Runway Rebels Refuse to Ape Men
NEW YORK — Men who dress women like men have a problem: They don’t always get the difference. And that made the New York fall collections, shown through Friday, a real disappointment.
Some of the biggest names in American fashion never seemed less attuned to the women they say they serve. A “conspiracy” to choke most collections with gray pin stripes and glen plaids was enough to put any woman off the idea for life.
Indeed, the last thing women seem to want now is to dress like men--or to imitate men in any way, for that matter.
All week, there were reminders of it far beyond the fashion runways, as 500,000 abortion rights marchers rallied in Washington on April 5 and as Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton continued to struggle with questions surrounding his personal conduct before last Tuesday’s New York Democratic presidential primary.
Even those you might expect to be tolerant commented on the social landscape against which the new menswear for women seemed presumptuous.
Vogue editor Anna Wintour, for example, opened another feminist issue when she referred to Anita Hill, who accused Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas of sexual harassment: “Anita Hill made women feel pride in being women.”
What does all this have to do with getting dressed?
Plenty. Women dress to express the way they feel.
Only one American designer, Donna Karan, made pin stripes palatable. It figures--she is a woman designing for women.
Karan worked in oval shapes, not squares. She mixed menswear fabrics and women’s-wear silhouettes, showing slit skirts, sheer white shirts and belted cardigan sweaters as a softer, less formal option to office wear.
She topped pants suits with blanket-fringed shawls as well as Garbo hats with turned-down brims. Suggestions of lace lingerie under jackets and jewelry in drippy, dangling shapes helped demonstrate the feminine essence of her designs.
It wasn’t a perfect collection. Varsity jackets in black and mustard yellow, a takeoff on her lower-price DKNY collection, didn’t translate well, for example. Actress Kim Basinger’s real varsity jacket, with “Capitol” stitched on the back, looked better. She and friend Alec Baldwin were in the audience at Karan’s show.
Karan’s mid-calf skirts, worn with high-heeled hiking boots, also need rethinking and reproportioning to look right.
At the same time, Karan successfully introduced a selection of new intimate wear. Model Cindy Crawford lay draped across the runway before the show, dressed in a lace bra and satin robe from the collection. The men in the room behaved like horses in a storm.
For Anne Klein, meanwhile, designer Louis Dell’Olio showed lots of pants suits. But like Karan, he softened them, mixing gray floral prints or claret velvet with classic menswear fabrics. He topped most outfits with a black beret--the fastest, cheapest way to update a wardrobe.
Throughout, Dell’Olio found ways to relieve the show’s testosterone level, with fringed suede jackets, skirts with corset laces at the hips and high-heeled booties. Barbara Walters took notes from her ringside seat.
Actress Sarah Jessica Parker led a round of giddy applause over the most feminine evening dresses, especially a bright-red satin ballgown skirt.
Isaac Mizrahi, after two years of fashion collections as rich as hot fudge, served a sorbet course of a fall show. Subdued colors from khaki and camel to black dominated. Only his formal evening outfits shouted color, with long, sleeveless dresses in bold pastels topped by black velvet coats lined to match the dress.
Some of the best outfits in the collection were some of the least expensive. Mizrahi is introducing a line of sweat shirt fabric day wear, including a dove-gray suit with jogging pants; a tunic over ankle-length hobble skirt (Morticia Addams wears a black one all the time in TV reruns) and a few other items dressy enough for dates.
After a week of serious and subdued--even sexist--styles, Geoffrey Beene caused a sigh of relief with his circus-themed collection. Closer to Carnaby Street than Wall Street, it was all whimsy, imagination and flair.
Pastel mohair boleros embroidered with rhinos or tigers and cape-coats in a plum-and-black variation on circus-tent stripes deftly set the theme. Beene showed many of these over lean black jumpsuits for day and evening alike.
A tiger-stripe jersey slip-dress embroidered with lace and gold flowers on the bodice showed off the casual-formal fashion mix Beene mastered years ago.
Likewise, Bob Mackie left the Financial District far behind, with outfits inspired by holidays from Halloween to New Year’s. An evening dress featured Christmas ribbons embroidered on the shoulder, a spider-web body suit had a witch’s cap for the not-so-nice Mackie fans.
After the show, Elizabeth Tilberis, the new editor of Harper’s Bazaar, diplomatically noted: “I love the idea of a pin stripe suit in a wardrobe, but after one, you need some fun.”
Given the choice, a circus has a lot more appeal than the stock market.
