Tour De Force
If only every day could begin with a Ralph Lauren fashion show.
Models emerged between banana palms, their honeyed suntans aglow. Lauren found his inspiration in Africa, and although he has gone on safari before, this armchair journey yielded the most gorgeous spring clothes seen in New York so far, designs that transported the audience from a rainy Manhattan morning to a warmer, more exotic place.
A designer who expresses an explicit theme invites an element of fantasy into the mundane act of getting dressed. When a woman can feel like a tribal aristocrat on holiday or the mistress of a prosperous plantation for a moment before rushing off to work in a dreary skyscraper, her life is somehow richer, if only in daydreams.
The first group of models wore horizontally striped linen and Lycra sweater dresses in spicy colors. Lauren introduced a narrow pant cropped just below the knee and tweaked old favorites like jodhpurs. The classic safari jacket appeared throughout the collection, in black, white, olive, khaki or red. These traditional styles were worked in updated fabrics: a fitted military jacket in stretch silk, a long riding jacket in stretch poplin that molded to the body.
Suede as light as tissue paper was shaped into trim pantsuits and the easiest of dresses. The deep purple, dusty indigo or olive-green short dresses bared necklines and arms, but they could be worn in the daytime. At night, they’d make any other choice look overdone.
Accessories were rugged--studded brown leather hip belts, huarache-style wedge sandals, brass cuffs and chokers, and big hoop earrings. The African motif continued past sunset, with a sheer gold mesh gown paved with antique bronze beads in an intricate basket pattern and colorful columns of silk that knotted at the shoulder or back. All the stunning gowns were so simple that when one model threw a safari jacket over a nude slink of sparkling chiffon, the gesture seemed completely natural.
Lauren has grown up with his customer. Once demurely preppy, she now exudes confident sexuality worthy of Hemingway’s and Howard Hawks’ heroines. In the shadow of Lauren’s strong women, the season’s limp references to romantic clothes seemed foolishly adolescent. The show’s end prompted thunderous, prolonged applause. Starting a day of 10 different collections with Lauren means that a trip from the sublime to the ridiculous is probably inevitable.
11 a.m. Gieffeffe (pronounced GFF, designer Gianfranco Ferre’s initials) is a young, sporty line that debuted last season with great fanfare, only to be plagued by shipping and delivery problems that made finding the clothes in stores virtually impossible. It was painful to see this season’s striped pajamas, dull, shapeless Mao suits and capri pants worn with high-heeled sneakers after the triumph of Ralph Lauren.
Noon. Susan Lazar continued to resurrect the ‘70s, with Ultrasuede pedal pushers, crocheted dresses and a collarless white embroidered gauze shirt last spotted at Woodstock. This time it was freshly laundered and paired with skinny pants instead of bell-bottoms.
1 p.m. No one tries to copy Michael Kors. His styles are so simple, and so dependent on his razor-sharp cutting and choice of luxurious fabrics, that they don’t translate into less-expensive versions. Runway sightings of clothes for the executive women have been rare lately, but in his solids-only collection, Kors offered an authoritative black georgette shirt and pencil skirt, sleek jumpsuits and narrow, single-breasted pantsuits in silk and linen blends. Camel or black unitards under jackets fulfilled a commonly held image of the Los Angeles woman; the rest of the country thinks we never get out of our exercise clothes.
2 p.m. Cynthia Rowley, never afraid to swerve in the direction of sweet, brought back dotted swiss and eyelet for nostalgic dance dresses that she dedicated to Debbie Reynolds, Ann Miller and Juliet Prowse.
3 p.m. Ashley Judd and Michael Bolton cuddled in the front row at the Jill Stuart show. She presented high-waisted dresses inspired by Jane Austen’s “Emma”; flowered chiffon dresses with handkerchief hems, tiny pleats, ruffles or lace trim, and crocheted skirts so ventilated they might produce odd tan lines. The knit or crocheted camisole was everywhere. Stuart showed it in black with a black silk skirt printed with green cabbage roses, an outfit that might satisfy invitations suggesting “Casually Elegant” attire.
4 p.m. Moschino Cheap & Chic, the Italian designer’s secondary line, evoked a conversationalist who just can’t stick to the point. But the digressions were so entertaining that incoherence must be forgiven. Amid dresses appliqued with bubbles and a jacket made from the Union Jack, worn with multicolored nylon biker pants, oversized zoot suit trousers and jumpsuits with zipper detailing looked like real work clothes enjoying an extended coffee break.
6 p.m. California Designer of the Year Janet Howard has a gift for sleaze and the sense of humor to go with it. She brought a funny ‘50s feel to bright colors and va-va-voom shapes. Dresses with built-in bra tops cantilevered the bust over the midriff. (Howard aptly calls them couch bras.) Suits in stretch gabardine looked very “Melrose Place.”
Lots of designers can do bad ‘80s parodies, but only a wacky few can adorn a chartreuse cut-velvet coat with a tangerine fake-fur collar. Dolce & Gabbana composed runway tributes to Italy’s ‘50s movie stars. Let’s hear it for American babes. If Doris Day ever lost her virginity, she’d have worn Janet Howard. (I’m picturing Mitzi Gaynor in a bad Dean Martin movie--were there any good ones?--wearing the scoop-necked dresses and three-quarter-sleeved cardigans on the runway when I spot Tina Louise, still a knockout, in the audience. Perfect.)
7 p.m. Anna Sui isn’t done with the ‘70s. The gold-dust woman of her dreams is Stevie Nicks, striding the runway in high-heeled patchwork leather platform boots, scarf tops and leather jeans. What a strange, sad trip back to Haight-Ashbury.
8 p.m. The surprise of the BCBG show came at the end--a group of sophisticated, beautifully cut evening gowns in matte jersey. Los Angeles designer Max Azria preceded these gowns with embroidered tulle skirts, blouses and slip dresses in yummy shades of cinnamon and chocolate. He layered the pieces over each other and under shrunken boucle cardigans for a nice twist on the season’s romantic knits and filmy fabrics.
