New York Designers Are Going for the Fun and the Short of It
After the first fall showings by designers, it’s clear that an outfit cannot just be pretty or practical if it is going to shout “buy me” from overcrowded racks at stores. It also has to be fun.
From the lowest-price lines to the highest, a certain lightweight jauntiness prevails. The accent is on wit and whimsy, unexpected fabrics and details, shapes that swing away from the body or echo a curve without ever pinching it in. Skirts are short--from just above the knee to six inches higher--shoulders are less prominent, and colors are light or bright.
In the lower-to-moderate price category, designers are giving cus tomers more than a little fun for their money. Kathy Hardwick, Betsy Johnson, Carmelo Pomodoro, Willi Smith and Danny Noble led the parade with shows early in the week.
Hardwick featured all manner of loose, tent-shaped dresses, many of which swirl around the body from narrow shoulders to a little flounce at the hem. Suits have easy, almost oversized jackets above short, slim skirts that are tulip-shaped. They arc out over the hips and hang slightly away from the body so that the wearer can take brisk strides. The fun part is in the details.
In an obvious bow to the biking world, Hardwick gussies up a black leather suit with a shiny tank top of chartreuse and black racing stripes. She lines the jacket in the same stripe. Black taffeta roses or pompon buttons grace simple black-and-white check suits. Black corduroy touches replace expected velvet details on jersey evening dresses.
Easy-Fit Knits
Carmelo Pomodoro, a new young name in the New York firmament, takes his fun from the film world. His splendid array of easy-fit knits features the creamiest shades of camel, copper, ivory and amber shaped into short, stretch wool skirts and whimsical but wearable tops named for Brigitte Bardot, Grace Kelly, Audrey Hepburn. His Bardot sweaters and dresses feature smocking at unexpected places on the bodice. His Grace Kelly style is pale-amber cashmere with cream color wool gabardine pants. His Hepburn is a suede halter top with an amber cashmere short skirt.
Many of Pomodoro’s fitted-looking knits are of stretch wool, a fabric that allows for a sculptured effect without constricting the wearer.
Betsy Johnson, always a believer that fashion should be fun, is in the mainstream again. Her fall hoedown had a country & Western theme, with bloomers peeking out from under bustled, long plaid dresses, petticoats perking up short-skirted styles. The young crowd will probably adore her full, swingy skirt with two strings in back so that the skirt can be tied into a bustle whenever the spirit moves. Johnson now has shops in Hollywood and Venice and said she will soon open a third in San Francisco.
Willi Smith and Danny Noble both showed lively styles and short skirts. Smith shaped gabardine jackets over crepe dresses, Noble liked plaid pleated skirts and baggy pants. But the clothes of Michael Kors, who believes that less is more, seemed lacking in the season’s jollity. His minimalist styles in cinnamon and gray, were elegantly simple to a fault. The element lacking, and one that everyone has apparently come to expect this season, was a bit of frippery and fun.
Geoffrey Beene and Donna Karan both show Friday. Beene, the master of wearable art and fantastic fabric combinations, has outdone himself for fall. He said he has replaced the little black dinner dress with something “a lot more fun.” It’s a brown tweed dinner suit touched with black lace on jacket and skirt. That’s the charm of this man’s clothes: From a distance, they’re all form and color; up close, they’re an elegant send-up of conventional thinking about style.
Close to the Body
Beene’s embroidered black lace jacket, for example, is fitted close to the body and zips with a black industrial zipper, the weightiest part of the garment. That alone is unusual. What’s more, the jacket is worn over a black-skirted dress with flesh-color bodice. “You walk into a restaurant and people think you’re nude under the jacket,” Beene said with a chuckle.
A simple, black sleeveless dress is of squiggles of Charmeuse coiled into a Persian lamb pattern and stitched onto stretch Spandex. The dress not only stretches and looks like curly fur, but it can be rolled into a ball and thrown into a suitcase without suffering ill effects. Half the fun Beene has with his clothes, he said, comes from developing his own fabrics.
Donna Karan’s fun comes from combining modern stretch fabrics and sculptural shapes with pure Old World luxury. Stretch nylon and Lycra, stretch gabardine, stretch wool crepe all combine with cashmere, beading, embroidery, and fur for an opulent but modernist look. A ribbed cashmere sweater jacket has a squirrel lining that can be removed, so that sweater or squirrel shell can be worn alone. Karan’s new high-waist pants are stretch wool crepe or gabardine. Her brown-and-black stretch tweed may be the new fun suit of the season and her chenille-look long jackets may be the best go-over-everything item of the season.
Karan, Calvin Klein and wife Kelly, Oscar de le Renta, Bill Blass and Mary McFadden were all at Mortimer’s Pub to welcome the fashion press Sunday night at a party put on by the Council of Fashion Designers of America.
