Check It Out : Plaids, Tweeds and Beads Were Central Themes of Fall Fashion Collections Shown in New York This Week
If you like plaid, you’ll like New York’s fall collections. Even Calvin Klein, who hardly ever mixes colors let alone patterns, chose green and black, or gold and black, plaid suits. They have short wrap-skirts and gracefully shaped jackets. They are the newest idea in his fall collection, along with a plaid coat dress in the same spirit.
Klein’s updates on some recurring themes from past collections--equestrian styles in suede, cashmere and tweed; unadorned wool suits in deep earthy colors; T-shirt and slip dresses in velvet, lace or sequins for evening--look as smart as ever. His clothes still set the standard for streamline American design.
By now, Ralph Lauren has established himself as the Walt Whitman of American fashion. But his latest ode is one of his best: a hip, unpredictable tribute to 19th-Century American naturalists, field-and-stream enthusiasts and early aviators.
Lauren chose khaki shirts and trousers tucked into hip boots, Indian-blanket coats or jackets worn with ranger hats, and water-resistant parkas over plaid shirts as new entries in his always growing catalogue of upscale, L.L. Bean looks.
His aviator-inspired look included a brown leather vest, short cape with leather collar and khaki-colored suit with deep red velvet details. And his admiralty corps evening wear in navy blue, trimmed with gold braid and red velvet, could have made Captain Ahab a happy guy.
The single item most likely to succeed in the Lauren collection is a sailor’s suit with a peacoat over a short narrow skirt. It’s the sort of suit you didn’t know you needed until you saw it.
Plaid turned up in this collection on some knee-baring coat dresses worn with thick rib tights and alligator flats.
Fifteen years ago Lauren and Klein were like college football rivals, forever trading off trophies. This season, for the first time in years, it’s a tie. Both collections showed the designers at their best.
Oscar de la Renta, whose clothes usually come to life around dinner time, showed his strength in evening wear again this season. His little black dresses in silk or velvet--with jet beading, sprays of rhinestones, lace insets, or silk cord trim--were short, close-fitted and worn with high-heel black satin pumps for an ultra-feminine look. His T-shirt dress--and there is one in every collection for fall--was among the best. It is made from alternating bands of black velvet and jet sequins.
De la Renta is still showing the effects of his trip to India and Nepal more than a year ago: His most elaborate evening dresses in this collection were beaded paisley with sarong skirts and gold-beaded borders.
Carolyne Roehm is bringing back short mink coats with big, square collars to wear over body-conscious dresses: It’s daytime glamour not seen since the early ‘60s. Her best idea for evening was a pale metallic lace jumpsuit under an iridescent brocade skirt, open in front to show the leg.
Michael Kors puts knee-length chesterfield coats over stretchy, body-hugging dresses with hoods for a clean-cut athletic sex appeal. His suede shirts were tucked into narrow pants. He put cashmere tunics over sequined miniskirts, and his tuxedo suit had a satin skimp of a skirt to go with satin jacket lapels. It was all very sporty and elegant.
Adrienne Vittadini did her best work in reptile and Art Deco patterned sequins. Her reptile-print tunics over tights and tall suede boots were street smart. She put the Art Deco sequins--in gold, silver and black--on T-shirts and trapeze-shape dresses, then mixed them with black satin hot pants and miniskirts for a fresh new look. She and Kors showed short shorts for fall, treating them as a variation on miniskirts. Vittadini’s were black satin for evening or black and white check for day. She also had her share of trademark Shaker-knit sweater dresses, tunics leggings and stoles in this collection. But they looked a bit too unstructured because of the heavy influx of ‘60s-inspired geometric shapes taking over fashion’s cutting edge.
Vittadini did her fair share to keep the parka parade passing by. Hers were off-white shearling, worn with white sweaters, mufflers, shorts or miniskirts. They are among the prettiest of the vastly overworked fashion scheme.
Charlotte Neuville leaned heaviest on the ‘60s look in her very smart collection. Oversized houndstooth check tweed miniskirts went with wide suede hip belts and ribbed turtleneck sweaters for a close-to-the-bone skimpy silhouette. She showed cotton lace A-line dresses with little flat shoes for a clean daytime look.
Neuville’s black false-fur parka topped a slim pants suit and ivory-colored ribbed turtleneck for another energetic look. She showed a flower coat in pastel shades of moss green for her tribute to the ‘60s peacenik attitude.
Her most striking evening clothes were suits and pants she called shimmy clothes. The suits were in pale green crepe with pearls dangling from jacket and skirt. Her black evening pants had little black gems shaking all over. The effect was young, playful and spirited--a good collection.
New York is forever looking for its next fashion star, in much the same way Hollywood is forever looking for the next starlet. This season there seems to be agreement on Christian Francis Roth, 21. His collection was shown in his downtown loft, where there were only about one-third the number of seats needed for the audience. The clothes themselves have a custom-made look that is impressive, but the best anyone had to say afterward is that he “shows promise.”
Roth’s dresses appliqued with one huge flower were all part of a youthful looking group. (The question is: What adult woman would choose to dress that way?) Appliqued jackets worn over narrow short satin skirts for evening worked well. But other remarks after the show suggested that the best the fashion crowd could make of Roth at this point is that he might do well designing children’s clothes.
