Dressing for All Seasons
Put your spring closet cleaning on hold--next fall and winter are going to look and feel a lot like spring and summer. That’s because top designers here are offering an Easter parade of soft and bright-colored flowing chiffon and sheer cottons along with winter coats and furs to toss over them. They want women to sizzle like fashion divas as the temperatures dip into chilly digits.
The fall women’s collections shown through Thursday have been full of chic and simple elegance in looks from Jil Sander’s last signature collection--the hottest ticket going here--to Miuccia Prada, with a definite return to classic, well-tailored styles similar to those polished lady looks shown recently by New York designers.
But the Milan woman is not just a lady, she’s Everywoman--from motorcycle mamas in quilted leather outfits, to women who lunch in houndstooth suits and silk blouses, to L.A. hipsters in leather hot pants with fur-collared overcoats.
The offerings borrow from trends of the past, from roaring ‘20s neck scarves to 1940s wisps of dresses to Pucci-like prints of the 1960s and the London scene of the ‘80s.
Fashion, after all, continually repeats and reinterprets itself. And next fall will be no different.
Designers want their Everywoman of every age to step out in sleek suits of luscious burgundy, black and green velvets, knits, and gorgeous blends of tweed and cashmere. They trim suits in shaved mink or often toss a pashmina-sized, fur-trimmed chiffon stole over a little black dress.
Skirts are knee-length, and many have matching jackets, trimmed in leather. Or the skirts are worn with matching coats--the power suit for 2000. The coats and jackets are all fitted close to the body in what is turning out to be a season dominated by rediscovered classic simplicity, devoid of gimmicks.
Gone are high-tech fabrics, hippie-chic embroidered jeans, even boots, which have been sparse on the catwalk. Gucci’s Tom Ford, known for his incredible boots, showed none. Instead, high heels--shiny, matte, colored, fabricated with tweed or bejeweled with crystals--are back in a big way.
So are creased trousers, corduroy pantsuits and silk chiffon blouses with long collar ties, delicately wrapped around the neck.
Ribbons and Fur Trim Are ‘In’ Accessories
Accessories? You bet. And plenty: multicolored scarves that brush the floor; sashes; grosgrain ribbon belts--especially around coats; jeweled belts; big bows at the neck; little bows around the ankles of high-heeled shoes.
Prints include stripes in every direction, multicolored chevrons, florals, tartan plaids, geometrics, polka dots and argyles.
Color abounds: camel, lilac and sky blue--the color of the millennium--and black, updated with crystals or stitching, and in combinations with white, chocolate and beige.
Yellow, burgundy, cranberry, turquoise, purple, fuchsia, aqua, red--from soft hues to brights--round out the rainbow-filled fall palette.
For evening glamour, Swarovski crystals are splashed on suits and dresses, or they adorn fringe on long dresses. Gold--dresses, coats, strappy shoes and jewelry--will put the squeeze on silver of the late 1990s.
But designers also can’t let go of the sexy sheer looks that dominated the catwalk just months ago when they trotted out their spring and summer lines.
What’s a designer to do?
Put a model in a skimpy, accordion-pleated, chiffon, spaghetti-strapped dress and toss on a sheared muskrat floor-length coat to kill the chill.
Alberta Ferretti for Philosophy sent out her young women in black pleated or beaded chiffon dresses.
Ford put his Gucci girl in daring black ruffled sheer shirts--and dresses--that plunged deep to just above the navel and were worn open, some with a leather trimmed suit.
Angela Missoni put her woman in silk bermuda shorts and hot pants for a cold winter night.
And even the dreaded thong made an appearance at Anna Molinari’s Blumarine show, where colorful legs and sheer skirts were worn with cardigans buttoned in the back.
On Wednesday, Giorgio Armani presented one of his best Emporio Armani collections in years.
“My collection is about a woman being sexy without knowing it,” he said backstage after the show, where he was decked out in his work uniform of white T-shirt and black trousers. “She’s intelligent, super chic and unpredictable. She creates her own personality through her choice in clothes.”
Choices were plentiful as Armani put his models in geometric prints, black, dark green and chocolate velvet plaid pants, column dresses; and short skirts embroidered with floral designs. Other skirts were accented with satin and chiffon ruffles.
Armani’s overcoats were voluminous in pale pastel shades with defined waists worn over slim trousers. The sleeves of several coats were trimmed in fur from the elbows to the sleeve cuffs. A sleeker look surfaced with his longer, narrow skirts.
His casual looks included a simple chocolate-colored dress with a chiffon stole trimmed with rabbit fur, and a sequined black-and-white tube top with black velvet va-va-voom hot pants.
Josephus Thimister, in his first collection for Genny, showed an elegant line of silk chiffon dresses that appeared like artful collages floating on the catwalk. They were fluid and mostly monochromatic. Others came in geometric prints.
