FASHION : Past Hits Play Again
There have been few surprises in the designer collections shown here this week. Calvin Klein, Bill Blass, even the adventurous Norma Kamali, presented clothes that played like reviews of their own past hits.
At Klein’s Tuesday morning presentation--with Bianca Jagger, Helen Gurley Brown and movie maker Barry Diller in the audience--he included such signature items as cashmere sweater sets (a vest and cardigan combo looked newest), tailored pantsuits with softly molded jackets, and Western-theme sportswear.
His evening styles featured silk crepe versions of the clean, wool pantsuits he accented for day, except that for night he showed jackets against bare skin, instead of over knit polo shirts.
As usual, his color scheme was predominantly soft as sand, the models wore no jewelry and appeared to wear no makeup. Uncommon touches included brown leather sandals on bare feet, worn with the finely tailored suits.
Relative newcomer Charlotte Neuville also presented her spring line Tuesday morning, continuing her bent toward “boyfriend” jackets, cut longer than typical women’s styles, matched with narrow pants or short, pencil-slim skirts in faded blue or celery green.
Monday, Marc Jacobs for Perry Ellis was more daring, but even he has toned it down since last season--his first with Ellis. Hip-hugger bell-bottoms and satin life preserver vests have been replaced by more sober styles, but punctuated with a few light touches. Among the witticisms were a napkin-on-my-lap dress in red-and-white-check tablecloth fabric with a tea-towel border print. And the “ant” cardigan, with a platoon of beaded, black ants crawling over the shoulder of a tablecloth print jacket.
Jacobs, reportedly suffering poor sales figures for his first collection, showed far more safe bets--wool check pantsuits and leather-trimmed wool dresses--then picnic fashion puns.
Spring clothes by Bill Blass, Carolina Herrera and Arnold Scaasi all shared the season’s echo effects.
Scaasi is living a little closer to fame, now that Barbara Bush, one of his best customers, is First Lady. His full and boxy cut, navy coats over red and white silk print dresses seemed to be a tribute to his White House client. (She wore a coat and dress ensemble of his during the Inauguration ceremonies last winter.)
Nothing ventured here, but nothing lost by showing his greatest strength--flamboyant evening dresses in warm, flattering colors, reminiscent of French couture from 20 and 30 years ago.
Herrera, a favorite designer of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, showed rhinestone-studded, lime- or tangerine-colored, satin motorcycle jackets, quite similar to some in black from her last collection. This time she updated the look with short, chiffon split skirts in the same colors. A group of pastel wool dresses with fitted jackets went with lampshade-brim hats and white gloves for a ‘50s retro effect that often recurs in Herrera’s collections.
At heart, the Caracas-born designer is a creature of the night. This time she returned to several favorite evening effects, including embroidered boleros over drop-waisted, full-skirted dance dresses, and floating caftans, this time with jet-beaded necklines.
Blass presented updates of some long-established BB specials: sequined T-shirts, shaped, linen shifts and lingerie-like slip dresses. Even his biggest crowd-pleaser, a navy jacket over a short, white fringe skirt, came down the runway like a blast from the past. “My aunt just gave me a fringed, Blass outfit,” remarked one of the many social women in the audience. “It’s 30 years old.”
After the show, Blass stepped on stage, necktie loosened, top shirt button undone, black pinstripe double-breasted suit enhancing his Gable-esque appeal. The look was classic Blass, like the collection itself.
Several of his best-known customers, such as Pat Buckley and Blaine Trump, were in the audience at the Pierre Hotel. Afterward they walked along Fifth Avenue offering a quick study in what the well-dressed luncheon-goer is wearing this fall: high-heel sling-back shoes, pastel hosiery and small, short, narrow-cut clothes--a tiny-check suit with cropped jacket for Trump, a wool jersey dress with a fitted waist for Buckley.
It’s one thing to see an older designer, like Blass, resting on his signature laurels. It’s quite another to see trailblazer Norma Kamali go back to where she’s been. But she has returned to the body-conscious black unitards, the sheered-bodice slinky dresses, and the sweat-suit separates of her past.
What is different this time, primarily, is the packaging. In a pretty show, staged among autumn leaves near the pond in Central Park, Kamali’s models unfurled messages that indicated how the idea behind the clothes is new.
“Acid Rain Squad” identified the ivory trench coats over man-tailored pants, “Ozone Protection Agents” singled out the skin-baring bra tops, tunics and stretch leggings decorated with small, golden discs.
Kamali’s environmental awareness theme, like her fashion inspirations, comes from mainstream society. She has always been one to watch and listen carefully when traveling the city streets. As a result, her consciousness-raising collection was more in tune with real world concerns than any others shown here so far this week.
At the same time it suggested a possible reason why the others have returned to their roots. Kamali seems to be saying this isn’t a time to think about what you’re wearing. It’s a time to think about where you’re living.
