SPRING COLLECTIONS / PARIS : Post-Deconstruction Period
The death of deconstruction was witnessed here last week. No one wept.
Coats with one sleeve, jackets sliced to ribbons and other signs of the recent trend were rare in the spring collections. The monastic shrouds of last season, with repent oozing from every fiber, were another casualty. Can’t say who will miss that look, either.
Designers at the forefront of such fashion explorations took the season off, for all practical purposes. Some showed collections so flimsy and frayed that they hardly counted as clothing. This was deconstruction, decomposed.
The clothes that seemed most sure-handed came from designers who stayed clear of recent trends. As might be expected, Yves Saint Laurent was at the top of that list.
His line of nautical-inspired pantsuits with navy jackets, bell-bottoms and crisp white vests looked as correct this season as ever. And an assortment of garden-print dresses, with subtle ruffles on shawl collars, narrow leather belts and graceful skirts to the knee or the ankle were the sort of thing you could keep for as long as there are flowers in springtime.
Oscar de la Renta’s collection for Pierre Balmain included some ivory coat-and-dress ensembles that respected the original Balmain look. Small waistlines and long, full skirts on polka-dotted evening outfits were a theme in his collection of classic feminine looks for women who dress as their mothers did.
Ines de la Fressange, once the leading model and muse at Chanel, launched her own line and a charmingly eccentric boutique several years ago. Next month, Saks Fifth Avenue in New York City will re-create the shop and carry the collection.
An unabashed admirer of Saint Laurent and Christian Lacroix, she has borrowed from her elders for her spring line, but put a more relaxed attitude in the mix.
Nubby straw stovepipe hats, Napoleonic jackets with deep cuffs, textured silk dresses with safari details and colorful silk evening shoes and bags with gold fixtures all got the Ines imprint. These, too, are classically feminine clothes for women who let the avant-garde pass them by, no matter the season.
Romeo Gigli mixed smoking jackets and narrow pants in lightweight fabrics such as pale, striped linen and sheer silk. Likenesses of wall paintings depicting mythological characters decorated the jackets. Togas in day and evening fabrics were another theme. Some were casual enough to wear on a Saturday afternoon; others were formal evening wear. This season Gigli found harmony between his vivid fantasies and the real world.
At Chanel, designer Karl Lagerfeld’s punk hip-hop parade started with Technicolor hair. Extra-large black jeans, cut off just below the knees, and high-heeled sneakers with tire-tread soles kept the look going.
Waist-cinchers put a funky spin on knee-length silk dresses. Pastel wool suits with very narrow short skirts and navy-blue suits with nautical touches on the jacket and knife-pleated skirts were the show’s reality check.
Robert Altman made it through French fashion week. But can he make it through the movie he expects to film here in March? Fashion insiders already have their own ideas of what to expect. And the director acknowledges they aren’t all pleased.
Altman says the plot is built around a Houston newspaper cub reporter cast into the Paris fashion pool to cover the collections after her boss has a stroke.
Why Houston? “I wanted the city she came from to be a little provincial,” Altman explained.
“I’m glad Mr. Altman realizes there are fashion editors in Texas,” quipped Houston Chronicle fashion editor Linda Gillan Griffin.
The plot thickens when a New York Times fashion writer arrives to report about the goings-on around the runways.
“She becomes my voice,” Altman said of that character.
He has invited fashion’s key players to appear as themselves in his movie. “Some have been very open and un-paranoid; some have been cool toward me,” Altman said.
CNN’s Elsa Klensch, who interviewed Altman last week for her show “Style,” said: “I’d do anything to help him get this movie made.”
“He’ll hit some soft spots,” she said. “But he has a marvelous sense of humor, and of life. I think it will be as good as anything he’s ever done.”
Super model Yazmeen Ghauri is likely to be among the real people in the movie. She and a lot of other observers expect this to be the fashion version of “The Player,” Altman’s recent look inside Hollywood.
“I think it will be very ironic,” said Ghauri. “There are a lot of negatives in the fashion business. I think Altman will uncover some of them in a sarcastic way. I like that.”
