Paris: Recurring Themes : Fashion: YSL, Ungaro go with Russian folk look in fall ready-to-wear. One idea dominates shows: the ‘60s.
Yves Saint Laurent was in the hospital, suffering from exhaustion on Wednesday morning, but his fall ready-to-wear show went on. The collection was like a retrospective of the looks that made him famous.
The show opened with a Russian folkloric theme that Saint Laurent has returned to several times in the past. He showed embroidered velvet jackets and skirts in provincial flower prints or geometric color blocks that resembled stained glass windows.
Next, he cut to man-tailored pantsuits in dark gray or forest green with proportions so feminine they would never be mistaken for men’s wear. For night, YSL featured black tuxedos in understated variations worn with delicate black satin pumps. These conservative, rather subdued designs were among the best of the collection.
Saint Laurent has eased off the tarty Monroe dresses that were the talk of his last couture show, except for a couple in black and shocking pink. They weren’t wonderful. Neither were his nighttime safari dresses in jungle-print chiffon that resembled a magician’s scarf trick. His silk brocade dinner suits, however, are definitely worth saving up for.
Reportedly, the designer has been in frail health for more than a year, but this is the first time he has failed to attend his own show. He went into the hospital this week, his press office said. It is not certain what this means for the future of his company.
“It is a sad moment,” said Christophe Girard, secretary general of the multimillion-dollar company. “He is very, very tired. We would like him to rest for as long as he needs to.”
Girard said the 53-year-old designer will return to work in time to produce his next couture collection, to be presented in July. “He has a team that works with him on collections, but I don’t see him leaving. Not at all,” Girard said.
Emmanuel Ungaro built his entire collection around a Russian folk theme. Like Saint Laurent, he has gone that way before--but he’s never had a better trip. This collection was a sparkler, filled with flower-printed velvet, metallic leather and bright plaids that glittered with gold threads. Sometimes all in the same outfit.
Ungaro is a known commodity when it comes to mixing prints and patterns, but this time he went wild.
Jackets were fitted, most skirts were short and narrow, silk shirts had side-button closures and poet sleeves.
Ungaro’s evening wear was a glitzier version of the same. He put tall boots in black suede or gold leather with almost everything.
For years, Ungaro was counted among the most eligible bachelors in Paris. But recently, the fiftysomething designer married heiress Laura Fanfani. It’s done great things for his work.
The news was not so happy at Lanvin. Last fall, after house designer Maryll Lanvin resigned (she is married to company president Bernard Lanvin, nephew of Lanvin founder Jeanne Lanvin), the company unveiled its first couture collection by Claude Montana. Even though the press declared it a disaster, it hasn’t cost Montana his job. He will show again in July.
On Monday, the first Lanvin ready-to-wear collection by Eric Bergere, who used to design for Hermes, was shown. Another bomb.
When Bergere tried to be hip, he looked square; his unitards, for example, were baggy. When he tried to be square he was positively cubic. Stiff jackets and vests worn with ascots were so-o-o humorless and stuffy. Like Montana, however, Bergere has been well received by company executives who say they look forward to his next collection.
Hubert de Givenchy did what he does best for fall--he made evening gowns that drape, flow and glitter. Sonia Rykiel’s sheer black T-shirts dotted with tiny rhinestones for evening looked like something Californians will be able to relate to. Nino Cerruti’s long, hooded coats in pale ivory had a practical elegance, and Martine Sitbon for Chloe made a strong statement with her short, cherry-red velvet trench coat. Katharine Hamnett’s all-unitard collection (with miniskirts, parkas and short shorts on top) looked like West Coast clothes, fer sure. This is the London-based Hamnett’s second season of showing in Paris; designers from all across Europe are slowly making the switch.
The fall shows revolved around one idea: the 1960s. But the best designers reworked the dominant themes until they were hardly recognizable.
Thierry Mugler’s black vinyl jackets, Montana’s velvet A-line dresses, Christian Lacroix’s psychedelic prints and velvet hobo hats said now, not then.
However designers chose to play on or around the ‘60s theme, most used the same few basic elements one way or another: knee-baring coats shaped like pyramids, jackets with black velvet trim on collars, cuffs or pocket flaps, hoods treated as hats or attached to dresses or coats, stretch pants, and first--or last--unitards.
The final results were some very energetic space-age looking clothes cut in curved feminine lines that showed off arms and legs and were quite unlike the slouchy men’s wear or skintight and vampy shapes of the late ‘80s.
There are a few things to put at the top of a shopping list and a few things to leave off.
Along with short coats, velvet trims and unitards, suits with matching fabric jacket and pants (remember them?) look new. So do short pleated skirts, the favorite for day and night at Chanel.
From the not-so-fast list, hoods are a thing of the moment that don’t make a lot of sense unless they are attached to sporty coats or can be folded down into a soft shawl collar. Quilted parkas are likely to run rampant in stores, but they already have fashion victim written all over them when they are made in evening fabrics. Active wear isn’t for formal occasions.
Finally, there are a few general guidelines to keep in mind: Shoulders are natural, skirts are knee-length, boots are tall and flat-heeled, but other daytime footwear has a mid-height heel to it. Evening shoes are at least as high, worn in the French manner.
Evening wear is definitely for evening only. But shapes are soft and silk brocade suits are the best of the dinner suit options.
