Practical Is a Spring Thing

Utilitarian, functional fashion is the headline-grabbing theme for spring clothes that are now arriving in stores. The timing is key: High-tech but practical fashion suits embody the futuristic mood of the coming millennium.

Look for utility strap-on packs, rubber-soled sport shoes, cargo pockets and performance fabrics from Miuccia Prada to Ralph Lauren and beyond.

The season also offers gentle revisions of themes that have come before.

Take the modern-day hippies from Gucci’s Tom Ford. The fringe flies, the flower-power prints pop and ethnic beading and feathers glorify raggedy denim. New York’s Patrick Robinson promotes the look with skirts remade from Levi’s jeans and ruffled peasant blouses.

White reappears for another season. At Cerruti, it comes in rough-hewn textures and free-flowing shapes that parallel spring’s bohemian undercurrent.

Finally, for the no-nonsense fashion investor, classic clothes arrive in unadorned shapes and fresh pastel colors. Classicism has been endorsed at all levels of fashion, from the establishment’s Bill Blass to radical newcomer Marc Jacobs. Such far-ranging votes of confidence give the return to classics a boost of staying power.