By Barbara Barton Sloane
A more grown-up attitude toward glamour is the big news in fall/winter fashion and the good news is this signals a return to the building-block basics of chic. Making a radical departure from romantic femininity, these looks speak to strength, cofidence and sex appeal, spot-on for today’s power woman. The designs are pared down to reveal their essence and value the sophistication of the lines. Now, after a spring season exploding with pyrotechnics, designers are learning to forgo frills in favor of strong, clean lines and a newfound maturity.
Appropriate for this season, Matthew Williamson for Pucci established an icy pastel palette mixed with graphic black and white. His silhouettes were perfect for the slopes with fur-lined parkas, shapely puff jackets, and skinny leggings. Completing the mood, there were cozy looks for fireside lounging in a suite at the Kulm Hotel. His furs, shearlings and brightly colored dyed fox juxtapose glam and sport, a feat he pulls off admirably. Williamson’s “coat of many colors” is pure Pucci. He has played with a palette of geometric shapes of dizzying hues: pink, purple, white and blue. With five seasons at Pucci behind him, it appears that Matthew Williamson has hit on a formula that works – resort dressing for the rich and fabulous.
If we’re in a recession, word hasn’t reached Oscar de la Renta. He’s still laying on the gold leaf. For fall/winter, his collection is replete with impeccable designs for gals young and old accustomed to La Dolce Vita. For day, de la Renta stayed true to his basic chic. There was a lovely, lean jacket in boiled cashmere over full-cut flannel pants and a boxy jacket in cashmere knit paired with a knee-length skirt in dip-dyed silk. Understated evening elegance was personified in elegant, full-cut black silk crepe trousers and lady-like white chiffon blouse with flowing scarf. Boom or bust, de la Renta knows what his ladies like.
Fall looks found Jean Paul Gautier of Hermes in a typically quiet mode. An oriental runway carpet was reinterpreted as a pattern for skirts, dresses, boots and jumpsuits. The collection figured heavily in coats, jackets, leather trenches and crocodile blazers. Long, thick-knit cardigans, shearlings and suede jackets lined in curly lamb were all accessorized with adorable knit caps and scarves. A very wearable yet utterly chic look: his brown leather skirt, elbow length gloves, and knee-high boots accessorized with a tobacco-colored skull cap and flowing knit scarf. The appeal of this low-key presentation is the quality of the workmanship and their “hand”, (their touch and feel), a Hermes hallmark.
Dennis Basso celebrates his 25th anniversary as a furrier this year, and there was a celebratory feeling in the air at his show. Lorraine Bracco arrived bearing a congratulatory bouquet and his loyal ladies came wearing his coats despite the pouring rain. No surprise, there were plenty of lavish furs on the runway worked in interesting, intricate ways as only Basso can do. The first look to come down the runway: a trapeze coat in creamy alligator on top and Russian sable below was a good indication of the luxe designs to follow. Basso loves to show off the limitless imagination of his design team. A broadtail jacket, to give just one example, was spliced with handmade lace inserts and trimmed in silver fox. In a crisp, buttoned-up look displaying the technical innovations of his factory, his model sashayed down the runway in a short gray wool skirt with matching jacket. The wow factor of this outfit was the elbow to wrist cuffs and hem trimmed in sumptuous silver fox, all topped off with a prim white shirt tied with a bow at the neck. Basso may have a quarter century of experience in the fur trade, but he has significantly less as a designer of ready-to-wear, as witnessed with an over-the-top trapeze dress that almost suffocated its model in marabou feathers. He made up for this, however, with three understated black gowns that his devotees would adore wearing underneath a Basso sable.
The drawing rooms of the Upper East Side that were the inspiration for Carolina Herrera’s spring show have been replaced with the wide open spaces of the countryside. But not to fear as the designer has not skimped on the look of luxe. This season, she’s focused primarily on separates, capes over matching jackets, long, slim pants, cashmere vests layered over chiffon shirts, and riding pants and jackets. This horsey look was explained in her program notes as something “to grab from the mudroom and throw over a crinkle chiffon gown for an elegant dinner on the farm.” Ah yes, those rustic dinners among the animals! A bit more citified was her beige cape over tight brown leggings, shiny patent boots and a blouse accented with a big champagne satin bow. Most of Herrera’s pieces could play in the city – velvet jeans, a long chartreuse chiffon dress and a floral jacquard vest worn over a corseted china blue gown trailing several feet of gazar in its wake - all clearly destined for the Park Avenue party circuit.
At Gucci, Frida Giannini got across quintessential Gucci-ness in all its sexy, show-offy persona, integrating a Russian/ Cossack/folklore feel with a hippie wardrobe: printy, shaggy, peasant designs that the Portobello market was known for in the seventies. Happily, the looks are cleaned up to work with today’s luxury values and this collection ranks as one of Giannini’s most confident so far, with a billowy-sleeved, embroidered peasant blouse over a pair of gold, chain-laden hipsters thrust into riding boots reminiscent of Rudolf Nureyev. The show swung into tapestry coats, short chiffon dresses, and flippy skirts. One particular standout was a silver-tipped fox jacket worn with stovepipe hipsters, a brightly colored peasant belt, and high black patent boots, their fringes swingy gaily.
The antler chandeliers spray painted gold were the first clue that we were in for a change of scenery at Ralph Lauren’s fall show, as he swapped Central Park for Colorado. His family retreat continues to be an inspiration for many of his signature looks and with this show, he reprised several of them, with grand results. He opened with a series of city dresses and suits in cashmere herringbone and black double-face that hugged the body. Soon, however, he headed west to the land of border stripe, swing jackets, red and black plaid suits and a hip-hugging blanket hunting jacket in green buffalo plaid. His plaids lingered after dark but for evening Lauren was far more than one-note. There were supple, draped velvets in hunter green and garnet decorated with beads. An even more dramatic look was a black tulle gown with a cutaway back. Lauren knows that wherever his ladies find themselves, out west or back east, they always have an RL party dress on hand.
Bianca Jagger was declared the inspiration for Badgley Mischka’s fall/winter collection. The seventies were the duo’s starting point, including a brick-red, crinkled leather jacket worn with a matching flared skirt and a tight-fitting apricot turtleneck and boot-cut glen plaid pants worn with a short and sweet broadtail and fox vest. Worked in among the floral shirtwaists, floppy felt hats and high suede boots were the team’s typical, reliable and tireless clothes that the gals with a Bergdorf charge card live for: a pencil skirtsuit in buff tweed shot with metallic thread, wool crepe tuxedo pants and a little silk faille jacket with short mink sleeves.
After a spring season exploding with pyrotechnics, for fall designers have learned to forego frills in favor of strong, clean lines, newfound maturity and wearable, wonderful, very welcome basics!
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