FASHION : Falling Into the Lap of Luxury
This week’s winter ’91 couture collections have been star studded to a near-blinding brightness. At Gianni Versace’s Saturday evening show, Sylvester Stallone sat in the front row and actress Joanna Pacula walked the runway. Karl Lagerfeld at Chanel had Princess Caroline of Monaco wearing a sleeveless white silk blouse by Chanel, white jeans and white tennis shoes (no socks) as his star guest. And at Yves Saint Laurent’s presentation, paparazzi flashed away at a usually-blond-now-brunette Catherine Deneuve.
Others seen on the little gold chairs in the front rows at these showings of winter haute couture were New York and Paris socialites. Ivana Trump wore an orange Oscar de la Renta at the Christian Dior show and fuchsia and white polka dots by Emanuel Ungaro at the Ungaro show. Her teased bee-hive hairdo seemed to rise to new heights as the week flew by. Slightly less-conspicuous faces included Nan Kempner, Lynn Wyatt, Susan Gutfreund and Paloma Picasso, not to mention all the titled French women interspersed among them.
After the shows, designers and their patrons attended a series of private little dinners. Ungaro gave one for Trump, Christian Lacroix had a sit-down for 40 in the garden of his couture house, and the house of Dior held a buffet supper.
As for fashion, I. Magnin Chairman Rose Marie Bravo described it as “a reinforcement of trends we saw in the ready-to-wear collections, with many new ideas.”
Among the newer themes were the Empire dress, the bolero jacket and the use of heavy satins for evening. Designers tended not to challenge the status quo by changing short hemlines established in the fall ready-to-wear collections--except to make them even shorter.
Although ready-to-wear lines shown last March suggested luxurious sportswear, the haute couture presentations had little that could qualify as sporty. It was luxury all the way. And, finally, perhaps the season’s biggest surprise was the return of the pouf, or bubble skirt, sometimes swirled into a Gay ‘90s bustle perched on the derriere.
Designer Claude Montana could have claimed a comeback-of-the-year award with his Lanvin collection. Like a spoonful of tangy lemon sherbet after too much rich chocolate cake, it had a zesty freshness. Montana followed his less-than-successful first collection for Lanvin, shown last January, with an assortment of far better ideas.
Some of his best looks were the hooded cashmere coats, shaped like a circle and cinched at the waist, worn over narrow short skirts and cashmere sweaters.
Christian Lacroix’s collection also hinted at a new simplicity. The collection overflowed with his usual exuberant mix of pattern and color, with rich embroideries decorating everything from over-the-knee suede boots to wool coats and velvet chiffon evening dresses. But, asked to choose his favorite look, he headed for a simple, short, chalk-white crepe dress.
At Ungaro, a group of little black silk crepe dresses came as a relief after the richness of Lurex, brocade, feathers, lame, re-embroidered lace and velvets plus print and color mixes in vivid shades offered by other designers.
The standout among the black dresses had a high, Empire waist with a long-sleeved top completely draped in front and back. The slim, side-draped skirt stopped at mid-thigh.
Ellin Saltzman, senior vice president and fashion director of R. H. Macy Inc. said: “It’s been a very good week. I never thought the little black dress would look new again. But there are great ones everywhere.”
Yves Saint Laurent, who always includes a tuxedo look or two in his collections, delighted his fans with a classic tuxedo jacket that turned out anything but classic when cut in sheer black lace. The lapels and short skirt were heavy black satin.
Saint Laurent was perhaps the only designer who tried to impose a new silhouette: The cocoon coat, inspired, he said, by the late Cristobal Balenciaga. Sleeves started to widen at the cuff and fell in deep, loose folds before disappearing into the hemline.
At Chanel, Karl Lagerfeld sug gested one way to play down hemlines that rise blushingly high. He covered the exposed legs with satin, velvet or suede boots that extended almost to the top of the thigh.
Lagerfeld showed the line in the old Lido nightclub where the temperature was even hotter than those Chanel hemlines. Smart Susan Gutfreund brought along a paper fan printed with the U.S. flag and fanned away throughout the show. Among the Chanel accessories were the quilted handbag--everybody’s favorite--done in a satin red-rose print, pins of alligators and Scotch terriers, the signature camellia as a flat gold brooch and multicolored mosaic bracelets.
Gianfranco Ferre had the disadvantage of showing his Christian Dior collection after Lacroix, Jean Louis Scherrer and Gianni Versace where the message was color, pattern and pattern mixing.
For eyes still blinded by Versace’s red, orange, yellow and royal color blocks or Scherrer’s magic carpet prints, Ferre’s opening group in shades of navy blue seemed a mite somber. For day, he included some high-waisted wool crepe dresses meant for the very rich and the very thin.
After dark, things brightened up with the rose-red and crimson full-skirted short satin dresses whose deep wide decolletes were another signature of the Paris fall/winter couture collections.
