Focus on New York
The war in the Gulf prompted many American journalists and buyers to cut short their trips to Milan and to cancel their trips to Paris for the recent menswear shows for fall ’91. The result: Many European designers are trooping their collections to New York. Romeo Gigli’s Ellen Carey says she’ll show the fall collection in the New York showroom this week and that they’re booked solid with appointments. Jun Kanai says Issey Miyake’s collection will be sold in New York today and Feb. 20-21. “This is new for us, and I hope we don’t have to do it all the time,” says Kanai. Genny will sell its Byblos collection via videos. As for the women’s fall European collections scheduled for March, several designers polled by Listen said they were going ahead with their shows and that cancellations so far by journalists and buyers were due more to budget cuts than to the Gulf War.
* VANILLA’S SPARKLERS ON ICE: New York stores can expect a run on glitter early next week as recording artists make last-minute decisions about what to wear to the Grammy Awards. At press time, however, there was an interesting clue to what the man on the top of the charts, Vanilla Ice, might be seen in at Wednesday’s music awards show. Designer Henry Duarte and stylist Dana Allyson, who have dressed Ice in sparkles and glitter for the past few months, are doing an about-face. “We’re thinking about putting him in a classic, black, double-breasted tuxedo,” says Duarte. “It would be an elegant look, really handsome.”
* WAR SKIRTS ISSUE: Skirt lengths, as the saying goes, rise and fall with the stock market--when the market is up, so are the hemlines. But what effect has war historically had on the look of women’s fashion? “It has had a tremendous impact,” says Edward Maeder, curator for costumes and textiles at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. “Aspects of men’s military uniforms have percolated into women’s fashion in the French Revolution, the Civil War, and the first and second World Wars,” he notes. In WW II, restrictions on fabric made hemlines rise and silhouettes narrow. Immediately after the war, skirts became voluminous. “Dior sometimes had 15 yards of material in one skirt as a response to the shortages and privations of the war,” says Maeder. As for the current war, Maeder says the most visible fashion influences will probably be outfits made of yellow or yellow ribbon.
* YEN TO WIN: Japanese auto designs are known to outshine American car styles. But last week, U.S. fashion design know-how proved a winner in the Mizuno International competition in Tokyo. Janina Barajas, a senior at Otis/Parsons School of Design, captured the grand prize at the competition sponsored by Mizuno, Japan’s largest sportswear manufacturer, with a tennis outfit that looked like futuristic lingerie. Her entry: a nylon/spandex halter and Fortuny-pleated tennis shorts paired with a detachable silk organza and Mylar multilayered skirt. Barajas’ wining entry will be on view at the ninth annual Critics Awards Fashion Show, scheduled for April 27 at the Beverly Hilton.
* ACCENT ON CONFIDENCE: British-born, New-York-based Patricia Underwood has never seen Princess Di wearing one of her hats. “She might think of me as an American resource,” explains Underwood, referring to the royal policy of thumbs-down to foreign designers. But Underwood’s very British, including her accent, which can be heard today during a personal appearance at I. Magnin in Beverly Hills. Now that movie stars and presidential wives aren’t mad about millinery, who sets the trends? “It’s the confident woman,” says the designer. “She wears a hat well, and it’s something you notice.” Her noticeable summer straws and knits are priced from $30 to $550.
