared wool skirts with simple crepe blouses and cashmere serapes.
Five of the most beautiful ankle-length dresses in the collection, all in white silk with full, flaring skirts and all with covered-up bodices that range from T-shirts to surplice-closing wraps, are the kinds of designs that can change from day to night, sporty to dressy, with the addition or subtraction of accessories. Klein shows these dresses only with big white belts, white opaque hose and Manolo Blahnik’s black velvet flats with crisscross ankle straps.
Klein’s fabric mix includes velvets with tweeds, plaid lames with wool jersey and black flannel with gold piping. In a season filled with floor-sweeping greatcoats, credit Calvin Klein with the city’s most beautiful short coats. They’re double-breasted overcoats that stop short of the knees, and they’re shown in such colors as cobalt blue or gold with simple turtlenecks and trousers.
