A French New Wave
PARIS--The world capital of fashion has a “Blue Crush” on surfing.
Like the all-girl surfing movie that washed over screens this summer, fashion for the hot months of next year is riding a wave of ocean-inspired fashion. As nine days of nonstop fashion shows end here today, many designers endorsed the “sports” in sportswear but skipped the predictable interpretations.
The California surfer’s sleek wetsuit is the latest image to inspire designers, but don’t expect to see a revival of Hawaiian-print shirts and board shorts. Spring’s trends are an odd assortment of military looks, romantic blouses, punk-rock accents and miniskirts and shorts. Still, the inventor of sexy, neoprene swimwear, Body Glove designer Robin Piccone of Los Angeles, should be feeling confident of her place in fashion history with these Parisian trendsetters following in her sand-and-saltwater footsteps.
When Chanel designer Karl Lagerfeld sent out a finale of double-C logo surfboards, kites, swim fins and a host of rubber accessories, fashion needed no other endorsement to jump into the water. Unlike Nicolas Ghesquiere at Balenciaga earlier this week, Lagerfeld avoided literal riffs on wetsuits for daytime wear. Instead, he added the surprise of a neoprene jacket to the largely black, white and pale-pink classic sportswear. His new swimwear features cheeky, low-cut boy-shorts and a host of accessories, including rubber Chanel bags and loads of logo-stamped gear--just the thing to aid civil disputes. Maybe if swimmers toted statusy Chanel surfboards and swim fins past Malibu mogul David Geffen’s property, he’d never have fought public access to the beach below his home.
Most of those tres chic deep-sea accessories will probably be on the wish lists of Chanel loyalists, said Catherine Kiek, director of the Beverly Hills boutique.
“I hope we’ll get a couple of those surfboards,” she said, knowing from past experience that the Chanel logo can sell everything from motorcycle helmets to furry apres-ski boots.
The sizable collection played to an international audience of buyers whose biggest challenge will be paring down the choices. They can select from ruffled micro-minis, chiffon gowns with trains and a new high-waist silhouette. After 20 years of tweaking the famous Chanel signatures, Lagerfeld hasn’t run out of ways to update the collarless chenille jacket, the swags of pearls and chains and the image of Mademoiselle Coco herself. With a punk-rock bent, he put her image on medallions linked to chain belts slung low and heavy. Coco’s silhouette was woven into sweaters and her face printed on the kind of round pins that punkers once stabbed through their motorcycle jackets.
Lagerfeld still cuts a lean, mean Chanel jacket, but he’s not about to miss the wave of big shapes that’s come ashore. With rows of tucks on each side of the hip, Lagerfeld debuted an extra-wide-leg pant and full miniskirt, along with an up-to-the-bust, high-waist pant and skirt.
Though most jackets and sweaters are narrow and trim, Lagerfeld unveiled a Chanel jacket shape with broad shoulders.
Tom Ford at Yves Saint Laurent also squared out the shoulders, sometimes in a neat, ladylike jacket, or even in a beaded, square-shoulder cape worthy of Liberace. It wasn’t Vegas flash that Ford was after, but the surrealism of Salvador Dali, with a little help from the YSL archives and Sigmund Freud. Ford’s sexual preoccupation took on a literal translation that poured right onto the surface of clothes. Jacket fronts were darted and tucked into rosette nipples, silk flowers bloomed from bust lines like giant pasties and seams outlined panty shapes on leather skirts. The blouses with an X-ray spine etched into them were fun in a Halloween kind of way.
But the question of the evening was just what makeup product colored the models’ nipples purple, brown or black, which were then intentionally framed by plunging, off-kilter necklines? (Paint, we’re told.) Is that why “Purple Haze” rang throughout the show? Though the trapunto stitching that swirled into bosoms on a mauve satin coat was wonderfully wicked, it is the designer equivalent of the classic Harley-Davidson T-shirt that reads, “Put something exciting between your legs.” Not subtle, and surely Ford can do better.
