THE SPRING COLLECTIONS / NEW YORK : Straight Talk : The masters of American design keep it pure and simple. Their staying power depends on subtleties in form, color and fit--and the occasional surprise.
There is a poignant scene at the beginning of “Unzipped,” the knowing documentary that brings audiences into the world of Isaac Mizrahi, when he reads Women’s Wear Daily’s uncomplimentary review of his collection in the cold light of a SoHo dawn. Unfortunately, he had to relive that moment Friday, the morning after presenting his spring 1996 collection here. But opinions among fashion journalists often differ, just as they do with movie critics. One man’s thumbs up is another’s debacle. Go figure.
Excellence is expected of the top of the class, and Mizrahi, along with Ralph Lauren, Donna Karan, Calvin Klein and Richard Tyler, are the stars of American fashion. The value of their expertise becomes critical when most of the clothes slinking down the runways in a week of American designer shows have been so plain, so understated, at their worst so snoringly simple that only the hand of a master can create the subtle differences in silhouette, color, quality and fit that distinguish one design from another. (There are lots of white pants around, for example. Is Michael Kors the only one smart enough to make them in a good, double-faced crepe so the pocket lining doesn’t show through?)
Those who did not champion Mizrahi’s polished collection are probably fans of the popular unstudied look. Marc Jacobs, DKNY and others have featured clothes for the woman who doesn’t want to appear to be trying too hard. Of course, the irony, and the joke, is that in straining to be artless, the oh-so-cool crowd achieves a look that is everything but nonchalant.
“Unzipped” astutely captured Mizrahi’s wit. Because he speaks in pithy sound bites, he could be more the designer as oracle than a real practitioner of his craft. But he neither condescends to the self-consciously hip aesthetic nor lets his personality overwhelm his designs. He has always been an unabashed admirer of American movie stars with great style. At his runway presentation, he stepped confidently into the shadows, and let a gorgeous trio of small-waisted chiffon Grace Kelly dresses revel in the spotlight. His palette relied on gentle earth colors, loam, bark, even a purple he called rhubarb. A navy pantsuit and a pair of dresses with exposed, built-in push-up bras looked as if they had been created by his evil twin, because for the most part, Mizrahi makes very grown-up, elegant clothes.
At one point in his show, the sound track turned Hitchcockian, and the models appeared in carefully mismatched outfits--a navy linen-satin pantsuit with a heather gray cashmere T-shirt, gray cotton herringbone cigarette pants with an oyster jacket and a charcoal shirt. Even without the music cue, the point that Mizrahi’s creations display the timeless glamour of Hollywood icons would have been inescapable.
There is something to the quality of the light in the Mediterranean that makes color more vibrant and people exceptionally beautiful. At Ralph Lauren’s glorious and otherwise all-American show, it seemed he had captured the incandescence of the French Riviera, flipped a switch and bathed the tent with sunshine on a dark, rainy day. For the first time, the bright colors of the season made sense. Lauren didn’t shy from using kelly green or chrome yellow, but he gave women an out; by showing brights with black, they became non-compulsory. A woman who isn’t sure about how she’ll feel in the new neons could try an orange jacket over the perfect black pants and turtleneck. When she isn’t up to orange, she still has wonderful black pieces for her wardrobe, and a jacket she can throw on over a white linen skirt.
Although Lauren said he was inspired by the sleek race cars he collects, there were other sporty influences. Stylish skiers regularly pair black with true colors, as he did, and sculptural stretch knit scuba dresses with colored side panels had an aerodynamic sleekness. Proper dresses were well-represented, including some stunning turtleneck versions cut in to expose a tanned shoulder. Lauren showed the best-looking leather jeans anywhere. The ones in primary colors looked sensational with crisp white shirts tucked in until a black pair came out. They were flat irresistible, proving how difficult it could be to lick a jones for black.
Richard Tyler also understands that color doesn’t have to announce itself, proclaiming, “Ta da! Here I am, part of the great color wave of spring 1996.” He offered color without the shock--a celadon wrap dress, a soft pistachio zippered car coat, a periwinkle Shantung belted shirtwaist, a shimmering lavender trench coat over an ivory skirt.
The surprise Tyler sprang came in the form of the terrific dresses for day. He has been a designer women look to for flawless pantsuits and high-impact evening dresses. Having designed for rock stars in the past, Tyler admits that he’s handled enough leopard spandex in this life. There was no cheap flash in this collection. The fact that he produced sophisticated, impeccably cut clothes that skirted the season’s trends while steering clear of just repeating them shows the kind of range that translates into real staying power.
Longevity was at the heart of Donna Karan’s soothing collection. Were she to continue making power suits for working Amazons, she’d sink into the sort of rut that can spell creative death for a designer of her caliber. In the way that Paul Simon moved from rock into exploration of ethnic music, Karan is branching out, too. There is a purity to her designs that is almost spiritual. The jacket she repeats in a variety of colors and materials closes with a single hook, not the sort of shape one expects to see in the business world. Models wearing slick, straight ponytails marched onto the runway in flat sandals, emphasizing that these clothes may not be destined for the office. She employed color boldly, including a group of tobacco tones, cut skirts off at thigh level and bared bellybuttons.
There are designers who confuse modern dressing with a vision out of “Star Trek.” With narrow, long dresses, luscious leather and suede jackets, floaty halter tops and open-necked shirtdresses belted at the hip with circles of silver mesh, Karan proved she knows better.
The problem with minimalism as a guiding principle is designers can become interchangeable. Calvin Klein, a savvy marketer as well as a commercial designer, avoided that trap. He worked with quiet pales, and didn’t abandon the distinctive below-the-knee length he popularized. Thankfully, Klein loosened up on the monastic high necklines he’s been doing the last few seasons; scoop and V-necks are much more flattering for a woman with pretty collarbones to reveal.
It’s unusual for Klein to do a spring collection lacking linens, but he did, concentrating on knits, matte jerseys and tropical wools. Like Ralph Lauren, he also mixed black with colors, layering a lean, dark matte jersey shirt under a parchment suit. By running bands of color across simply cut tank tops or matte jersey dresses, Klein gave the season’s starkness a little fillip of interest. In black on white, the wide horizontal stripes made a dress look like sensuous workout wear. The striped effect was even better in lovely pastels. On one dress, apricot occupied a middle ground between nude and citrine. On another, a yellow bodice attached to an aqua midriff that flowed into a sky-blue skirt. These mildly sexy designs had a different spirit than Klein’s controversial advertising campaigns. Perhaps it takes bombastic advertising to draw attention to such discreet clothes.
