Dior Designer Opts for Status Quo : Ferre Takes the Safe and Sane Route in New Collection

In his first collection for Christian Dior, the most famous fashion house in Paris, Italian designer Gianfranco Ferre is not going to be remembered for his revolutionary new look.

But neither is the collection going to scare away the private customers who have made Dior the most lucrative name in French haute couture.

It did not earn the Milan designer an ovation, standing or otherwise. But there was a lot of applause from the 500 sweltering guests who put down their fans to clap for a good 30 seconds at show’s end.

The real success or failure of the collection won’t be known until those 300 Dior customers who spend $3,000 a blouse and $12,000 a suit have their say at the cash register. That will take until September, when most return from August vacations.

Beverly Hills socialite Della Koenig, a longtime Dior customer, said she would definitely buy the “lace suit”--a beautifully cut cocktail suit artfully combining black and white lace. But will she spend as much at Dior this season as during Marc Bohan’s years as chief designer for the house? “I don’t know yet,” a cautious Koenig said. “I really won’t know until I see the clothes up close. I always liked Marc, you know, and I have worn his clothes for more than 20 years.”

‘Romantic, Exciting’

Lee Minnelli, widow of Vincente Minnelli, was more enthusiastic. In the courtyard outside l’Hotel Salomon de Rothschild, where the show was held, she said, “It was romantic, exciting, very feminine and full of surprises--all good.”

The surest clothes in the 81-piece show are the clean, tailored designs, such as the first black knee-top dress, which buttoned and unbuttoned down the back to reveal an underskirt in the same fabric. It was definitely more Ferre than Dior, complete with Ferre’s favorite, oversize bow with oversize streamers trailing from the high neckline.

Sense of Luxury

Ferre has proved in his own signature couture collection that he has a keen sense of luxury. In this first collection for Dior, the luxury seemed less instinctive, less modern, more Dior-would-do-it-this-way. Taffeta coats lined in silver fox, dresses with fox at the hip line, evening gowns with fox underslips all looked heavy and dated.

In many ways, the collection was not rich enough, especially during this season of outrageous opulence. Even the blond sable coats and trims looked too safe and sane, too ancien regime for the first year of the next decade.

It is difficult to design for a house with a history as prestigious as Dior’s. (Following the death of Dior in 1957, Yves St. Laurent designed there, followed by Bohan--no mean trio to succeed.) Karl Lagerfeld, who started designing for the house of Chanel in 1983, took several seasons to get the knack of all those gold buttons and chains.

Too Controlled

Given time, Ferre may learn to accept the sort of abandon one expects in haute couture. Right now, he is too controlled--too Milanese. His ready-to-wear training has not prepared him for such fabric excesses, and it shows.

The finale numbers in gray or ecru lace with giant tulle petticoats and flowers tucked here and there --an obvious homage to Dior, right down to the signature lilies of the valley--should have stayed in the archives.

For the most part, the new Dior skirts are tight and to the knee; legs are veiled in sheer stockings, from nude to brown shades; heels and hats are both high, especially the black hats for the hunt.

The most directional clothes are the short, sleeveless dress encrusted with pearls from neck to hem, then necklaced in pearls, and the gray chiffon evening gown with a lynx bolero sashed in the same chiffon for a kind of negligee-on-the-town look.

Perhaps the most inventive outfit is a glen plaid suit with a skirt that has a pleated front triangle resembling a fan. The model takes off the belt and, voila --the fan becomes a stole.

If Ferre is right, all those sober black numbers that seem so out of step with this season’s flamboyance will be appreciated by customers who don’t want their extravagances to show.