Fashion 88 : Electricity’s in the Air at Paris Show
When the haute couture is having an on season, it can generate enough electricity to light up this city.
That’s been happening here at the fall collections, with stellar offerings on Monday from Marc Bohan for Christian Dior and on Tuesday from Emanuel Ungaro and Karl Lagerfeld for Chanel.
Stellar too were the crowds, with Princess Caroline of Monaco, Liza Minnelli, Paloma Picasso, Lynn Wyatt, Blaine Trump and Patricia Kennedy of Los Angeles, and Michele Rocard, wife of France’s new premier.
‘An Unbelievable Day’
Rose Marie Bravo, chairman and chief executive officer of I. Magnin and Bullocks Wilshire, who was making her first trip to the couture, said Tuesday was “an unbelievable day. Ungaro left me breathless. It wasn’t a collection, it was a work of art. As for Chanel, it’s the way we all want to look.”
Lagerfeld showed Chanel on stage at the Theatre des Champs Elysees. Music was provided by two pianists and a tenor dressed in a Byronic white satin shirt, a floppy black satin tie and black satin knee breeches held up with a new Chanel gold mesh belt--all of which set the full house giggling until the clothes started to parade onto the stage.
Quite simply, this is the best Chanel collection Lagerfeld has ever done. This season, instead of dropping hemlines, he’s dropped the waistline and anchored it on the hip bones with that gold chain belt which is sure to be one of the most copied items of the year. Somehow, the jackets looked easier than ever and he often paired them with a contrasting color or fabric skirt.
After throwing the international fashion scene into a tizzy with his summer couture collection by introducing a handful of mid-calf, pencil-slim skirts, Lagerfeld has the majority of winter skirt lengths above the knee. Longer skirts, with one exception, were soft and full. This gives a totally new proportion to the Chanel suit, one that’s easy to wear for many women. One of the best of this group was the mustard and gray checked wool cardigan on a knife pleated, mid-calf, gray flannel skirt.
Lagerfeld said the inspiration for this collection was “Elizabethan,” which accounts for the new Chanel sleeve. It’s rounded through the shoulder to mid-arm, then billows to the wrist.
Pants were also important, whether easy and full or as tight as leggings. Both ways worked and neither looked casual as they were always shown with high heels, the new belt and masses of the Chanel jewelry, which, this season, is even trailed around hair worn in high chignons.
For evening, the mixes of black velvet and satin with chiffon, and the almost toga-like draping on some of the long chiffons had the ladies taking furious notes.
After the collection, Blaine Trump was complaining of writer’s cramp.
Beautiful Cashmere Dresses
Ungaro opened his show with a trio of cashmere dresses that are perhaps among the most beautiful he has ever done: simple sweeps of fabric, gathered into knee-clearing draping. These also had a toga-like feeling and were shown under short, square-shaped, pleated coats that resembled academic robes with velvet collars. The colors were muted violet, taupe and old rose.
From this group, Ungaro moved onto his more familiar suits, brighter colors and prints, but, as always, cut as only Ungaro can cut. As everywhere in Paris this week, there was a mix of many different fabrics in one outfit--satin, lace, velvet and wool.
The controlled simplicity with which Ungaro opened the show carried through for evening in the black cashmere short dress, its high sweetheart bodice carved in black velvet.
Lengths, except for serious evening clothes, were always above the knee with the exception of a few coats shown over short dresses. There were just four pair of pants in the whole collection. He wound up with a burst of black, pink and silver long dresses, ruffled, frilled, bowed, tucked and draped in lace, velvet and satin: real couture fireworks.
As one East Coast store’s senior vice president commented: “This collection will make Victor Costa a very happy man.” Costa, the American designer, has been everywhere this week, often taking sketches during or just after the shows.
At Dior, Marc Bohan’s day message was suits. These had above-the-knee sarong skirts, skirts wrapped to the back, or curvy, cropped jackets sitting on the waist of wide-legged pants.
Above-the-Knee Lengths
Always a genius with coats, the triple shawl-collared styles, especially the one in geranium mohair, are certain to be best sellers. Coat lengths and skirts were above the knee.
Everywhere in the couture this season, there is a subdued element among all the glitter: the understated simplicity that only the best fabrics and that couture cut can pull off successfully. At Dior, done beautifully, is a coffee wool hooded Berber cape over an almost medieval-looking, long-sleeved ankle-length dress in nut brown cashmere.
Fur trimmed brocade in short, luxe styles was the message of Jean Louis Scherrer.
