FASHION : It Was Sheer Madness in London
Bold, sexy separates were the provocative stars on London runways last weekend as British designers presented their spring-summer 1991 collections.
Everyone from Rifat Ozbek to Arabella Pollen took intimate apparel into the streets. They went for proportions that were as sheer and short as possible without risking public indecency. The miniest miniskirts, shortest short shorts and bodysuits, bustiers and halter tops figured in almost every collection, as did the cover-ups necessary to wear these outfits safely in public--oversize blousons, big shirts, jackets and kimonos.
With the exception of new talent Helen Storey, whose runway show was the most idea-packed of the season, designers here generally toned down the Op Art ‘60s colors of recent seasons in favor of such washed-out earth tones as pumpkin, khaki green and raspberry, along with black and white.
The diverse ethnic looks that have been important in London recently were replaced by a single source of foreign inspiration: Africa.
The influence of the continent was most pronounced in the collections of Ozbek and Joe Casley-Hayford. The blond models in Casley-Hayford’s show even wore dreadlocks. Ozbek worked intensively with black, red, yellow and green, and he bedecked his models with African amulets.
The recurring theme--naughtiness--was handled in a tongue-in-cheek way, as suits the traditional British reserve toward anything sensual.
A dose of inspiration straight from ‘40s American sportswear produced the strongest showing of the most wearable clothing from London this season. Although it was built around dresses, Jasper Conran’s collection often made reference to Katharine Hepburn.
Working mostly in black, gray, white and navy chiffon and super-light wool crepe, Conran offered a wearable take on the same themes seen elsewhere. Instead of hot pants, he offered tennis skirts; instead of cone-shaped bustiers, he showed halters under sheer, see-through blouses.
The best from him were very high-waisted pantsuits with shirt-tailored jackets, including one in white cotton pique. Also strong were his shoulder-baring little black dresses.
Vivienne Westwood is the most influential designer in Britain; her styles are carried in several stores on Melrose Avenue, including Comme des Fous and the new Gallay Melrose shop. Her clothing often amuses and incites, but usually it is hard to imagine many people wearing it.
This season is different. In the strongest part of her collection, Westwood did a pastiche of the ‘40s-style professional woman’s clothing, brought into the ‘90s with stricter proportions and liberal use of Lycra fabric.
She was one of only a few designers to show long skirts, and her suits, beautifully cut with mid-calf skirts, seemed to have been designed with the working woman in mind. The collection is correct yet discreetly sexy, and it demonstrates not only the designer’s sure sense of humor, but her awareness of how women live today.
Westwood’s clothing is now produced in Italy, and she took full advantage of the Italian’s brilliance with textile technology to create a whole range of slashed and torn clothing made of denim and wool.
A pair of denim jeans, industrially pierced and worn to create an oddly attractive chenille effect, were a rare example of how a designer can successfully translate street fashion to the runway. (Young Londoners have been cutting and shredding their jeans in imitation of rock stars for several years now.)
One doesn’t usually associate British fashion with eveningwear, but Helen Storey’s collection was a tour de force of exciting young looks for after-office hours. Storey, daughter of playwright David Storey and the darling of the British press this season, offered multicolored striped body suits worn with beaded bustiers and a range of camouflage-print clothing as part of a collection she titled “Rage.”
Her anger is directed against the idea of the role-juggling New Woman. “You know,” she said, “the woman who’s supposed to go jogging in the morning, out-boss the men in the office during the daytime, become a loving mother in the early evening and transform into a sex goddess at night. I hate the pressure.”
Ozbek remains strongly inspired by London’s vibrant club scene, and his clothing had a frisky, psychedelic feeling. He presented his collection through a video film rather than an actual runway show, and it opened and ended with the same woman goading the camera. She was wearing jewelry made from tin cans.
Ozbek’s take on African tribal motifs for the city included color-blocked separates, tube dresses, hot pants, tank and tube tops, and micro shorts. The most interesting items in his collection were his safari shirts and oversize denim blousons, which were worn with hot pants, miniskirts and body suits.
Workers for Freedom showed a collection titled “Gentle Bondage.” Mostly, the theme was expressed by very short black linen dresses with complicated, interwoven shoulder straps.
As always, this line’s strength was its blouses, especially the cream cotton versions with black appliqued scrollwork. Skirts, short and tight, with asymmetrically scalloped hemlines, were a highlight. Kimono-style jackets were the only off note in an otherwise sophisticated and interesting collection.
Designer Nick Coleman went overboard with zippers and put them on the outside seams of hot pants, as well as body suits and blouses. His best idea this season is a zip-front, see-through chiffon baseball jacket with a knit collar and cuffs. There were similarly styled blouses.
Beyond his odd black or white vinyl jackets and skirts, and aluminum chain-mail sheaths, Joe Casley-Hayford’s tear drop and diamond-pattern cutouts in the front panels of very high-waisted trousers were his best ideas for the season.