At least Ford charted a new direction for the sex obsession that has seen latex skirts, bondage-strap pants, fetish-worthy high heels and bold lingerie pop up on many runways here. If it’s latex you want, West Hollywood, not Rodeo Drive, is your destination.
Jean Paul Gaultier also went through the lingerie drawer for inspiration. While many pretty young things are busy flashing their thong panties from the tops of extra-low pants, Gaultier did them one better. He dropped the “waist” line of hip-huggers to below the crotch and let wildly patterned pantyhose tops show off. Of course, walking became nearly impossible for the models, but they seemed happier with their Alexander Calder-inspired dresses and bikinis. Gaultier cut out colorful, abstract shapes of plastic and linked them into modern-art swimwear, or suspended them in cutout dresses and pants. With a mosaic of linked pieces circling the hips, Gaultier allowed plenty of peekaboo on pants but updated the tired low-riding trend.
Yohji Yamamoto unveiled his new Y-3 collection, a new Adidas project for which he serves as creative director. Y-3 is a new, third division for Adidas, which has collaborated on exclusive shoe collections with the Japanese designer for three seasons. The new label includes men’s and women’s wear, unisex footwear and a top tier of artistic active wear that in the United States will sell only at Maxfield in L.A. and Barneys in New York. Twenty U.S. stores will carry the larger collection of such core pieces as wetsuit-inspired neoprene jackets, tops and shorts, along with classics updated with new three-stripe logos. Though at prices of up to $1,500 for exclusives, few customers will break a sweat in this designer-label finery. The line’s creative striped logos, sexy shapes and attention to details will raise the standards for active wear and have manufacturers sweating over how to copy it.
Even Valentino was in a sporty frame of mind, though he’s leagues removed from the court or gym. There is virtually no equal to Valentino’s ability to create refined sportswear for women of all ages. His perfectly executed collection of sleek, cream daywear accented with golden hoop insets, flowing, print chiffon evening gowns and safari-inspired jungle jackets was well-timed. Displayed the morning after President Bush virtually promised a war with Iraq, Valentino made a point by stretching Andy Warhol’s “Camouflage 1986” silk-screen across his runway’s backdrop. Pacifist Valentino titled his collection “No War. Just War-hol” and let a gentle mood, fun fringed bags and beautiful prints of banana leaves and abstract art carry the delighted audience into a calm state of mind.
Even next to established designers, newcomer Phoebe Philo at Chloe delivered an impressive collection of neatly controlled silhouettes. Blame Philo, and Lagerfeld and Valentino, if fashion design schools get swamped with applications next semester. Their well-executed and thoughtfully realized clothes made the job of fashion designer look not only glamorous, but also really easy.
Philo’s tulip-shaped dress silhouettes carried the vague air of ‘60s shifts without looking stale and retro. Rather, adorned with bib necklaces, they gave a sexy curve to satin cocktail attire. Her smock tops, paper-bag-waist pants and rolled up shorts were clever twists on the cinched-up big shapes that mimic architecture’s “compression and release” aesthetic.
While other designers dived neatly into the ocean for inspiration, Julien Macdonald got stuck in fishnet at Givenchy, where he continues to flounder like a fish out of water. The drawstring waist jackets looked cozy, though not exactly original. The vivid mesh and applique beach cover-ups, chunky bangle bracelets and 4-foot strands of bead fringe on tight dresses summoned visions of Miami Beach, circa 1982, a very bad year.
Though Ennio Capasa at Costume National also used lingerie as a shortcut to seduction, the man has a way with coats. It’s rare that a gal can put on a black coat that covers her to the knees and wrists and still look fetching. His secret? Cut it to show thigh, accent the waist and hug the arms. The Italian designer’s corsetry seaming, latex dress straps, bared shoulders and micro-minis also helped him achieve the “unconventional eroticism” theme of his collection.
It was, in all, a solid and creative season here, perhaps one of the best in years. Clearly, the city remains the heart and soul of high fashion. Still, when that soul needs its war-wary spirits lifted, it’s nice to know that the beach is still a source of solace and inspiration. Hang ten, baby.
