Via Veneto Style ‘Suits’ Travolta
“Italian clothes suit my body,” said John Travolta, who proved his point in a dark blue Bernini suit.
“I like the shoulders-and-smaller-waist type of look. The looser pants.”
Travolta was one of the winners of the first International Men of Style awards presented last week by the Italian Apparel & Knitwear Manufacturers Assn. and the Italian Trade Commission at the Beverly Hilton hotel. The other winners were Cesar Romero and Robert Stack.
Well, they were the winners who showed up. The ones who didn’t show were: Don Johnson, George Hamilton, Gregory Peck, Daniel Travanti, Giancarlo Giannini, Emilio Estevez, Dennis Christopher, Alan Alda, Anthony Thomopoulos,Mayor Tom Bradley and state Sen. David A. Roberti. As for Travolta, he not only wears Italian well, but he proves to be quite the charmer in spite of the commotion he creates when he walks into a room full of photographers. When someone mentioned that it was hard to forget the image of him dancing in a white polyester suit, he simply smiled and said: “I hope I’m remembered for that for 100 years.”
As for the Italian suits hanging in his closet, he ticked off his favorite designers (Armani, Cerutti, Valentino . . . ) explaining that “the Italians have always come through for me.”
Then he added: “If there are designers I’ve forgotten, please just send me a suit, and I’d be flattered to wear it.”
“My customers will not look like men,” David Hayes declared.
“They’ll wear sweat suits but won’t live in them. And they will not live in flat shoes either!”
The Los Angeles designer gathers his information by mingling with the customers. While some designers prefer to hide backstage before a show, you’ll find Hayes at the front door, with a handshake--or a kiss--for each and every woman who files in to see his line. Afterwards, he bids them goodby.
Such was the case at the recent unveiling of Hayes’ spring collection at Bullocks Wilshire. The designer prides himself on understanding the minds of his customers.
“The ladies in the East want long, long skirts,” he explained. “The ladies in the South and the West want short, short skirts. The ladies in the Midwest want them a little below the knee.”
Hayes tries to satisfy them all with long full skirts, knee-length skirts and modifications on both. Nancy Reagan, he said, ordered a white pique suit with one of the longer skirts. His most recent discovery is that the young, professional women who have found him in recent years “don’t want that awful look from that book that came out saying every woman should wear a Brooks Brothers suit.” (He was referring to John Molloy’s “Dress For Success,” of course.)
“I always try to soften a suit with a ruffle or a kicky skirt or a softness at the shoulder,” he said.
Hayes’ news for spring is the “Empire feeling”--slightly raised waists on both suits and dresses, lots of ruffles and “the length I love--right at your knee. That’s my favorite shape,” he said. But when a model passed by in a standard blazer and mid-calf pleated skirt, Hayes whispered: “That’s the kind of thing that pays the rent.”
Young, professional women seem to be on the minds of most designers these days. Bridal-gown designer Eva Haynal Forsyth maintains that media brides who live fairy tale lives are not the prevailing influence on her wedding gowns; Wall Street brides are.
The designer said that her version of Caroline Kennedy’s garden wedding dress “did not pick up.”
And a Sarah Ferguson-inspired fitted gown with a long train “was not a big hit.
“We are dealing with a new and different type of bride today,” Forsyth said at a recent Bullocks Wilshire showing of her collection.
The designer’s customers, most of whom are between the ages of 24 and 35, “aren’t hiding under an innocent wreath. They don’t want to look like Snow White. That was the ‘50s. Only the square girls get married in a traditional gown.”
Instead, Forsyth offers sequins, tight fits and contemporary silhouettes.
“The new brides want a fashion image,” she explained. “They want to show their bodies, not cover them with all that satin. They want to look like movie stars. Tradition is out, glitter is in.”
