FASHION : Mirror, Mirror for the Fall
It used to be that designers knocked off only the dead. Fashion’s late superstars--Madeleine Vionet, Cristobal Balenciaga and Norman Norell--are still prime targets today.
But apparently the etiquette is changing. Now, some of the best-known names in New York fashion--people who ought to know better--are imitating each other.
For their fall 1991 collections, Donna Karan thought of Geoffrey Beene, Louis dell’Olio looked to Christian Lacroix and newcomer Zang Toi did his impressions of Karl Lagerfeld suits. “The etiquette of copying? There isn’t any today,” said Lynn Manulis, president of two New York boutiques, Martha and Martha International. One carries top-name designer labels, the other features new talents, including Toi.
“The competition is so keen, and the economy is in such desperate straits, designers lose sight of the creative aspect of their work.”
At least they imitate the best; among Americans, that is Geoffrey Beene. This most original talent showed his fall ’91 collection on Friday, the last day of presentations by New York’s big-name designers.
If fashion reflects society, Beene’s fall styles indicate a subdued mood. There were none of the buttercup yellows and ultra-violets he showed for spring.
His fall colors include black, navy blue, charcoal and deep red or green.
The evening styles mostly were short, many shaped like slips or swimmer’s tank suits. Lace insets sliced across the bodice or hips of black jersey dresses. And there were double dresses in black over bronze lace or navy over beige. Evening suits were cut from gold and red or gold and green fabrics rich as any seen in a Rembrandt painting.
Beene focused on suits for day, with short narrow skirts and belted, elongated jackets cut asymmetrically in front. One bell-shaped green coat was covered with coin-dot sequins left free to flutter and shimmer like raindrops on leaves.
Sometimes, Beene’s accessories are a wild collision of patterns--lace hosiery, Dalmatian print gloves, iridescent tassel fringe scarves. This time, he toned things down with subtly patterned hose and the occasional pair of lace gloves.
The show, set on the stage of a small Manhattan theater, earned Beene the only standing ovation of any big name.
Last season, Donna Karan shocked fashion critics with a collection so closely related to Karl Lagerfeld’s designs for Chanel that it was embarrassing to watch. She has already establish her own style yet, again this season, she looked to someone else for guidance.
Her Beene-like evening dresses were black with slices of gold on the bodice where he might inset lace. And she used sculptural gold jewelry shaped like breast plates, the way Beene has used quilted fabric.
She dared to be Donna for daywear, topping black leather vests with marigold suits for a hip rich-girl image. Elongated man-tailored suit jackets were updates of the “boyfriend” jackets she has shown in past collections. Shawl skirts wrapped around the body, with a cascade of fringe in front. Scarf skirts had a triangle of fabric--a scarf point--that peeked out from beneath lean undecorated jackets or short coats. Colors at Karan ranged from lipstick red to mint green.
Dell’Olio for Anne Klein has never pretended to be the most original designer in town. But he has been one of the most successful. And by now he has established a pattern “interpreting” top international designers’ work for the mass market.
His jumbo houndstooth-check jackets and coats in pinks and blues are a tame version of the chartreuse- and yellow-check outfits Christian Lacroix showed a year ago. Dell’Olio quieted them even further when he mixed them with solid knife-pleated skirts for unmatched suits.
Skirts with pleats, along with skirts that flare at the hem and circle skirts, are the newest shapes for fall.
Dell’Olio’s stretch velvet “pant boots,” with the mid-heel shoe built right in, were a gimmicky idea that didn’t make a lot of sense. Do you take them to the cleaners or the cobblers? He showed them with white satin shirts and black velvet turtlenecks for a twist on classic day-to-dinner wear. For night there were jeweled pant boots (shades of Italian designer Gianni Versace) worn with ballet-like scoop neck tops. Other evening options included short and colorful satin skirts with matching tops, and rhinestone-studded black velvet dresses.
The one true fashion scene of the week broke out in a loft on lower Broadway Thursday night, where Isaac Mizrahi showed his collection. Paris designer Claude Montana and filmmaker Spike Lee sat ringside.
Mizrahi’s pal, stand-up comic Sandra Bernhardt, wrote and recorded a fashion rap for the show: “He’s so hot/He’s so fresh/He’s real, girl.”
And the cheering section in the audience gave an Indian war cry, instead of applause at the end.
That was after Mizrahi showed his kitschy totem-pole dress of embroidered flannel and an elegantly informal Hopi princess outfit with long, full silk moire skirt and a blouse of embroidered chamois with taffeta poet’s sleeves.
Before the show, Mizrahi described this as his American heritage collection. Black biker jackets, including one for the bride who wore it with a black tulle dance skirt, made it into Mizrahi’s lexicon as well. So did fringed leather cowgirl jackets mixed with taffeta skirts and sheer black turtleneck tops with black lace bras showing through. (He had dinner with Madonna the last time he was in Los Angeles.)
Mizrahi is a trend setter, right down to the shoes. The pastel suede mules with pilgrim buckle toes by Manolo Blahnik that he showed with his last collection were featured in every New York fashion magazine this spring. For fall, he used Blahnik’s mid-heel ghillies in brown leather for day and brown silk for night.
Randolph Duke also worked black biker’s leather into his collection. Duke, who has made his mark among newer talents over the last year, put black leather with short, puffy, black-watch plaid chiffon skirts for evening.
Supplying the comic relief of the week was Bob Mackie. His anything-goes collection opened with an outfit that said it all: rosary beads over a black prom dress and a white sequined wimple. Cole Porter music accompanied the show and, when “Too Darned Hot” started playing, a dozen models in fire-red dresses whipped down the runway. Black and white body-clinging dresses for day and modified versions of the beaded evening extravaganzas Mackie designs for the stage rounded out the collection.
Asian-born New York-based Zang Toi has been building his culturally eclectic style during his first year in business. From the beginning, he has displayed his appreciation for French couture as well traditional Asian fashion.
In his new fall line, Toi showed his affinity for Karl Lagerfeld with violet-and-grey oversized check suits with wide velvet cuffs worn Lagerfeld-style with over-the-knee suede pirate boots.
His love for Lacroix was clear in a series of hyper-feminine pastel wool suits piped in silver lace and worn with the pie plate-shaped hats Lacroix has also used.
His own ingredients showed that Toi has talent and promise: a hooded lemon-yellow coat with leopard-print lining, rib-knit poor boy sweaters with fur cuffs and a fitted little suit with his own signature jacket cut asymmetrically in front.
He took chances with his evening wear: Chinese red embroidered mini-skirts were covered with long, gold lace curtain-like panels and worn with flower-embroidered cardigan sweaters. It didn’t work. There was too much going on.
But after a week of nothing-ventured, nothing-gained collections, Toi’s mistakes were reason for hope. Never has it been more apparent that fashion designing is a creative act. Without it, there wouldn’t even be anything to copy.
