That French aesthetic, with a Hollywood twist
John Galliano and Alexander McQueen are known for staging elaborate costume dramas with kabuki makeup, live wolves, dance marathons and the like that don’t always translate into clothing sales.
But over the weekend, they behaved as if they’d had their wrists slapped. Fashion’s Merry Pranksters presented two of the most commercial collections of the season, underscoring the industry’s new fiscal reality as the shows ended here Sunday.
In another development, it seems the detour into minimalism on the runways was just that: a detour. The bigger news for fall is the continuing dominance of the French aesthetic -- the swagger of the garcons and the romanticism of the gamin -- as wrought by Galliano, Lanvin’s Alber Elbaz, Louis Vuitton’s Marc Jacobs and Yves Saint Laurent’s Stefano Pilati.
Martin Scorsese’s “The Aviator” has touched down on many runways this season. And so, for his breathtaking show, Galliano cast himself as Howard Hughes, taking over a film studio on the outskirts of Paris and outfitting it with makeup tables and director’s chairs printed with “John Galliano Studio.”
Set against large-scale photographs of Hughes directing the 1930 film “Hell’s Angels,” the collection read like a biopic of Galliano’s career. All of his greatest hits were here, in their most wearable form. He began with some great renditions of his famous full-cut mannish suits, in black and white, worn by Marlene Dietrich look-alikes with platinum finger-waved hair, black lips, pencil-thin eyebrows, berets and wingtip shoes. He revisited his puffed-up period of a few years back, with voluminous short satin coats in yellow or green, folded like wontons, with Chinese embroidery.
The 1930s bias-cut chiffon dresses favored by Galliano’s real-life celebrity clients were alit with fragile fabric butterflies or silk-screened with Pop Art floral prints. Sure to be collectors’ pieces, oversized white jackets painted with Warholian faces and eyes hinted at the dark side of fame.
In what was undoubtedly the best entrance of the season, Galliano took his bow to a special-effects show involving flares, crackling lights and a wind machine that blew his hat right off. Hughes couldn’t have done it better himself.
The invitation for Alexander McQueen’s show was a takeoff on an Alfred Hitchcock film poster with a “Vertigo” spiral and the title “The Man Who Knew Too Much McQueen.” One could read into it that McQueen is starring in his own private horror movie under Gucci Group’s new management. Or not. Regardless, the designer gave his bosses plenty to cheer about for fall, offering a retro heroine for every day of the week: the sweater girl in a gray flannel skirt cut as straight as a No. 2 pencil and a tight cinnamon-colored mohair V-neck decorated with crochet flowers; the biker chick in cropped leather jeans and a striped sailor sweater; the starlet in a beaded leopard dress swinging with fringe; the schoolmarm in a belted Fair Isle sweater, a tweed skirt and glasses. And on and on.
The clothes were technically impressive, but it was easy to see through McQueen’s ruse, trying to be all things to all women. He knows better. The collection would have been stronger if a few pieces -- namely a multicolored blanket-stripe poncho and a wrap coat with pompom fringe -- had stayed on the cutting room floor.
Building on the momentum of Olivier Theyskens’ collection for Rochas earlier in the week, three blockbuster shows presented Sunday made the case for a new, decidedly French, bow-tied and lace-trimmed femininity.
Pilati, Ford’s successor at Yves Saint Laurent, was mightily skewered last season when he presented his first collection of jackets cinched over skirts so round that the proportion made the models resemble topiaries. For fall he stuck with the same basic idea, which is to be true to Saint Laurent’s legacy, but turned down the volume and tempered the retro quality with interesting details. The result was glorious, right down to the bow-shaped buns in the models’ hair.
Pilati began with feminine suits -- belted jackets lopped off above the wrists to reveal the billowy white sleeves of blouses worn underneath, and tulip skirts with scissor pleats on either side and pockets at the hips. The silhouette worked wonderfully on the runway, but one wonders if in thick mustard-colored mohair or salt-and-pepper tweed it will work on someone who weighs more than 95 pounds.
