Klein: Simplify, Simplify; Mackie: Go for the Glitter
NEW YORK — Calvin Klein could conceivably put himself out of business if he simplifies sportswear much further. For fall, according to Klein, all you really need for daytime are high-neck sweaters, tights and some bright poncho-like tunics to slip over them. Add to these a slim skirt, wide pants and a sculptured jacket to wear with either of the above, and your winter wardrobe is complete.
Klein’s concept is dazzlingly minimal and gets more so with each season. When executed with his unerring eye for color and shape, it assumes elements of modern art.
Some of Klein’s mid-thigh-length tunics with matching tights were shaped of cashmere in bright shades of orange, pink, turquoise, purple or blue. But his newest fabric find is double-face melton wool, an unlined cloth that looks the same on both sides and can be carved with the curving, welt seams that the designer favors this season.
Loose melton tunics with Kabuki sleeves showed up in fuchsia, violet and turquoise. They hit mid-thigh and were worn above those ubiquitous sweaters and tights or with one-piece stretch wool “cat suits” that are variations on the theme.
Jackets of black-and-white check wool or bright melton cloth were teamed with wide-leg pants that hug the hip line or high-waist slim skirts that end above or below the knee.
For dressier occasions, the designer proposes slim, empire waistline dresses or simple jump suits in black silk marocain. For an even more casual approach to evening, long bias skirts are cut of bright melton wool. These he showed with yet more high-neck sweaters.
The models wore no jewelry for daytime and almost none for evening. Their hair was coiled into knots at the top or in back of their heads.
Barbara Walters, Bianca Jagger, Paloma Picasso, Catherine Oxenberg and author Fran Liebowitz, Blaine and Ivana Trump were in the Klein audience.
Bob Mackie’s show followed Klein’s, making for a wonderful study in extremes. Mackie’s was as glittery as Klein’s was simple, but no less breathtaking. He cut his design teeth in Hollywood, where he was known as the costume king, creating all the gowns for Cher and Carol Burnett when their ratings were tops on TV.
And though he now works in Manhattan, his fall collection was a sort of love letter to Los Angeles in general and the film industry in particular.
Mackie has fun with his clothes, and his sense of humor pops out everywhere. In a “cowboy” section of the show, punctuated with recorded voices of the Lone Ranger and Tonto, Mackie’s simply shaped dresses, suits and pants were decorated with buffalo nickel buttons, gingham plaid piping, bandana-print silk blouses and all sorts of fanciful Wild West details.
One black crepe sheath dress sported a silver, embroidered steer head on the bodice. His most extraordinary dress was slim black wool with a short, gold silk faille jacket on which a pony applique pranced. The pony’s head reached one shoulder, sprouting white feather plumes that jutted toward the sky.
Another section celebrated all those old films in which shop girls and secretaries wore stunning little black dresses that in real life such working women could never have afforded.
Then came his homage to pirate films, with chemise and trapeze dresses and pantsuits featuring stiffened collars and ornamental gold tassels and braid. And for evening, Mackie provided an incredible backward look at shimmery evening gowns worn by Garbo, Dietrich and Hedy Lamarr.
Dresses That Shape
Mackie’s talent is glamour. He shapes dresses to give women figures they wish they really had. Carol Channing, who sat ringside at the show, said Mackie once created a midshipman’s pantsuit for her that caused sailors to salute her whenever the fleet came in. The omnipresent Ivana Trump also sat ringside and applauded mightily at show’s end.
Michael Kors, a young designer in the minimalist vein, supports the jump suit for fall. His versions are in gray or navy chalk stripes, some with low-cut bodices into which are tucked pale silk taffeta shirts with wing collars. Camel hair trench coats, camel-colored doeskin blazers and lots of beautifully cut pants completed the picture here.
After the first few days of shows in New York, it’s a sure thing that jump suits will appear in stores nationwide for fall, along with all manner of curvaceous jackets with rounded shoulders and a variety of trousers in a wide range of styles, from narrow to full. Colors are either neutral or offbeat brights such as tomato red, acid green, fuchsia and purple.
