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When Ralph Lauren announced plans for an initial public offering on the morning he showed his fall collection here, the news highlighted the conflict between creativity and commerce that bedevils every artist. Now, the three best-known American designers--Lauren, Donna Karan and Calvin Klein--will be represented on the New York Stock Exchange.
Even though Klein has yet to go public under his own name, with his logo on everything from underwear to pillowcases he’s big business as well. (The maker of his jeans, Designer Holdings Ltd., is publicly traded.) How do these designers deliver profits without neglecting the sort of experimentation that feeds innovation? Segmenting their corporations into reliable cash-cow divisions like the fragrance, hosiery and jeans theoretically frees the top-of-the-line collections to take more risks.
But both Lauren and Karan produced shows that were so much more safe and serious than in past seasons that it’s hard to believe the bottom line isn’t influencing their design studios. (And we prayed we’d heard the last of “Show me the money.”)
No one is better suited to do a conservative, businesslike collection than Lauren, the master of classic style. Concentrating on strong-shouldered jackets worn with cuffed, full-legged trousers, he combined colors the way men do--a brown pinstriped jacket over gray slacks, for example. Lauren is the least faddish of designers, yet a number of the season’s trends surfaced in his show, including leather and boy’s clothes tailored for the girls.
It’s been awhile since stylish women have wanted to combine leather pieces. (The chic alternative was to mix textures by pairing a leather jacket with wool or velvet.) Lauren showed tight leather pants, the only narrow trousers in the collection, with sleek cashmere coats. But leather suits--asymmetric jackets with matching short skirts, in black, navy, chocolate brown and a metallic pewter--suggested that leather-on-leather is returning as an option. His most interesting takes on masculinity were reserved for after dark, when a black robe sashed in satin or a cutaway tuxedo offered Gatsby-esque swagger.
With his unerring eye for detail, it’s no surprise that accessories give Lauren’s collection its zing. An irresistible wide belt of burnished stainless steel circled cashmere sweater dresses, and, when worn on striped trousers, provided a good reason to skip a jacket.
The serenity that has flavored Donna Karan’s designs since she began investigating New Age philosophies was evident again in her luxurious collection, which closed 10 days of fashion shows here Friday evening. Soft pantsuits, cashmere sweaters sheer enough to show a model’s nipple jewel and short dresses with slit skirts and narrow hip belts all came in dark tones: black, deep mulberry or a blackish-brown that the designer dubbed “kerosene.” Karan offered both pencil pants, worn with flat shoes, and loose, drapey men’s trousers. When the pants were combined with a plunging V-neck tunic of sheer wool gauze, the look was far from tomboyish.
The effect Karan produced on velvet last season by randomly stripping away some threads has now been applied to cashmere, with nearly transparent slashes revealing a pretty shoulder or a taut midriff on body-conscious dresses.
What’s a minimalist to do? Calvin Klein doesn’t stray from his love of clean, simple silhouettes in solid colors, so the changes he makes from year to year are subtle. He used more color than most in a season dominated by black clothes. Suits, separates and coats were done in the pale sand shades he favors, or in beautiful scarlets or winter pastels like a soft green peridot and a blush of lavender that Klein called “vapor.”
Stretch jersey and cashmere blended with synthetic fibers were shaped into dresses that draped, with a blip of extra fabric falling from the collarbone of a sleeveless wool shift, or material bunching gracefully across the hip of a snug sheath. Asymmetric origami folds added interest to trousers, jumpsuits and dresses for day or evening, the dressier pieces fashioned of matte stretch satin. Klein likes his skirts just above the knee, a length that looks more refined than the mini.
Michael Kors is another champion minimalist who works so expertly in solid colors that he makes a convincing case for there being no other way to dress than in his double-faced cashmere coats, perfect turtlenecks and hot slit skirts. Kors produced a collection of brilliantly colored pieces highlighting black basics, including taxi-yellow leather trousers and oversized cashmere coats of red or orange.
Kors has long been one of the smartest users of stretch fabrics. An all-purpose, short, shapely, navy pinstriped stretch crepe dress softly shirred across the body, with a matching blazer, demonstrated that Kors understands how women want to look, and live, in their clothes.
Isaac Mizrahi’s restless imagination resists collections built around themes. No Urban Gothic or Little Bo Peep show for him. A green jersey gown with a scoop-necked bodice and little puffed sleeves of recycled mink had little to do with a big shearling coat with the patina of oxidized copper.
Mizrahi doesn’t pepper his collection with odd pieces; the whole thing is an assemblage of whatever strikes his fancy. That can mean a knee-length sweater coat crocheted of golden yarn paired with “faded flannel” trousers. Both Todd Oldham and Mizrahi have done time at flea markets, and their love of vintage details and handmade things respects the past while never resulting in styles that seem dated.
So many spectacular evening dresses were shown in New York, in the lines of Badgley Mischka, Donald Deal, Pamela Dennis, Karan, Lauren, Richard Tyler, Bob Mackie, Oscar de la Renta and the revived Halston Signature (designed by Randolph Duke) that any woman who can’t find a great gown really doesn’t want to go to the party. Several of Mizrahi’s gowns let underwire bras and bra straps show, an idea that Dolce & Gabbana hasn’t patented.
The straps that tied Tyler’s gossamer gowns to the body were as fragile as cappellini. Even if the precious, beaded chiffons weren’t seductively sheer, the delicate rip cords proved that the most provocative clothes can be those that look easy to shed. Tyler presented two collections, his couture line, and the new, less-pricey Richard Tyler Collection.
Both lines featured the superb tailoring on which the Los Angeles-based designer built his name, and the slinky, bias-cut evening dresses that his fans covet for evening. In the Collection, those dresses and camisoles were made of layers of ruffled chiffon. The models’ lips were glossed with blue-red lipstick, their eyes covered in smoky purple shadow, their cheeks brightly rouged. The dramatic makeup served to emphasize that Tyler’s women live a heightened reality, in which suits fit better, evening dresses are sexier and, by extension, life is more exciting.
In the past, California Designer of the Year Janet Howard has designed for frisky club-crawlers. The collection she showed last week in New York was tamer, but not without the wit that infused her earlier work.
Short, bias-cut dresses in blocks of brown and camel jersey were covered-up and fitted close to the body. Then Howard would throw in a surprise, like the bottom half of one sleeve done in a lighter shade. She used the same idea on a wine jersey gown, beading from the wrist up to the elbow on one side only. Combining cashmere trousers, tight turtlenecks and skirts slit just off center into hip, wearable sportswear, Howard showed she can attract attention without being trashy.
