Hayes Offers Long Romantic Skirts and Short Sexy Ones

During the showing of his fall collection at Bullocks Wilshire, designer David Hayes couldn’t resist a comment or two. “That’s beautiful,” he murmured when a blue silk, ribbon-chiffon dress was on the runway. When a beige silk gabardine suit made the rounds, he whispered from his front row seat: “That’s my favorite.”

What sends a designer of Hayes’ caliber (Nancy Reagan and Audrey Hepburn are two famous clients) into verbal cartwheels? In the case of the sleekly tailored suit, he explained: “I love long and lean with a shorter skirt. It’s a whole new feeling.”

For fall, Hayes is letting women decide for themselves just how high they want their hemlines. The man known for his “pedigree dressing” is offering both long romantic skirts and short sexy ones. He’s shipping the shorter lengths “right below the knee,” he says. “But I hope women will put them mid-knee or above. And the sky’s the limit if you have great legs.”

Tan, boyish Hayes doesn’t always go sky high himself. “I’m of the old school,” he says. “I always know when to stop. Less is more.”

His most extreme fall design is a quilted lame suit, but the rest of the 50-piece collection, priced from $395 to $995, is typical Hayes. (Bullocks Wilshire calls the collection “instant gentility.”)

Many of the impeccably tailored components come in fresh, muted pastels, such as pale pink, pale mint and buttery yellow. Traditional fall colors include Reagan red, which looks especially youthful in a trapeze dress accented with large black buttons running down the back.

Among the outstanding all-black offerings is a fox-trimmed, wool-crepe dress that Hayes says was inspired by the garment Audrey Hepburn wore to her son’s wedding last year.

Hayes’ own wedding suggestion is a mix of tradition and whimsy. Based on a simple sheath silhouette, which ends just above the knee, the dress has bell sleeves, a drop waist and skirt panels swept back into an unexpected train.

Does the designer really intend the dress for a clientele that, according to sales representative Sy Loewen, “likes the classics”?

“If they want to order it, we’ll make it,” Hayes responds.