THE FALL COLLECTIONS / NEW YORK : The Bold and the Beautiful
With her hunched shoulders and contained walk, it was a model named Jodie--and not the mysteriously cheerful Kate Moss--who best caught the spirit of Calvin Klein’s fall collection Friday.
The walking incarnation of cool, Jodie is as skinny as any waif. Her kohl-lined blue eyes and pouty overbite suggest innocence lost. Not debauched, just set aside for now in the face of a Brave New World.
And what a pared-down world it is. Klein’s women can’t be bothered with jewelry, purses, gloves, stockings, sunglasses or even lipstick. All they need is the right attitude and a wardrobe full of the most whittled-down clothes this side of Jil Sander.
Even Sander, though, tossed a few color bones to the crowd in her fall collection last month in Milan. Klein managed to wring diversity in a color scheme limited to wheat, lapis, java, kohl, raisin, espresso, sable, white. He did it with a masterful manipulation of texture and tailoring he calls “body architecture for the modern woman.”
Sounds good, but what does it mean? Klein says he was inspired by the looks of Grace Kelly in the late ‘50s and Audrey Hepburn in the late ‘60s. The trick was turning these nostalgic impulses into a ‘90s vision. He did it by altering proportions. A black wool crepe shell is cut on the boxy side to stand away from the back and is worn with a matching narrow knee-length skirt.
A typical play of textures in the Klein vernacular would be a sharkskin skirt with a vicuna melton jacket worn over a double duchess satin crew. A typical Klein moment came when Linda Evangelista--in a white silk taffeta shirt and black, flat-front wool pants--appeared on the runway, a vision of unadorned American sportswear at its most crisp and chic.
Women who dress like that during the day, one imagines, probably want the same restraint at night. For them, Klein created a group of double duchess satin dresses--sleeveless, ankle-length columns in brown, black and white with self-belts and the most modest slits in any collection. The dresses are a 360-degree shift from the flimsy, unstructured bias-cut slip dresses he’s been doing for the past few seasons.
Sitting in the front row, Klein’s radiant wife, Kelly, looked like just the woman to wear one.
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Singer Patti LaBelle gave Donna Karan a one-woman standing ovation at the conclusion of the designer’s Friday night show. But many others in the crowd at the final show of New York’s Sixth on Seventh thought Karan’s collection was downbeat and offered little of what her customers want.
Still, in a season when even the most notoriously outrageous designers have played it safe with wearable, so-called commercial clothes, give Karan credit for taking risks.
Karan filled the runway with beautiful, often somber black coats and dresses worn with flat, rubber-soled mocassins. The coat was pivotal, worn long with only a skirt underneath or rounded like a sheltering cocoon over long, black knit dresses. One, with an uneven hem, evoked Comme des Garcons, A group of severe black ballgowns were sculptural to the point of being anti-glamorous.
The world knows Karan can do sexy tailored suits and flattering dresses. This time, she attempted to break free from her signature looks. The only question is, can her customers keep up?
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Anna Sui prefers the smell of motorcycle fuel (one was driven onto the runway to open the show) to the smell of refinement. She paints her male models’ nails metallic blue and makes them wear lipstick. She probably looks to all the world like Calvin Klein’s worst nightmare.
But by using Klein-like restraint, Sui soared light years from last season’s jumbled collection.
Her slightly punk, very mod jumpers, box-pleated plaid skirts and smock dresses were accessorized with leather and leopard babushkas and mock croc structured handbags. Suits in orange herringbone and electric blue would never be confused with thrift store finds.
Just when it appeared that Sui had the colors it would take to get the fashion crowd out of black, she showed a perfectly proportioned black brocade suit, with hip-hugging capris, matching shell and jacket. It would have looked great, no doubt, on Kelly Klein.
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Drew Barrymore is the It Girl for Miu-Miu, Prada’s bridge line. Barrymore’s pretty face adorned the invitation to Thursday’s show, the program notes and also will be featured in Miu-Miu’s ad campaign. These expressive, upbeat clothes furthered the idea that black is a fading staple of true residents of the cutting edge.
Miuccia Prada worked in a soft plaid colored gold and rust, icy-pastel-colored nylon and, in what’s popping up in every collection, beigy-beige. Here, too, were more of fall’s most visible trends: mock croc vinyl jackets, fitted knee-length wool coats with empire-high belts and quilted nylon ski parkas edged in fake fur.
Sometimes the models looked a little dowdy, as if--with wool cardigans hanging from their shoulders--they were wearing Mom’s clothes. And that’s one of the mistakes all the designers here face when they draw from fashion’s recent past. Just in case you didn’t get the irony served up here, it was underscored by the music: Christmas carols played on steel guitars.
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Designer Cynthia Rowley is as fun-loving as Anna Sui and as forward as Miu-Miu. But she’s sweeter than all of them, sending invitations to her show on the wrapper of a chocolate bar.
Rowley’s show was simulcast Thursday night on the screen in Times Square. You know the crowd’s favorite moment was when the luscious Tyra Banks popped the buttons on her little red satin blouse for all the world to see.
The designer was also the first so far to feature a toddler model. Beverly Peele’s baby accompanied Mom down the runway. “That’s my goddaughter,” said the omnipresent Russell Simmons.
At the other end of the age spectrum, veteran model Carmen opened Rowley’s show in a vivid orange nylon coat. That set the stage for a group of playful gray and orange striped and piped short shifts, jackets and skirts; bright silk shantung pants and suits; iridescent cocktail dresses and sexy metallic hot pants and matching quilted jackets.
One of the most interesting things about Rowley’s show was the hair, which was turned gray in parts with silver spray and gray-hued wigs and hairpieces. Said one critic: “If she only knew how much money I spend to get rid of the gray. . . .”