He called his look Russian constructivist. Hues of pale green, lavender, peach and flesh alternated with deeper shades of tangerine, orange, magenta and pomegranate.
Among his best looks: a plunging V-neck knit sweater with kimono sleeves and a collage skirt; graphic sleeveless tops with tweed pants, chiffon pleated tops worn with creased trousers; and an endless array of wrap scarves loosely tied around the neck or low on the hips and left to flutter like kite tails.
Ford, Gucci’s creative director and designer, showed a women’s wear collection Tuesday that was toned-down, classic and sexy.
Dressy Replaces Hippie Chic
“Very dressed” is what Ford called his line. “Wash your T-shirt, tuck it inside your creased pants and shine your shoes,” he said, referring to his new Gucci woman.
“We’ve been through this retro period, and I keep thinking it’s gotta go away. Fashion is a pendulum. Sometimes it loses its sex appeal, then there’s a different sex appeal, and then there’s this ‘in your face’ sex appeal that is starting to look old.”
So instead of hippie chic, Ford trotted out coats, coats and more coats (25 of his 55 outfits were coats), and slim suits he said were inspired by the classic looks of the duchess of Windsor and Chanel of the 1980s, Barbie, and a little bit of Yves Saint Laurent.
“I think women and men will be living in their coats next winter,” he said of the garment that he believes will replace the jacket as the modern way to dress. All his coats fell 2 inches above the knee.
Gucci dresses came in a variety of colors, a series of them done with over-the-top Elizabeth-type ruffles around the neck and down the front. Skirts for evening were at mid-thigh in simple, shimmering Lurex or solid hues with tops with plunging necklines.
For the adventurous Gucci woman, there were “Easy Rider” leather looks in supple pants, shirts and quilted biker-chick coats worn with aviator sunglasses and sparkling headbands.
Also on Tuesday, Narciso Rodriguez presented one of the loveliest and sexiest collections seen so far.
Crocodile handbags, stiletto heels and crystal-embellished chain belts accessorized his looks. But it was Rodriguez’s slips of silk charmeuse--which peeked out from the bottom of dresses and skirts--that were perfect under his tailored dresses or suits.
The most stunning skirts were made of a blend of black and white tweed and sequined chiffon; dresses of white sequined tulle were accessorized with a slender Swarovski chain belt.
Italian knitwear designer Angela Missoni’s line was sophisticated, filled with blouses and trousers, shirt dresses and coats in shiny Lurex, the cashmere knits she is famous for and sexy silks. All were accessorized with Missoni matching shoes and purses in the autumn colors of purple, pale pink and dark green.
Missoni also found time to poke fun of herself with her collection, she said backstage. She reworked the family “M” monogram, blowing it up beyond recognition and splashing the sharp-edged graphic--a big trend here--on colorfully striped blouses, skirts and her favorite, the chemise, which she predicted “will be big.”
“I never take myself too seriously. I like to play with clothes, and the woman buying my clothes should play and have fun too,” said Missoni, who took over as designer three years ago.
But hot pants for winter?
“Why not? Just put on some tights underneath them. Don’t ever take yourself too seriously. It’s just clothes. Have fun,” she said.
That’s fashion advice Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana passed on after their show for their D & G secondary line Sunday.
Having Fun With Fashion
“Play with the clothes is our message,” said Dolce of the D & G mod-inspired collection of wide-striped corduroy pantsuits paired with shirt, tie and fedora for women; cowl-hooded mini-dresses; yellow raincoats printed with cats (no dogs); chiffon slipdresses with butterfly, beetle, lamb and fish prints; Little Red Riding Hood capes--but in blue--and fox-trimmed. And then there were Basquiat-inspired, graffiti art on leather coats and stockings.
Prada took her ultramodern collection of 62 looks in the direction of 1940s classic redux in rich fabrics ranging from Persian lamb sweaters to wool skirts and astrakhan coats.
“It’s about the joy of being a woman,” she said of her collection backstage after the show. She explained that when she began working on her collection, her husband mentioned to her that she was designing a 1940s look.
“I didn’t even realize it. It just sort of happened,” she said, referring to the look of pretty flouncy skirts and tight jackets fastened with grosgrain ribbon bows, also the new signature for her coats.
Her standouts were knee-length, sheer chiffon, spaghetti-strapped dresses in floral prints, others in primrose yellow dotted with pansies, and yet others with appliqued flowers.
And practically every outfit was accessorized with what promises to be next fall’s biggest knockoff: the fur collar in fox, raccoon or mink, tied with a simple silk string.
It’s time to scrub the shrug.
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Michael Quintanilla can be reached at michael.quintanilla@latimes.com.
