IN PARIS -- SEND FLUTTER

By Booth Moore

Oct. 14, 2007 12 AM PT

Times Staff Writer

Paris

YOU know you’ve got problems when Marc Jacobs sticks his tongue out at the front row during the Louis Vuitton show in Paris, where runways awash with peppy prints and happy colors couldn’t disguise the fact that many designers were floundering.

The luxury industry may be booming, but this season, uncertainty hangs over some of the world’s most influential fashion houses. John Galliano, Jean Paul Gaultier and Alexander McQueen all recently had creative collaborators or muses die. Other designers are facing retirement, both voluntary and forced. Add to that an abysmal dollar to euro exchange rate, and it’s no wonder the season was rocky.

What was missing was innovation, the sense that designers have picked up on what’s happening in culture and turned it into something provocative. Galliano’s collection for Dior, usually a creative bellwether, was a rehash of Marlene Dietrich men’s wear suits and 1930s bias-cut gowns from seasons past. At Chanel, Karl Lagerfeld chose this strange moment to pay tribute to America, just when sales are taking off everywhere else in the world. Nobody, not even Nicolas Ghesquiere at Balenciaga, advanced a wholly new silhouette. And in what was perhaps the lowest point of the week, Jacobs wagged his tongue at one of the world’s most esteemed fashion critics.

Only Alber Elbaz found a way out of the malaise, with a show for Lanvin that was so spectacular, it reminded us that design can make a difference. It didn’t hurt that it was a postcard perfect day -- 70 degrees, not a cloud in the sky, flowers blooming in the Tuileries, children sailing their toy boats on the fountains and a tent in the middle of it all, strung with white lights. Inside, bow-tied gents passed out ice cream pops, and Diana Ross ballads rang out over the sound system.

Elbaz hit many of the spring trends -- color, fluidity, sensuality -- but above all else, he connected with every woman in the room, showing her a way to dress for the fast pace of real life that was stunning in its simplicity.

Much of the collection was silk, which got everyone reminiscing about Go Silk, the 1980s brand of washable, mix ‘n’ match separates that could be poised for a revival. But Elbaz’s creations were totally modern. First out was a knee-length, draped and belted cobalt blue silk shirt dress with a matching flyaway trench coat -- practical, but with a sense of romance. (The outfit also came in city-smart gray, khaki and black.) Next up, the most perfect blouse you have ever seen, soft and milky white with rolled-up sleeves, tucked into a navy silk miniskirt.

For evening, pleated silk dresses had trains that swelled like sails as the models walked, first yellow, then green, then orange. Tuxedo jackets had the ease of your favorite shirt, paired with skinny trousers. Short dresses came in Crayola brights with a single ruffle around the back, or a soupcon of ostrich feathers in front. Others were a patchwork of tonal fringe, feathers, sequins and beads with a tribal feel.

Every detail was perfectly measured -- not a single piece went too far. Though the models’ hair was swept up, their ponytails weren’t too perfect. Their lips were glossed red, but they didn’t come across as glamazons. These women had places to go in their fabulous clothes, and no time to waste waiting for hair and makeup. And when Elbaz sent out a female doppelganger -- a model dressed as he was in a jacket, rolled-up pants and a bow tie -- the message was clear: This designer knows women, and the future for Lanvin is only going to get brighter.

Pretty but shallow

Elsewhere, the collections were more one-dimensional, which is to say that there were pretty clothes, but nothing that inspired the same emotion. Prints were a huge trend, and nobody did them better than Dries Van Noten. The Belgian designer created a tropical garden of delight, mixing floral and bamboo prints, halter tops and pajama pants. Some fabrics were comprised of multiple prints, so you had loose chemise dresses, sarong-style skirts and twist-front blouses with contrast borders or hems. Van Noten introduced semiprecious jewelry -- ropes of stones around the neck -- and embroidered a jacket all over in silver, making it look like jewelry.

