FASHION : California Designers Are Ready to Swing Into Fall
Imagine clothing that combines the styles of Nancy Reagan and Madonna. That is what California designers showed in their fall collections last weekend in Los Angeles.
Street fashion merged with ladies-who-lunch clothes. Tailored suits and dresses bore the influence of aerobic wear, swim wear, and nightclub fashions. Casual sportswear had dressy details and intricate tailoring.
Sometimes the hybrid worked.
The best combination of these two disparate camps was a schoolgirl-gone-bad style. The basic look was parochial school--box-pleated plaid skirts and cardigan sweaters. But hems were high, and accessories included a black patent leather vest, thigh-high boots and black patent stiletto-heeled pumps. Heavy black eye liner, poor-boy sweaters, a single strand of pearls and little caps completed the look. Think of Priscilla Presley in the days before she married Elvis, with her long black hair, raccoon eye makeup and innocent little girl clothes and you get the picture. Wayward schoolgirl looks were part of the collections of Max Studio, Claude Z, Sue Wong, K. C. Cooper and Opera.
The schoolgirl look is best left to those of school age, but more sophisticated fare could be found in tailored clothes that have been influenced by active wear--scuba styles, for example. These jackets and dresses are modeled on the wet suit, and their simple collarless bodices have a center-seam zipper. In addition, zippers are often used on the slash pockets and at the wrists. Evening-wear designer Kevan Hall relied on this style for his first sportswear collection. He used delicate gold zippers that worked like jewelry on coffee-colored knit dresses and jackets. He also used the accessory-like closure on a side-zippered wrap skirt over a taupe body suit.
A simple top layer of a wrap skirt, swing coat or scuba vest over a body suit was used in many collections. Robin Piccone is the most adept at this combination. She showed swing coats in bright solid colors or plaids over intricately constructed black body suits. She also used scuba vests in the same bright colors over body suits and short spandex dresses. Joy Perreras for Rialto showed another striking combination: brilliant turquoise and hot pink unitards topped with reversible coats in multicolored serape prints.
One-piece body suits and thigh-length jumpsuits were as common as super-short skirts in the collections. There were a few ankle-length dresses and mid-calf skirts but they tended to look dowdy next to the leg-baring short hemlines.
Shorts, a decorous alternative to miniskirts, were chosen by several designers as evening wear. The most elegant versions were beaded lace with a matching burgundy-colored coat by Milo for his line Naga, and a mid-thigh-length red velvet unitard topped with a red popcorn-knit jacket for Rated R by Biya Ramar.
For one designer, hemlines were not an issue. In fact, they practically disappeared. Eletra Casadei went as short as physically possible and showed strapless beaded body suits cut like swim suits, topped with black tuxedo jackets embroidered with beads. The minimal evening attire was worn with matching tights and even though it looks like it fell off a Las Vegas stage, it didn’t take a great stretch of the imagination to envision it as local nightclub wear.
During the shows, quilted fabrics and popcorn knits added some textural dimension and were visually appealing. Mai Lin Chan did a series of quilted outfits for her line, ML Designs. A short quilted red jump suit with a gold-buttoned double-breasted top was noteworthy.
Three trends emerged during the shows: oversized details, houndstooth check, and vinyl that looked like patent leather.
Large buttons in contrasting colors or covered with fabric to match a jacket were used like accessories, and became the focal point of many outfits.
Houndstooth check, in a multitude of sizes from minuscule to larger than checkerboard, was the most popular pattern. It was used on everything--hats, coats, sweaters, skirts, leggings and, by Christine Albers, as trim on solid-colored vinyl coats.
Slick black vinyl trench coats were one of next season’s must-have items. They were everywhere. When the designers tired of showing them in black they brought out red and gold versions.
The best collection of the weekend was by Robin Piccone for the sportswear line that bears her name. Even though this is only her second season, her years of designing swim wear for Body Glove have stood her in good stead. She crafts body-conscious clothes with the structural efficiency of an architect. With this collection she demonstrated she also has a painterly eye for color and pattern.
The structural wizardry that Lee Saelee uses on his suits is becoming one of the highlights of each fashion season. For fall, he added fly-away peplums to his jackets, which made them flare away from the skirts. Some of his jackets included bra seaming and center-seam zippers. At first glance they look very European, but a second look revealed the swimwear influence.
