FASHION : Transparent Statements
When Italy’s Gianfranco Ferre showed his first collection for the French house of Christian Dior last summer, critics accused him of trying too hard and straying toward prissiness.
But his Monday show of spring and summer designs, his first ready-to-wear collection for Dior, was more relaxed. There were plenty of flexible separates--smart city pants, shorts, skirts, flouncy chiffon chemises and tight jackets in black, white, gray, periwinkle blue, red, violet and vibrant yellow.
His signature--the bow blouse--was outsized in organza or taffeta. Some were worn off the shoulder, others had black lace cuffs.
The Italian designer took traditional Dior trademarks--ballroom skirts, little black dresses, lilies-of-the-valley--and gave them a contemporary look.
Flower-brocaded evening skirts were sheer enough to allow legs to show through. Little black dresses were cut from slinky leather, and red taffeta ball gowns were cut away in front to reveal narrow black-satin slacks.
“It was a marriage of Dior and Ferre,” the sweat-drenched designer said after the show. “I’ve tried to take the great Dior name and adapt it to contemporary life.”
“A lovely collection,” said designer Paloma Picasso, praising the taffeta dresses and stream-lined city slacks.
Notable by her absence from the audience was Princess Caroline of Monaco, a devotee of Dior’s previous designer, Marc Bohan. Since Bohan was abruptly dismissed and replaced by Ferre last spring, the princess has boycotted Dior shows. But this time her place was taken by another royal--Britain’s Princess Michael of Kent.
At Chanel, West German-born designer Karl Lagerfeld presented one of his best collections. He led off with transparent chiffon skirts worn under ivory tweed jackets. Transparency is a theme in most Paris collections for spring. Lagerfeld treated it as one of the several important ingredients for modern dress. Others are shorts for all occasions, and bosom wraps.
Lagerfeld played with the jacket form, cutting it into a short bolero, or leaving it so long and fitted that it all but covered the flirty miniskirts or shorts worn underneath.
He curved the decorative trimming indelibly associated with Chanel into geometric designs to outline pockets, hems and necklines.
It was a leggy collection, given an airy feel by the floating chiffon Lagerfeld used for his asymmetric skirts and fluttering shorts. Black chiffon dresses were scooped and draped at the sides to show the thighs, and the same fabric returned in hot pants for evening wear.
Japanese-born designer Hanae Mori, who was presented with the Legion of Honor during this press week, celebrated her 35th year in the industry with a particularly young-looking collection.
Short skirts, wide shorts and long flared skirts in striped chiffon made up her daytime sportswear. She put her signature--the butterfly--on navy linen suits and on her iridescent evening wear.
