FASHION / THE NEW YORK SHOWS : A Little Elegance in an Era of ‘60s Retreads

In a fashion season of turmoil and change, Ralph Lauren’s spring collection strikes a harmonic chord. It is classic and daring at the same time, weaving vintage and modern elements together for a look that is Lauren at his best.

He previewed his spring collection on Wednesday, during a week of New York designer shows. This put him squarely in the middle of a season filled with hippie retreads, grunge garmentos inspired by the thermal underwear and knit caps of some of the new Seattle rock bands, and enough early ‘70s revivals to crowd the most cavernous disco dance floor. Despite the pervasive air of instant karma, Lauren managed to crystallize a look that holds up against the competition. And he didn’t cop out with the timeless classics to do it.

There were flower-power overtones in his long, floral- print dresses, but he gave them a new look when he put them over striped T-shirts, black crocheted camisoles, or a second dress in a contrasting floral print. Babushkas and black leather belts completed most outfits.

Pale, narrow pantsuits dominated for the office. But unlike the hard-edge, dandified assortment that Lauren showed last season, these came in softer colors and shapes.

For evening, embroidered ivory jackets, ruffled poet’s shirts, sheer white pajamas, and beaded ivory slip dresses, all worn with long strands of dainty pearls, mixed a romantic retro feeling with the casual ease that many women want in an evening wardrobe today.

Geoffrey Beene captured a new sort of feminine spirit, too, with clothes inspired by the ballet. These were not tutus and tulle skirts; these are clothes for a mobile society, he said.

Beene showed pantsuits, or jumpsuits worn with boleros, or short full coats for day. Pants are by far the leading choice among New York designers for spring.

Beene cut them in unusually roomy shapes. Some had deep, inverted pleats in front. Others had arced side seams for a silhouette that resembled a soft-edge diamond shape.

“I saw similar shapes worn by fieldworkers in Thailand and Burma, so you know they’re very functional,” Beene said during his presentation. Rather than a runway show, clothes were displayed on mannequins covered in Beene fabric mixes such as red and black Dalmatian print.

The presentation was held at the Ballet School of Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts. Dance students dressed in Beene jumpsuits performed classic movements at a barre in the gallery space, with recorded sounds of a dance class and a solo piano as accompaniment. Sixteen-foot-tall drawings and black and white photographs of ballerinas wearing pieces from the new line provided a dramatic backdrop.

Evening dresses on display included a gown with a beaded T-shirt striped top and a crisp green taffeta plaid skirt. Another was a sheer black lace column that wrapped the body and formed a multilayered hem.

Buyers and the press viewed everything close up, taking note of fabric mixes, button details and linings.

“There’s been too much entertainment in fashion, not enough information,” Beene said, explaining his alternative to a typical show. The display was dismantled later that day, but Saks Fifth Avenue plans to remount it in New York, and possibly Los Angeles, this spring.

On Tuesday, Mark Eisen, who recently uprooted himself from Los Angeles, presented his first New York show. His collection held to a single theme--early ’70 sleekness. The best of it included hot pants, floor-length vests, cropped tops and capris--in pale shades of aqua, yellow and green--mixed together for a taste of poolside California.

“It’s nothing he can’t be proud of,” Neiman Marcus Fashion Director Joan Kaner said after Eisen’s show. “The collection is beautifully clean, in wonderful colors.”

Eisen got the full treatment, with backstage visits from Vogue editor Anna Wintour, along with major store buyers.

Fellow Californian Richard Tyler was in the audience too. Tyler, whose L.A. boutique dresses everyone from Kim Basinger to Julia Roberts, opened a New York showroom last month.

“We did it mainly for the fashion press,” Tyler said. “If we’re not here, we don’t get included.”

The press is what brings store buyers. Bergdorf Goodman is expanding its Tyler boutique, which opened about a year ago. And Neiman Marcus now carries Tyler’s label too.

Eva Chun, who left Los Angeles for New York more than a year ago, held her second show this season. It was clean, tailored, sophisticated and moved well beyond the cocktail and evening wear that used to be her only product.

Still, evening items were the best of her show. A pale gray pantsuit was made romantic with an unusual jacket, fitted to the waist in gray silk, flared from there to over the hips in sheer fabric the same shade of gray.

Such sleek, clean clothes are one strong option seen on New York runways for spring. Along with Chun and Eisen, New Yorkers Michael Kors and Jennifer George did the look well.

George crafted ivory silk Nehru jackets over champagne-color silk Shantung pants for a day or evening look. Kors picked up on a new proportion, perfected this season in the hippie-grunge hybrid that designers such as Marc Jacobs for Perry Ellis made their specialty for spring.

The original grunge look, inspired by rock bands from Seattle, gets sloppy: long-sleeve shirts go unbuttoned over T-shirts, plaid flannel shirt-sleeves get tied around old blue jeans.

Kors played with the layering, showing long sleek dresses over full-length pants, with a jacket over the dress and a vest over the jacket. Sometimes he tied a sheer scarf over a pair of pants, then added a jacket, to suggest jacket, skirt and pants.

Instead of thermal underwear and plaid flannel, Kors worked in lightweight linen, sheer silk and nubby cotton in colors as pale as natural grains.

As usual, Todd Oldham’s show was an antidote to every other trend in town. He went scavenging for his usual assortment of thrifty, artsy-craftsy items to compile a collection as spirited, colorful, glamorous and eccentric as any he’s come up with yet.

He cut striped necktie fabric into capri pants and fitted, sleeveless jackets. He added gold buttons made from children’s toys for satin-like suits to wear day or night, a crazy-quilt dress with a long, full skirt, and a full-cut shirt went over teeny-weeny hot pants, all from the same necktie material.

Ribbon-stripe seersucker pantsuits had wide bell-bottoms and cropped jackets for the office. Black velvet flower appliques on black latticework blouses and shirtwaist dresses were high glamour items for evening.

The models’ sky-high pouffy hair, campy false eyelashes, and the fact that some of them were transvestites added to the out-of-control quality that is always built into an Oldham event.

As usual, he says everything in the collection is for anybody to wear. You’re never too odd to start wearing hot pants.

Who does he design for? “The woman who says, ‘I can’t find anything to wear,’ ” Oldham explained.

The growing sameness of ready-to-wear fashion is apparently becoming a problem for people other than Oldham’s frustrated customers.

This week, three New York stores announced plans to enlist well-known designers to create small exclusive collections. Oldham is already under contract with Henri Bendel.

Now, Gordon Henderson will design a line available only at Saks Fifth Avenue. And Stephen Sprouse, who was a fashion icon until he went out of business in the early ‘80s, will create a collection for Bergdorf Goodman.

“The fact is, some young talented people can’t do it alone,” Bergdorf Goodman CEO Burt Tansky said about the growing trend. “They need advisory and financial support.”

Also a fact: Women will need options beyond what is appearing on the runways of Europe and New York this season. Not everyone can relate to grunge granny gowns.

Coming Monday

Mary Rourke reviews the collections of Anna Sui, Donna Karan, Calvin Klein, Christian Francis Roth and Isaac Mizrahi.