His Yves Saint Laurent Line Shows Ford Has a Better Idea
By 7 p.m. on Friday the 13th, Tom Ford was trying hard not to smile. Seconds earlier, his debut show as the new designer for Yves Saint Laurent had ended with a model wearing a rubbery-looking bustier seemingly molded from a naked woman’s torso--complete with silver nipple rings.
Shocking? Maybe, but it was no worse than the see-through blouses or menswear pantsuits that shook fashion when Saint Laurent created them decades ago. Ford, best known for reviving Gucci, had the difficult task of suppressing his own strong vision while refreshing the image of a living French fashion hero, and doing it under the front-row gaze of many Saint Laurent friends and associates, including Saint Laurent’s business partner Pierre Berge, muse Loulou de la Falaise, Bianca Jagger, Richard Avedon, Sonia Rykiel, Diane von Furstenberg and about 700 tired and critical journalists and retailers.
Saint Laurent himself stayed away, as he did during the debut of the first designer to replace him, Alber Elbaz. Ford assumed the design post when Gucci purchased Yves Saint Laurent in a complex deal that left Berge and Saint Laurent in control of the haute couture business.
Ford’s debut was the much-anticipated finale to a five-week spring 2001 season that started in New York. The show energized newcomers and even complacent veterans as they searched for a new femininity that’s delicate and strong, sexy and sensible.
From the first wide-leg trousers to that slightly sinister torso top, Ford’s YSL seemed like the collection that should have been at Gucci in Milan nearly two weeks ago. More than a few items brought that ill-received collection to mind, particularly a corset-like tank top with a neckline that scooped directly under the bust.
Experienced observers, retailers and stylists alike called it a strong first collection, however. And it was, with Ford working mostly on new silhouettes. Using just solid black and solid white, Ford’s YSL references were obvious and not. His all-white jackets recalled the white, man-tailored YSL jacket that Jagger wore with a long white skirt to marry Mick Jagger in 1971. (She still has the outfit.) And that shaggy flat hair on the models? It was hanging, as it always has, on the head of Saint Laurent muse Betty Catroux, who called this moment of transition “very exciting. It’s not sad.”
The suits were his most eloquent effort as they updated the lean tuxedo jackets, called smokings, that are a YSL classic. Ford modernized them with stiff and strongly padded shoulders and wide and flowing, or narrow and cuffed trousers. His dresses, particularly a set of short, shirred or pieced dresses cinched with stretchy, wide cummerbunds or long straps of fabric, gave a sporty, sexy feel to evening wear.
Ford stood as his own man with several new ideas: enormously full shirts with hip-hop styled utility pants, dresses short in front and long and trailing in back, and huge, jutting jacket sleeves with shoulders shaped like a rifle butt. The bi-level hems looked unbalanced, and his tuxedo jacket sliced in half vertically still seems a little silly, though such half-garments have appeared on other runways, too.
Retrospective was also the word at Chanel, where Saint Laurent friend and contemporary Karl Lagerfeld showed that he’s still ready to roar. The man with the lightning-quick speech moved dozens of models and as many of his signature looks quickly down a multilevel runway. It all became a blur as Lagerfeld doused the women in pearls, chains and Chanel and Coco logos on veils, quilted bags, and even the platforms of sandals. Lagerfeld, who has updated an iconic design house or two in his day, didn’t vastly move the Chanel look forward and he didn’t really need to. The Chanel customer will have plenty of updated chenille suits, frothy eyelet and Chantilly lace dresses, and fresh bold logo prints.
John Galliano’s show is usually the hottest ticket in Paris, but it began as strangely quiet and formal. Staged on the same mirrored runway as the Christian Dior collection he showed days earlier, Galliano skipped his usual elaborate, theatrical sets. Was he strangled by corporate cost-cutting from parent LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton, which owns Dior?
Corporate culture apparently hasn’t hurt fashion’s favorite bad boy. As the soundtrack from the Dior show rewound and started again, out marched a half-dozen Dior-clad models. This was a John Galliano collection, right? Darn right it was. The show was a critical commentary on a decade of retro clothing, industry conglomeration and double-dipping designers such as Galliano who are sometimes perceived as shortchanging one or the other collections. The symbolism was everywhere: ransom-note prints for a fashion culture kidnapped by corporations; a mirrored runway for a show that was a mirror image of its creator’s other work; and the crown of thorns on male models in crucifixion poses.
Soon enough, the backdrop flashed his logo and the outfits gradually morphed into an updated retrospective of his most controversial collections, including the Dior couture “homeless” newspaper dresses (now in a new, colorful print) and the tattered corsets of previous Galliano collections. Under piles of theatrical runway looks, Galliano almost hid the sure sellers--swimwear in graffiti and ransom-note prints.
As another designer with a second job, American Narciso Rodriguez offered his best work this season for his employers at Loewe, the Spanish leather house. In a palette of black, white, red and camel, Rodriguez made the suedes work like fabric, the beads look like suede and belts figured prominently into nearly every design. Loewe has limited U.S. distribution but may revive stalled plans for a Beverly Hills boutique.
The talented Nicolas Ghesquiere continued his masculine/feminine theme, with the signature styling that in earlier collections helped launch the ‘80s mania. Fresh from a critically praised debut with Callaghan in New York, Ghesquiere’s newest Balenciaga “Le Dix” collection made pretty clothes powerful. He advocated a strong-shouldered, boxy silhouette where a slightly oversized jacket tops clouds of white ruffled skirts and dresses. The froth and the wide, corset-like belts got a little overpowering, particularly on an average-height woman such as the 5-foot, 7-inch Kate Moss. The designer was more confident--and his customers will be, too--with structured, squared-off tailoring on short dresses, miniskirts and tuxedo shirts.
With his usual flair for decoration and strict tailoring, American Peter Speliopoulos offered a strong Cerruti collection with man-tailored classics in a new lace or torn fishnet print. French cuffs with tassled cuff links wiggled on short sleeves, while an easy elastic waist promised comfort, but only if she kicked off the stiff wooden platform shoes.
As Gilles Rosier took the reins at Kenzo, he went wild for the dhoti, that loincloth-like pant worn by Hindu men. Working a safari theme, the designer offered a few clear ideas, such as shirred suit pockets, beautiful African prints and rosette gathers on gauzy dresses, but presented as many that supporters will have to pretend they never saw.
Jeremy Scott drew the short straw with a show slot hours after YSL in a venue far away. For a collection he titled “Cosmopolitan,” Scott showed he’s a serious contender who can’t resist a spoof. He applied his razor-sharp tailoring skills to low-cut jackets, print blouses and slim trousers, and his sense of humor to a pageant of “Venus on the Half Shell” beauties in tank suits with huge, shell-shaped collars. Scott added more touches of wit with fashion sketches and “It’s Got to Be Jeremy Scott” scribbled onto the clothes.
A lot of new ideas flowed through Paris, and the entire spring 2001 season, as designers seemed eager to be the first to define fashion for the new millennium. The real test of their effectiveness comes when they arrive in stores early next year and women interpret the new freedom these clothes have promised.