Ghesquiere applied his Old World meets New World approach to prints at Balenciaga, fusing 1950s floral jacquards onto foam to create a stiff, high-tech material. He made Balenciaga’s sculptural shapes even more formal, using lasers and ultrasound cutting techniques to minimize seams on turtle-back tops, short-sleeve jackets with built-out shoulders, and hourglass-shaped mini-dresses with pannier-like hips. Each piece was stitched together like a corset and paired with gladiator sandal boots. Technically impressive? Yes. But does it matter to women’s lives? Probably not.

Yves Saint Laurent’s Stefano Pilati was the rare designer to focus on tailoring, riffing on the classic blazer by giving it pagoda shoulders, an elongated shape, cap sleeves or no sleeves, and pairing it with asymmetrical skirts or oddly flattering peg-leg trousers. The colors were basic black, white, khaki and navy, which made for a pleasingly clean, grown-up look that could actually (gasp!) go the office, until a few ill-advised stars came into the mix, spangling dresses and chain-link vests.

At Chanel, Lagerfeld had stars in his eyes too. Looking back to happier days, he riffed on classic Americana, opening the show with a denim group (trench coat, jacket with exaggerated epaulettes, wide-leg trousers) that should resonate with West Coast fans, before moving onto the flag, with red-striped boucle jackets and star-print dresses and shorts. Perhaps sensing that the stars and stripes could be a difficult sell, he also took a spin through Chanel’s nautical heritage, showing knit dresses with grommets laced through with chains.

Olivier Theyskens’ bedraggled vision of femininity at Nina Ricci was refreshing in the wake of all the prettiness. Wispy gowns in nocturnal blue, black, rose and gray were twisted around the body, and cardigan sweaters clawed at, as if they had barely survived a rough night of partying.

Riccardo Tisci is still trying to reinvent Givenchy by making it edgy, which meant slapping every conceivable form of adornment -- zippers, ball bearings, grommets, pleats, polka dots -- on dropped crotch pants and schoolgirl skirts. All despite the fact that of all the brands that try, Givenchy is the only one that can legitimately lay claim to fashion icon Audrey Hepburn. Would it kill Tisci to make a little black dress? Every woman needs one.

A time of changes

Valentino the brand is facing a transition, now that Valentino the designer presented his last ready-to-wear collection before he retires. And if the bubble-gum pink and mint-green luncheon suits and short dresses tied up in bows are any indication, a younger touch should be welcome.

McQueen is another designer for whom time is ticking since his boss, Gucci Group Chairman Robert Polet, set a break-even deadline for 2007. McQueen’s collection was a beautiful tribute to his mentor, the late fashion editor Isabella Blow, with hats by Phillip Treacy (one appeared as a swarm of butterflies around the model’s head). Suits with killer shoulders and outsize hips in Prince of Wales checks, feather-flocked hourglass-shaped dresses, and rainbow chiffon gowns were fascinating to look at. But it was difficult to have more than a remote connection to these extraordinarily fussy clothes.

Meanwhile, the Jacobs drama continued. The designer has only become more controversial since he made his audience wait two hours for his show to start in New York, and responded to criticism by telling Women’s Wear Daily that he was thinking of abandoning the U.S. altogether and showing abroad.

In Paris at Louis Vuitton, it was more of the same, on the runway and off. Deconstructed tweed suits, candy colored Lurex sweaters, transparent gazar trench coats and skirts layered over other skirts, were delightfully fanciful. The handbags, done in collaboration with artist Richard Prince, were a fantastic parade of colorful vinyl and spray-painted LV logos.

Then Jacobs took his bow and stuck his tongue out at one of his harshest critics, longtime International Herald Tribune fashion editor Suzy Menkes. It was akin to disrespecting your grandmother, and it made it hard to appreciate all the beauty that came before.

And at more than an hour late, his show almost squeezed out poor Ralph Rucci, who was forced to start after 10 p.m., when not even a chiffon-laced sable coat could take the mind off a grumbling tummy.

Maybe Rucci should have served ice cream.

booth.moore@latimes.com

IN PARIS -- SEND FLUTTER

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