A Bunch OF Softies
Why would anyone wear a tinfoil helmet, sit through a blaring cop-buster rap or scramble across a construction site in a pair of high heels?
Because it is fashion week and every fantasy is fair game.
In the first four days of the fall fashion shows that began here Friday, the French waxed poetic, with cynics and sentimentalists vying for first place. So far, the romantics seem to be winning, with their sonnets to softheaded waifs and cantos to softhearted career women.
Rei Kawakubo and Yohji Yamamoto were the first two big names to show their collections and each applied a lyrical line of thinking. For her Comme des Garcons label, Kawakubo made recycling seem romantic, with patchwork skirts in faded paisleys mixed with floral prints. All of them were ankle-length, the dominant look here.
Jackets that were tailored wool tweed at the top faded to sweater knit at the bodice. An amber-colored coat, narrow at the shoulders and wide at the hem, had a band of navy-blue chiffon fluttering over the buttons. That bit of sentiment made the coat among the best items in an impressive collection.
Kawakubo accessorized with what looked like recycled bits of tinfoil formed into helmets. For evening, she dressed them up with headbands of faded flowers worn right over the foil.
Yamamoto set out to enhance the image of gabardine, hard-finished fabric meant for uniforms and coats. He gave it a graceful charm that only a poet could manage. One gabardine trenchcoat had pleated sleeves that looked like Japanese lanterns from the back.
Normally, both designers show their collections in the temporary tents set up in a courtyard at the Louvre. This time, they went to other parts of town.
A number of designers shifted the location of their shows after a feud broke out among governing members of the Chambre Syndicale, the French fashion industry’s organizing body. As a result, only 23 shows, not the 33 of last season, will be held at the Louvre this time. And only two tents, not the usual three, fill the courtyard.
In what is proving to be a particularly evocative fashion season, the Chloe collection set its sights on the early 20th Century, when women were poised between Victorian primness and the dawn of liberation.
Small, soft shoulders, high waistlines and skirts just above the ankle created a proportion that might have been fetching but was not. Dresses tended to be all but shapeless and so plain they could have been any low-budget item. Coats were better, especially if they buttoned up and took on a definite silhouette.
Karl Lagerfeld took over the Chloe collection last season, and the idea behind the line is exactly what fashion is all about right now: in his words, “soft, soft, soft.” But the trick is to turn that idea into clothes with enough definition and presence for executives to wear to work. After all, those are the women who can afford them.
Presence was not a problem in Jean Paul Gaultier’s collection. In his most irreverent show in years, he chose Hasidic Jews as inspiration.
To the basic proportion--knee-length “rabbi” coats over wide-leg pants--Gaultier added “prayer shawl” mufflers and false “payess” (spiraling curls), some of them sprouting from inside the models’ ears. But he brought the Hasidic dress code into the mainstream, mixing rich brocades, velvets and satins--all in black.
Gaultier also made three-piece suits from jackets worn with skirts over pants, for men as well as for women. His best daytime suits for women were cut from menswear fabrics, with long double-breasted jackets over short pleated skirts.
In fashion, as in dinner conversation, it is wise to steer away from the subject of religion. But in truth, these were beautiful clothes. The humor was gentle and humane, as it was in earlier Gaultier shows that paid homage to Russian refugees. Still, not everyone was amused. “Fifty years after the Holocaust is too soon,” snarled a New York fashion editor.
Christian Lacroix found a way to work his love for provincial French fashion and for decorative details into a collection that moved him well into the modern world.
Memorable items in the show were a brown and mustard plaid coat with a wide, sweeping hemline, as well as a deep-red velvet coat with copper-colored laces to nip in the waist in back. He showed it over slightly flared pants.
A black satin evening suit had fine gold chains across the jacket worked in for a sculptural effect. Lace slip dresses with gold chain straps went over narrow lace evening pants.
At some of the shows, reporters and photographers wore “Grunge Is Ghastly” buttons. From the look of things, designers here got that message.
