Fashion 88 : Bold Model Is Essence of ‘Image’
The calm of Estee Lauder’s corporate heaven was shattered Friday morning when the firm’s new $6-million “image” model Paulina Porizkova declined to share her birthday cake with members of the press.
“Would you like to cut the cake for our guests?” asked Evelyn Lauder, daughter-in-law of Estee and a vice president of the firm. “Not really,” answered Porizkova on her 23rd birthday, adding that the cake was so pretty that she’d like to take it home to her boyfriend intact.
The incident was oddly symbolic, because Lauder had just introduced Porizkova as the living embodiment of the firm’s new scent, called Knowing, which is aimed at “the 21st-Century woman who is in total control of her life.”
Indeed, Porizkova was in control. She exited happily with her uncut cake, leaving Lauder to field questions about the 5-foot, 11-inch beauty with spectacular cheekbones, high forehead and “Knowing” eyes. Lauder would not confirm or deny the seven-figure fee reportedly being paid to the Czech-born birthday girl, who will appear in all ads and commercials for the $300-an-ounce woodsy perfume, which debuts at Bullock’s on Sunday.
Designer Norma Kamali also did the unexpected on Friday, abandoning her usual fall fashion show in favor of cozy meetings, where she showed her clothes to the press in a small back room at her shop. The designer, who introduced hot pants to America (1969) and who invented sleeping bag coats (1975) and dresses made of sweat shirt fabric (1980), said fashion has become too trendy for our time. “Women want well-made, well-priced clothes they can wear for years,” Kamali said. Her fall suits have shapely jackets decorated with braid, velvet or fringe. “The jackets are long-term accessories,” she said, explaining that they can be worn with a variety of daytime skirts or pants or even evening clothes. One black, cape-collared jacket has two sets of interchangeable buttons: fabric-covered for daytime and glittery cut-glass buttons for evening. Kamali’s skirts are 2 inches below the knee or at the ankle, and women can choose what suits them best, she said.
Perhaps most original of all is Kamali’s solution for the union problems which caused her to stop manufacturing clothes entirely last year and close her business for a brief time. The designer now manufactures nothing. Instead, she sells designs to Bloomingdale’s, which has them made by its private label factories and then sold exclusively in its 16 stores. She sells other designs to Zamasport, a respected Italian manufacturing firm, which distributes them in Europe and to 15 specialty stores in the United States, including Kamali’s own two shops in Manhattan.
Consumers to Benefit
In an interview after her showing, Kamali said the Bloomingdale’s arrangement is “the coming thing” in U.S. retailing, which will benefit American consumers in the end. “Women are tired of seeing the same costly clothes by the same designers in every department store across the country,” Kamali said. Designers got greedy and wanted to sell their clothes everywhere; retailers got lazy and allowed it to happen, she said. Now, stores are picking up the ball, she thinks. They will search out individual clothes by talented designers and manufacture them less expensively through their own channels to sell in their own stores. Under this plan, the designers get a royalty for every garment sold, the retailer takes control of the merchandise in his stores and the customer gets better design and quality at a lower price, Kamali said.
Cost-cutting was not an issue for socialite-designer Carolina Herrera, who showed her fall fashions Friday in the packed grand ballroom of the Plaza Hotel. Ivana Trump, whose husband, Donald, just bought the hotel, was typical of the glossy guests who sat in a section reserved for the designer’s friends. She was flanked by her sister-in-law, Blaine (Mrs. Robert) Trump; Bianca Jagger, and author Dominick Dunne.
Herrera’s clothes are sleek and trim, meant for women as slim as their pocketbooks are fat. There was not a shape-concealing outfit in the bunch, except for a group of coats which flung away from the body like smocks. Dresses, some with broadened shoulders, were shaped to the figure but never tight. Hemlines were a proper notch above the knee. Pants were straight and crisp for daytime, soft and a bit wider for night. Herrera’s sumptuous fabrics and luxurious details included silk Shantung raincoats with natural sable linings, and a dazzling group of fitted “jockey jackets” in shiny black, yellow and white racing patterns worn above black velvet evening pants. With these, the models wore black sequined jockey caps. Tawny neutral shades and black with white were the color statements here.
Eleanor P. Brenner’s more moderate-priced racing look was adapted from the motorcycle world, with all manner of short jackets shaped into graceful, pared-down versions of what the bikers wear. These were in leather, stretch fabric or silk, above skirts that were short and slim or very long and divided into what could be called wide pants. Brenner’s longer jackets often had zipped fronts and curved seaming that followed the body line. Colors here were raisin, caper green, mustard, beige and black.
Show of Wizardry
Winner of the Fashion Fun Award last week was designer Betsy Johnson, whose show was themed to the “The Wizard of Oz.” Johnson, in satin gown and gold crown, played Glenda the Good Witch. Her teen-age daughter, Lulu, played Dorothy. And the models just played. They wore dunce caps made of kitchen funnels, black patches safety-pinned to their scarecrow clothes, and ankle or wrist cuffs made of what looked like dead weeds. But beneath the outrageous costumery were some very wearable, affordable and adorable young clothes.
Trapeze tops, shrink tops, leggings, mini-skirt suits, wide and narrow pants outfits, floral print stretch tights with tunics to match and some very smart elongated jackets were just a few of the brightly colored options here, along with a group of black dresses and separates featuring small, fitted bodices and long, full skirts. Johnson, like Kamali, has survived the fashion fray for 20 years, keeping her business relatively small and her design integrity intact. She has two stores in Los Angeles and is considering opening a third.
Most of New York’s big name designers will show their fall collection this week.
