THE FALL COLLECTIONS / PARIS : Things Best Kept Out of Public Domain
The worlds of high fashion and pornography collided briefly at the John Galliano show here last week.
The naughty boy wonder encourages his models to indulge their thespian fantasies, and they act out private dramas on the runway, the substance of which the audience can only guess at. But when Kate Moss performed an impromptu body-caressing dance that nearly proved her not to be master of her domain (in “Seinfeld”-speak), little was left to the imagination. Teenage American model Trish Goff gesticulated briefly to the same tune at Givenchy (also designed by Galliano). Let’s hope this isn’t the start of a trend. As one middle-age, male department store executive said, “I don’t know where these young girls learn this stuff, and I certainly don’t want to have to watch it.”
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Music to My Ears: The captive audience at a fashion show must endure some soundtracks that make the Muzak at Gelson’s sound good. On a bad day, we’re subjected to everything from low-grade techno pop, Tom Jones, a slow-motion, a cappella version of “Close to You,” and furious Jimi Hendrix to weak covers of Supremes hits. And then there are the pleasant discoveries. A catchy song by a hot British group called M People was a fixture at Italian shows, and turned up a few times in Paris. “Look for the hero inside yourself,” their rousing anthem goes.
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Pretty Woman: Alice Dodd walked on her first runway in Paris a year and a half ago. She was not yet 18. Five foot 10 inches, with perfect skin, spectacular brown eyes and brown hair that she dyed a shocking orange last November, Dodd has modeled ready-to-wear and haute couture, something she had wanted to do since she was a 13-year-old growing up tall in New York.
This season, she was chosen for a number of the best shows, including Givenchy and Yves Saint Laurent. “Every season you’re going to have some disappointments,” she says. “That’s normal. You can do a designer’s show a few times, and then, for one reason or another, your look just doesn’t go with the clothes, or whatever, and they won’t pick you.”
I have been around young models whose development is so arrested by their profession that they never cease talking baby talk, others so tough you’d swear ice water coursed through their veins. Alice Dodd is neither type.
Before the Givenchy show began, she hung out backstage with her 24-year-old boyfriend, who had come to visit her during this high-pressure week. He affectionately rubbed her feet. She gently pushed his center-parted, chin-length hair from his eyes, then fed him half her candy bar. They were like two puppies, she the more exotic breed in full makeup, but still wearing her own red velvet jeans and T-shirt.
Once on the runway, Dodd becomes a woman of the world, dripping poise. The transformation is both testament to the power of grand, expertly made clothes and to her skill as a model. Many of the best runway models are of indeterminate age. Dressed in their borrowed finery, they appear far too self-assured to be really young, too flawlessly beautiful to be mature.
