FASHION : Men’s Wear Chained to Hoods and Velvet for Fall
You may be seeing lots of hoods on the streets next fall. Not the street-tough, small-time gangster variety, but the kind you find attached to sweat shirts, parkas, anoraks and duffel coats to keep your head warm.
Hooded looks--a rugged, outdoorsy detail adapted for everyday street wear--were a headline item at almost every designer collection at the Paris fall men’s wear fashion shows that ended Sunday.
Kenzo offered fur-trimmed anoraks to be worn over business suits and hooded bathrobe coats that epitomize the new, softer-shouldered and unconstructed look in men’s wear silhouettes.
London designer Paul Smith, who also presented his collection Thursday--the first day of the shows--liked hooded stadium coats in broad stripes that recalled Moorish burnooses and patchwork coats in squares of different colored corduroy, flannel and leopard spots. He put hooded sweat shirts under velvet sport jackets and hooded velour pullovers under boldly striped, satin baseball jackets.
Smith wasn’t the only non-French designer to bring his collection to Paris this season. Adolfo Dominguez of Spain and Dirk Bikkembergs of Belgium, along with several designers from England and Japan, made for an international point of view.
Claude Montana presented the strongest of the Paris fall, 1990, men’s wear with a collection of clean-lined silhouettes and pared-down details he presented Saturday. He even attached a hood to a basic sport jacket and coupled it with the most forward-looking bottom line of the season: the slim pant that hugs the leg as it gets closer to the ankle. He adapted another outer-wear detail to the sport jacket by putting a drawstring along the bottom hem--a look also favored by Comme des Garcons’ Rei Kawakubo.
Montana also scored with a bright orange quilted leather, hooded jacket, and a group of hooded sweaters and cashmere sport jackets in bright, Pop Art combinations, such as yellow and red or green and gold, which were dedicated in the program notes to Andy Warhol. Montana dazzled the audience with a group of black leather ensembles accented with chains, studs and chain mail. But to go along with the softening of men’s wear looks in general in Paris, Montana’s hardware had a soft touch, with chain closures on black velvet sport jackets and a sensational short black leather jacket checkerboarded with chain mail. The item of the Paris season may be his black knit sweater with chain links threaded through the turtleneck.
Montana also created a sensation by banning Fairchild Publications and the International Herald Tribune from his show because of unfavorable reviews both publications gave his debut couture collection for the house of Lanvin, unveiled in January.
(In a review without a byline, Fairchild’s Women’s Wear Daily graded the various couture collections. Montana’s report card read: “flunked his entrance exam.” The Tribune’s fashion editor, Suzy Menkes, compared Montana’s Lanvin collection to “a graduating art student’s efforts, made up by his mom.”)
Menkes said: “I’m just terribly sad because I am a great admirer of Montana. I was severe with the Lanvin collection, but one is only severe with great talent. Seeing the Paris men’s wear collections without seeing Montana is like seeing ‘Hamlet’ without the prince.”
At his Saturday show, Jean Paul Gaultier seemed to be licking the wounds inflicted by tough critics on his past collections, many of which have been wildly exotic. His models wore Band-Aids or boxers’ tape on their faces, and one even limped down the runway. Gaultier’s presentation was also more subdued than usual, with fewer gewgaws and gimmicks distracting from the clothes, which include three-piece business suits--albeit striped in Lurex. The designer also showed one of the newer hybrids of the season--the overcoat suit with matching trousers--worn sometimes over Gaultier’s tight-fitting Fair Isle sweaters.
Other indications that the active-outdoorsy look is the “in” way to dress for fall 1990 were trousers. Gaultier showed them with drawstring bottoms. Kenzo, Richard James and Comme des Garcons used knit cuffs for the look of sweat pants.
Gaultier went further into the great outdoors with a three-piece anorak suit, pilots’ coveralls with luxurious mouton collars and a lumberjack plaid jacket worn over the slimmest version of the new slim pants look in Paris--black sequinned tights.
Plaids made a bold statement at other collections as well. Besides Gaultier’s plaid-lined suit worn with a plaid shirt and tie, there were shadow plaid suits with slim pants at Katharine Hamnett, plaid knapsacks to match plaid Edwardian, double-vented jackets at Richard James, plaid ties and shirts worn with check suits at Roelli-Testu, and a plaid jacket coupled with striped trousers at Comme des Garcons.
The softer silhouette for fall was also reflected in the use of softer fabrics everywhere, including corduroy, cashmere, suede and the newest soft-sell--lots of velvet. Christian Dior, designed by Dominque Morlotti, opened with a soft approach, showing models in pajamas and robes.
The designer then segued to overcoats that floated almost to the floor in lightweight wool gabardine. Short reefer coats looked soft and casual worn over cashmere suits. Kenzo’s three-piece suits with overcoat--all in suede--had no hard edges anywhere. Nino Cerruti did full-cut overcoats and 3/4-length coats in turquoise or mauve corduroy. And adding to the soft touch at several collections were quilted looks--often in satin--for everything from jackets to vests and pants.
There was also a little consciousness-raising in the name of chic. The season’s color palette was a paean to the environment with an earthy mix of shades of brown, green, gray, purple and gold, well-suited to the outdoorsy elements in many of the designs.
London designer Katharine Hamnett also emblazoned “Brave New World” on her invitation and left essays titled “Cancel the Third World Debt” on each invitee’s chair. Her collections, however, included a group of black sportswear encrusted with ruby-colored jewels and another group styled in pristine white and gold lame.
Maybe these were clothes meant to be worn in a more perfect world.
