Boyish Look Emerges In Paris Beach Fashions

Press, Volume CI, Issue 29984, 20 November 1962, Page 2

Boyish Look Emerges In Paris Beach Fashions

[From a Router Correspondent]

PARIS.

It’s a man’s world in newest French beach fashions. The boyish look emerged at summer resorts as the outstanding trend for the informal clothes being worn during those informal months of the year.

Girls looked like counterparts of cowboys in low-slung “frontier” pants, ten-gallon hats, and Sam Browne belts, or like counterparts of men in the 1900 Mack Sennett barber’s shop quartettes, wearing long-legged, one-piece, striped bathing suits with short hoydenish haircuts.

Inspiration for the “cowboy look” came from young Yves St Laurent’s collection. The former Dior designer launched sombrero hats, braces (suspenders), triangular kerchieves knotted on one shoulder, and low-waisted trousers and skirts. A new fad was born. Sportswear creators immediately developed St Laurent’s original theme, and set the stage for-the entrance of thousands of European “cow girls.”

Even the fashion in female figures changed. Girls with curves a la Brigitte Bardot were not quite as fashionable as the girls with boyish figures. The new beach queens had flat bosoms, no hips, and long straight legs. At St Tropes and along the Cote d’Azur women wore hip pants and abbreviate brassiere bodices which leave a wide expanse of bare midriff exposed. The most daring versions had couturier Jacques Esterel’s innovation of “navel jewels.” Gaudy clips hung on slender metal chains blaze brightly over this latest and most unusual, place to wear jewellery. As one wit declared: St Tropez has suddenly become the “largest navel base in history."

The second leading trend among these “Eve-tumed-Adam” fashions was the 1900 theme, inspired by the French film, “Jules and Jim” The film’s star, Jeanne Moreau, who was on holiday in the south of France with Pierre Cardin, the dress designer, was largely responsible for the popularity of turn-of-the-century inspired fashions. Miss Moreau adopted the “Jules and Jim" look in her personal wardrobe, with pedal pushers and long horizontally striped jersey or middy tops. Teen-agers completely abandoned Brigitte Bardot’s ruffles in favour of Jeanne Moreau’s trim and casual style. Other trade makers of the “Jules and Jim" look were the jaunty straw boater hats always associated with Maurice Chevalier, the apache and golf caps made of check fabric and worn with ‘he hair tucked up inside, and mannish shirts with flapping tails worn over nothing at all except an abbreviated pair of bathing trunks. Nautical Style* The “Jules and Jim" girls often turned nautical. At cooler seaside resorts in Brittany and along the Atlantic coast, they adopted the British seaman's double breasted pea jacket The same little three-quarter length coat interpreted by Yves St. Laurent, was also a best-seller for town wear. Some came from a couture salon and cost more than 1000 new francs (about £72). others from the sportswear section of a large Paris department store. A few were authentic seamen’s jackets purchased in a naval supply store. For sportswear, the pea jacket was most often accompanied by bell-bottom trousers

flaring below the knees, a bulky, turtle-neck sweater with roll collar and matching knitted “watch cap," or little hood, which keeps the hair neat in windy climate*. Bell-bottom trousers, called “Marinette,” looked far newer than last year’s skinny pipe stem trousers. Authentic versions came in navy blue serge for daytime and fragile chiffons or wild silk fabrics for evening wear. Many women appeared at formal casino parties or dances in ruffled trousers, worn with silk shirts and frilled jabots in the manner of Georges Sand. Evening Short*

Every spring, Jacques Seim shows a special “avant garde" collection of beach and resort wear. This year, Heim's innovation reiterated the “masculine mood,’’ with cocktail and evening shorts made in formal fabrics. Heim dressed up the shorts with

lavish embroideries, as an ensemble called “Gin Fizz." Abbreviated with crepe shorts were embroidered all over with silver bugle beads and worn with an unadorned white crepe blouson (loose blouse) top. Jacques Heim proposed the perfect compromise for women who will not surrender themselves completely to trousers. Hie answer was the “panta-robe”—a cleverly cut garment with one trouser leg and one skirt leg. These fantasies came in both kneelength and full-length versions, or were varied in effects to give the impression of a dress from the back, but constituted trousers in front.

Pierre Cardin’s novelty was a bikini bathing suit made of suede. As most glove leathers are washable nowadays, these bikinis could really go into the water. The brief bathing

suits consisted of tiny brasrieres and miniature skirts, trimmed with rickrack or tiny ruffle* made of the same leather. Roger and Gallet featured beach sets made entirely of towelling. The bikini was matched with a short tunic, piped in a contrasting tone of cotton braid.

Apart from the novel media used for an occasional bikini, the season's big winner was the one-piece striped tank suit, styled as in 1900. These suits were usually made in wool jersey or nylon stretch fabrics, and most often recalled grandfather’s bathing costume. Skin tight shorts reached to mid-thigh, and were worn with modest, high, round, necklines and short cap sleeves. Some models had trunks in solid tone, with a low slung belt resting on the hipline. Others were diagonally striped, like candy sticks, in sharp contrasting colours like red or navy and white. Saddle Ban Novel accessories found their niche in holiday wardrobes. Many women who usually choose ultra-classic clothes permit themselves an unaccustomed burst of fantasy on the beach. Cowboy fashions appeared again in the saddle bags slung casually over one shoulder. Roger Model, a leading Paris handbag designer, favoured giant satchel bags with peppermint striped, elastic shoulder straps. The Lanvin-Castillo boutique showed envelope bags attached at each end of a wide leather stole.

Another novelty was the tote bag, designed with a special plastic lined omopartment destined to carry iced drinks to the beech.