FASHION : Going to Extremes : Italian Designers’ Spring Lines Are Wild One Minute, Tame the Next
As Italy’s best-known designers showed their spring ’92 collections this week, two fashion extremes played tug of war. Collections went right over the top, or fell under the influence of humdrum neo-conservatism.
Or worse. Some designers raced back and forth, showing an innocent ballet school look of leotards and chiffon skirts, then jewel-encrusted bra tops and cheeky hot pants.
That was the setup on Sunday at the Dolce & Gabbana show where most of the clothes were better suited to a lingerie catalogue than a fashion runway. High-heeled, heavily made-up and with cigarettes dangling from their lips, the models showed off bustiers, bandeaux, bras, corsets, girdles, garter belts, and stockings in black, white or flaming red.
Designers Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana said their collection was inspired by such sex symbols as Sophia Loren and Gina Lollabrigida, whose first names were written in red sequins on clinging short shorts. Skintight pants and a midriff-baring top in a pastel print straddled the line between lingerie and legitimate streetwear. Sensible pantsuits with narrow pants and long jackets looked boringly respectable among so many steamy styles.
Even at shows where the clothes were the most extreme, the models managed to upstage them. Top-rated Linda Evangelista has been dubbed the Marilyn Monroe of the runway and is sporting a flaming red hairdo for the current collections. She, Claudia Schiffer, Naomi Campbell and Christy Turlington are as adored as movie starlets; they command a minimum $5,000 per show.
(This season there has been a beginning of a backlash. Byblos designers Alan Cleaver and Keith Varty told Women’s Wear Daily, the fashion trade publication, they were sick of the supermodel syndrome. Cleaver said that Campbell asked $9,000 for about two hours’ work. But the Byblos boys hired her anyway.)
At Ferragamo, each supermodel wore her own belt, with her name emblazoned on it, over the designers’ outfits. It was one of several signs that the strait-laced fashion house has succumbed to the latest trends.
While there were plenty of traditional blazers and jackets in soft pastel wools in the collection at the Monday evening show, what went underneath was anything but conventional. Ferragamo coats opened to reveal tight shirred tops, clinging skirts and pants, plunging backs and necklines.
The same fashion split between virgin and vamp troubled the Emporio Armani collection, with its too short shorts and awkwardly shirred sheaths worn under signature blazers.
Opposite extremes pulled the Byblos collection along from youthful cheerleader looks, with short pleated skirts and tank tops, to jeweled brassieres and girdle shorts.
At Genny, where designer Gianni Versace collaborates with company president Donatella Girombelli, sleek and elegant working-girl looks gave way to sequined catsuits and lacy lingerie evening gowns. Warm pastel silk dresses with matching shell coats or short jackets were a day-into-evening option.
Franco Moschino has established himself as Italy’s master punster. This week, an entire window of his boutique on the fashionable Via Sant’Andrea in downtown Milan carried a sign with the words ready to where? in bold letters.
Moschino used other plays-on-words to spice up his latest collection. Fashion Fashoff was printed on a trim black and white suit. But between the puns were plenty of elongated white shirts over narrow pants, fitted skirts and jackets proving that Moschino still knows when to get serious.
The Fendis, encouraged by their imaginative designer Karl Lagerfeld, opted for a fashion happening. The supermodels posed on platforms built along three sides of a huge room at the Barozzi Palace, Fendi headquarters. The look was folkloric, inspired by American Indian and native African dress. The audience sipped champagne and danced to ethnic beats on large stages in the courtyard. And the crowd pushed and shoved to get a glimpse of the models, if not the clothes.
Gianfranco Ferre set a whole other tone at his show. Gold chairs with velvet cushions lined the runway, and polite young girls in black and white uniforms escorted people to their places.
The Ferre collection contained all the elements of the new direction in Italian design--lingerie, bra tops, short shorts and catsuits included. But Ferre’s luxury image was also apparent. Bra tops were made of buttery leather or sequined silk. Shorts were short but never cheeky. Catsuits came in exquisite Art Deco prints. The novelty appeared in poolside eveningwear. Shimmering fluorescent bathing suits were worn under embroidered terry-cloth bathrobes.
Ferre hired the requisite mega-buck models--Karen Mulder, Schiffer, Evangelista--for his show. But even they had trouble walking gracefully in his high-heeled mules.
He kept up with the competition in another way, too. He is continuing to produce a lower-price line this season. Every Italian designer now has one--at least one. Krizia’s Mariuccia Mandelli showed her five secondary lines this week.
Versace’s Versus, Moschino’s Cheap and Chic and Armani’s new A/X Exchange weekend wear, starting at less than $100, are all attempts to hold onto customers unable--or unwilling--to pay the escalating prices for designer signature labels; suits can carry $3,000 price tags and jackets can top $2,000.
Not all retailers are enthralled with the lower-price trend.
“They should spend less time on the commercial, and more on the designing,” said Elin Saltzman, senior vice president and corporate fashion director for R.H. Macy.
“Let the buyer make it sell,” she added with a smile.
