THE European Collections : Paris : One Newcomer Dares to Go Bare; Another Opts to Play It Safe

The spring, 1992, fashion shows jolted into overdrive Wednesday night with the boldly bare collection of John Galliano.

A relative newcomer to the Paris scene, London-based Galliano first showed here about a year ago. He staged this latest naughty and nude collection in the Cour Carree, a small courtyard of the Louvre museum where tents have been set up for the designer shows through next Thursday.

The collection played itself out like a tribute to trashy lingerie, a dress style that has turned from tough to more tender since the Paris couturiers got hold of it. Instead of bullet bras and leather corsets, Galliano stitched satin slip dresses, crinkled metallic bed jackets, strapless lace bras and bikinis. His sheer hip-huggers were seamed in back.

Beyond belief were banker’s-gray pantsuits with cutaway jackets that bared the bellybutton. A breast-baring slip seemed the height of overstatement. And some flesh-colored silk hip-huggers, shredded at the thighs like old jeans, were a desperate attempt at nonchalance.

But the best of his clothes were remarkably seductive, artfully cut and constructed--particularly a series of ankle-length skirts that flared at the hem--in sheer silk mixed with satin.

As Japanese world presence surges ahead, it seems reasonable to expect two Paris-based Japanese designers to do the same. Yohji Yamamoto and Rei Kawakubo, for Comme des Garcons, are the two to watch.

Indeed, Kawakubo is on a roll. Her spring collection, a deconstructivist’s delight, has its share of sack dresses with raw, unfinished hems; grim, pin-striped jackets made of suit fabric and suit lining; destitute sweaters with unraveling sleeves. But Kawakubo slipped in an occasional stunner: a glove-fitting black dress outlined in what looked like white poster paint. And no one this week has outclassed her evening dresses in embroidered Chinese silk with silver zippers arching across the bodice, neckline or hips.

In his fall ’91 collection, Yamamoto showed skirts and vests made of blond wooden slats. After that, who could blame him for taking the summer of ’92 off? Still, his tent-sized polo shirts and mid-calf Connecticut commuter skirts seemed excessively safe. Similar shapes had a different impact; they were cut from gray oiled-looking fabric and topped by lace-print overskirts.

Spider webs of white covered Yamamoto’s long black evening dresses. And a deep-red silk dress was at once formal and informal, with its lavish organdy shawl-wrapped collar and short pants skirt.