Fashion Takes Giant Step Back : Retro: A return to the hippie era is moving French fashion to a clear break with the tarty styles that recently dominated the runways.
“We’re not calling it the ‘60s,” Bloomingdale’s fashion director, Kal Ruttenstein, insisted Sunday after he had seen days of French fashion shows, seen the same hip-hugger bellbottoms, bared navels and cropped tops, seen the same tablecloths turned to tunics and dining-room drapes made up as dresses.
No, Ruttenstein announced, “We’re calling it the ‘70s. Early ‘70s. Well, late ‘60s/early ‘70s.”
Whatever anyone calls it, top Paris designers are showing spring 1993 collections that echo and reflect the softer side of the hippie generation: love-ins, flower power and a “loving hands at home” style of dress.
“It was the freedom the era represents that designers want to recall,” Ruttenstein explained.
That benign free spirit is moving French fashion to a clear break with the bare-and-brash, tight-and-tarty styles that have dominated runways here for years.
Still, there appears to be a little peekaboo left, even if the new subtle approach means that the exposure of every body part is finally out of fashion.
Karl Lagerfeld veiled the nudity by layering long, sheer black pants under short, sheer pleated skirts. Other signs of softness in Lagerfeld’s line came from pale leather jackets with rounded shoulders, suit jackets that curved to the waist and some pastel knit skirts with matching cropped tops whose half-moon cutouts were in no way X-rated.
Evening dresses were a mix of black silk, sheer tulle and spider-web netting that has resurfaced in a number of collections for spring. Lagerfeld showed almost his entire collection with the same flat-heel lace-up boots in black or white--just high enough to meet the ankle-grazing hemlines of his skirts.
Indeed, the great skirt debate of last season seems to have been settled: Everything is to the ankle, or just above it.
“Yes, I have one,” said Norma Fink, Theodore Boutique owner. But like other women attending the shows, she is not entirely pleased. “Pants are the alternative,” suggested Fink, who was wearing a pair by Claude Montana.
Most designers would agree with her, and they showed at least as many wide-leg pants as skirts for spring. But skirts are wider too, compared with the extra-lean types seen here last season.
“People in Los Angeles aren’t prone to cover up their bodies,” noted Tommy Perse, who owns the Maxfield boutique. “But I’m seeing a lot of wearable shapes for spring. Long just looks right.”
To their credit, Paris designers aren’t simply recycling a fashion trend. They are finding ways to modernize some key elements of the past: macrame, crochet and that spidery netting that Lagerfeld used.
Christian Lacroix’s look back led him to mix macrame with sheer silk for some rich evening dresses.
Other strong ideas in Lacroix’s collection were his African print linen fun dresses, including one in black on warm blue with triple-strand straps and a side-slit skirt.
In many shows this season, models have been wearing fake ponytails to their hips. Jean-Paul Gaultier spoofed this wild-child “do” with floor-length Lady Godiva wigs. He also showed hair shirts and hair hula skirts.
Gaultier, ever fashion’s wit, pushed menswear to extremes as well. His man-tailored pantsuits, with versions for men as well as women, had waistlines lifted to the armpits.
In between Gaultier’s sight gags and nostalgia trips were a number of precisely tailored suits in caramel and ivory pinstripes with ankle-length skirts, as well as a group of short gabardine trench coats worn with matching taupe trousers.
Meanwhile, the simpler approach so many designers are attempting for spring is nothing new for Hubert de Givenchy. His white safari dress with tortoise shell buttons and his silver-belted evening gown with pleats from the neckline to the hem were among the classic updates.
But not every designer is finding it easy to get back to basics.
In a printed statement about his show, Romeo Gigli explained his view that life is complicated, so clothes shouldn’t be. Still, this artist-designer, known for dresses spun from copper threads and gowns beaded with pearls, had a hard time holding to his plan. His best results were unmatched pantsuits of rich fabric blends.
Cool simplicity, meanwhile, is the soul of Claude Montana’s work. This season his evening wear was the best of the collection, starting with graceful white organza blouses and lean, high-waisted navy skirts and strengthened by white strapless dresses whose sheer overskirts flowed open from the waist, worn over white leggings.
This season, Issey Miyake is celebrating his 20th year as a Paris designer. To note the occasion, he let members of the Ballet Frankfurt--young, athletic modern dancers--do some modeling in his show. What seemed like an army of dancers moved down the runway in a synchronized set of gymnastic break-dance moves. It was a natural high.
Among his weekend looks, Miyake featured awning-stripe pants in two shades of green worn with stone-washed denim jackets or maize-colored dresses in cotton voile.
Off the fashion runways, the news from rampside this season is not the usual celebrity glitz: Madonna has not been seen at the shows. But Oscar de la Renta has. And by the time De la Renta presents his own show here Tuesday, he may be prepared to announce whether he will accept an offer to be the new designer for Pierre Balmain, the Paris couture house. It’s been in the talking stages for weeks.
As of Sunday morning, De la Renta said he was still thinking it over.