For evening, he re-imagined Saint Laurent’s lace sheaths, creating lovely skirts and dresses resembling doilies. Striking a Surrealist note, a black cocktail frock had a heart-shaped cutout over the chest, as if someone had taken a cookie cutter to it. The iconic “Le Smoking” was re-created with cropped black pants and a jacket with a liturgical-looking stole. But gowns in green, yellow or blue chiffon, with twisted straps, Juliet sleeves and rows of satin buttons, were overly worked.
Taking his bow to “We’re in the Money,” Lanvin’s Elbaz knows he’s on a roll. His effortless, raw-seamed, ribbon-tied and tulle-trimmed evening wear has been a driving force in fashion for several seasons now. So why change it? For fall, Elbaz worked in the same design vocabulary, but focused on giving his clothes a new lightness. A black silk gown seemed to glide through the air, with the hem left long in back and raised above the knee in front, while the heaviness of a silver beaded dress was balanced by a cloud-like black tulle bolero worn on top. And who wouldn’t love the idea of going out in a gray jersey gown with little more than a velvet bodice to weigh it down?
At Louis Vuitton, Jacobs sent out a darkly romantic collection of cashmere jackets with scrunched-up three-quarter sleeves, rounded coats with bows on the pockets, and long, straight skirts with beaded lace petticoats. A wool suit, cut close to the body, was piped in gold leather, and a leather pencil skirt scored with linear etchings like an architectural blue print. Intricate taffeta Empire gowns in moody teal, navy, green and black were inset with velvet panels and finished with black chiffon ruffles at the hems. The new bags were oval-shaped in black leather or mink, with LVs stamped into them.
At the other mighty French leather goods house Hermes, Jean Paul Gaultier used the balalaika-tinged music from the 1965 film “Doctor Zhivago” to underscore his dreamy Russian theme. Though hardly revolutionary, shearling jackets, velvet jodhpurs and a smooth black leather car coat with the front cut into an H were unabashedly luxurious. Gaultier paid homage to the house’s equestrian roots with tartan blanket coats, riding boots and the famous Birkin bag, newly done in shearling.
Valentino, who reportedly is searching for a successor to take over his label, didn’t break any new ground. Flared trousers and shrunken jackets in pinstripes or herringbone tweeds, worn over lacy white blouses with ribbon accents, riffed on his familiar male vs. female theme, though not as successfully as in past collections. Jeans with crocodile waistbands and back pockets, paired with fur vests, offered a chic alternative to the luncheon suit. But Valentino’s red-carpet gowns, usually a highlight, were off, with oddly placed ruffles and tulle, as if his heart wasn’t in it.
After Perry Ellis dropped American designer Patrick Robinson earlier this year, he was quickly scooped up by Paco Rabanne. Produced in just two short months, Robinson’s first collection for the house left the chain mail behind in favor of sexy separates. But satin skirts with shingle-like ruffles and silk cocktail sheaths with alternating bands of shiny and matte fabric didn’t do much to light a spark under the old name.
The name Guy Laroche hadn’t been on anyone’s lips since the Reagan administration. That is until Hilary Swank showed up at the Oscars two weeks ago wearing a backless navy gown from the label, now designed by Herve Leroux.
Not surprisingly, this week there was renewed interest in the Laroche collection, which was all about tailored suits and draped jersey dresses -- perfectly pretty but wholly uninteresting. At the show, Swank’s stylist, Kate Young, seemed amused by her sudden celebrity. “How do you like my front-row seat?” she said.
Meanwhile, in response to a number of requests from buyers and media, the house of Laroche has asked Swank to return the gown, a sample, so it can be produced. “They offered to send it back after 10 days, but who knows,” Young said. “Anyway, it’s at the dry cleaners.”
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Fall fashion trends
The top trends for fall emerging from the Paris shows:
* The male vs. female theme
* Ruffles, lace, ribbons and bows
* Masculine houndstooth, tweed and checks
* Military details
* Skirts in longer lengths or bubble shapes
* Empire waist dresses and coats
* Sweater dresses
* Shearling jackets
* Experiments in volume
