Paris Fashion Goes Back

Press, Volume C, Issue 29467, 20 March 1961, Page 2

Paris Fashion Goes Back

[From a Reuter Correspondent) PARIS. The first look at Paris spring fashions is a backward glance—back to the 1920’s with silhouettes which revive the days of gin and jazz. Low waistlines and short flaring skirts recall the carefree heroines of Ernest Hemingway and F. Scott Fitzgerald. Here is the stylised adaptation of fluid, free and easy fashions which step back one more decade in a smooth transition from last season’s 1930 influence.

Emancipation is the key word in the Paris couture circles today. Silhouettes are lithe and supple, without stiffening or under-construc-tion. They are animated and airborne, with sheer fabrics intricately cut to swirl around the body in pleats and panels. gores and godets.

fashion, endorsed by many of the world's best dressed women, but an unlikely look for generalised mass acceptance. Other famous names continue specifically individual trends. Chanel stays “pure Chanel.” while Guy Laroche turns out a young facsimile: of the same look in his easy: little cardigan suits, overblouses. and sweater-inspired day dresses. Lanvin and Pierre Balmain stoically ignore fanciful skirt: treatments in favour ofi wider top silhouettes emphasised by slim, natural waists.: Castillo, who is celebrating his tenth anniversary as Lanvin’s designer, uses roomy kimono cuts to broaden the' shoulders.

Dominant themes are the low set skirt and a symmetry. Hemlines burst into action with all the impetus of the first self-starting motor-cars. Bias cuts and side-wrap movements recall the pronortionateiy unbalanced silhouettes of the great dressmakers of the period, like Molvneux. Mainbocher. and Lelong. Hemlines are short and very fancy. Bodices are long and very plain. Bosoms have "had it.” They are the innocent victims of the latest fashion nurge. obliterated under loose fitting, blouson (jumper) tops in all but a few of Dior’s most daring evening deeolletes Marc Bohan’s brilliant first collection for Christian Dior sums up all the “old new" trends in an extremely wearable and flattering way The easy, bloused bodice, tight hinline. and flared skirts are conceived without a trace of eccentricity. The silhouette is young, understated. and timely. King of Season Mr Bohan today reigns as undisputed king of the Paris season, in spite of Balenciaga’s revolutionary decree of a more fitted waistline. The most extreme version of the new “flapper girl” is shown at Nina Ricci. A long unbroken tubular bodice drops to finger tip length above the “Firecracker hemline” created by M. Crahay. the designer. These brief skirts are boxed pleated or flare out with the umbrella gores. In keeping. Ricci mannequins personify the tvnical flat chested look, the sooty eye make up and shingled hair styles, and—they wear pale white stockings They slouch through the Ricci salons in great circular capes held in place by crossing the arms, or close the wrap around coats with one hand clutched on the left hln. Dior. Ricci, and Piere Cardin are the triumvirate with “rave notices” this season Cardin’s fashions have only a casual, nodding acquaintance with the rest of Paris His style is completely personal. typified by a modernised chemise with intricate spiralled, winding, or sunburst pleated treatments This is the pinnacle of high

Gres, on the other hand, has slimmed down her famous tent coats, just as other Pans designers are tending to widen theirs.

Basically, these new coat 1 silhouettes are cut like sandwich boards. They flare out: at the sides but appear slen-, der in profile. Stoned shoulders and deep-set yoke sleeves provide fulness under the arms Marc Bohan’s best models are fashioned like children’s coats, cut to skim away from the body, ‘hey have low waistlines marked by circular insets or belts. Ponchos Equally important new! themes are Heim’s sleeveless! ponchos, chausubles. or loose! redingntes which flare like! the outline of an inverted I morning glory. Cardin! launches coat-dresses with! low-set godets or insets of ginray pleating, while Ricci s slim. buttonless models envelop the flapper as comfortably as a favourite bathrobe. News in suits is long and short. Most jackets hover around a slim hipline. These are typified by side fastenings. long rolled revers, or collarless necklines. Cardin is the only designer to favour short jackets, seen in easy boleros lined to match a flower printed silk over-1 blouse. Bohan shows his ■ long waisted jackets with! wide set-away necklines! edged with narrow notched! lapels. They are worn over! youthful little sleeveless: sweater blouses made of cameo toned chiffons. Fabrics are more than sup-! porting actors in the Paris fashion theatre. This season; they are literally co-star' with silhouettes. Feather-weight fabrics ranging through porous woollens. supple jerseys, crepe, shantung and wild silks, into filmy sheers, stress today’s theme of mobile living. Colour runs riotously through the Paris collections Clear fruit and flower shades! support warm tones like orange, tangerine, apricot, or anemone pinks and purples Pastels are vivid or dusty, ranging from soft wisteria to! peach ice cream, rose quartz i or special new pinks with a brownish cast. Off-whites and navy blue are strong. Black is gener-I ally limited to a group of! late day restaurant dresses which are slim and sonhisti-; cated in crepe, georgette, or flimsy chiffon worked in layered overskirts. Others become symetrical with the addition of side swept panels sling of cowled dranery, and one-shoulder necklines “Twenties” Evening fashions are indelibly stamped with trade-! marks of the “twenties" Every designer has viewed! the same documentary film—l “Les Annees Folles.” still! showing in Paris. Every manneouin has dusted off her false eyelashes, cut her hair: to. a boyish style, and ’earned to shimmy, to shuffle and dance the Charleston The Dior girls affect a backward slouch which defies every law of gravity Jacques Heim interprets! the immortal Irene Castle' style in feminine dancing dresses with veiled overskirts. swirling panels, or tiered hemlines edged with ostrich feathers. Ricci even adds the ostrich feather fan or trims evening dresses with a giant caggage rose of chiffon, used to anchor flowing drapery on one hip. The! long. long torso look con-| tinues throughout Ricci’s for-; mal fashions with the same explosive hemline treatments! transformed into “feather' dusters." Like Heim. Crahay ; garlands hems with uncurled! plumes, or uses layer over: layer of uneven handkerchief! points in tulle or mousseline. The Parish fashion story is a reincarnation of those mad. glad flapper g’rls. Even millinery revives the cloche with a dropping brim of a* profiled tilt Other versions; are seen in the side-tinned! nltTbox, and Dior’s jaunty boaters with brim rolled! back off the face Should French fashions! capriciously decide to carry retrospection still further! back next season, women | may be wearing bustles and! high button shoes before the. 1 ' end of 1961. . Il