Women’s fashions a man’s world still

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32677, 5 August 1971, Page 6

Women’s fashions a man’s world still

(By

NORMAN HARTNELL)

LONDON Why is it, M client of 1 mine asked me the other day, that the wood’s top : fashion designers always seem to be meh? There are two women who have made the grade. Chanel and Schiaparelli are two notable exceptions. And, of course, there is Mary Quant. But my customer nonetheless had a good point. There is no doubt that when it comes to top names in fashion design—whether it is couture, ready-to-wear, or whatever—it is the men who dominate the scene. What is the reason for this state of affairs? Personally. I go along with my colleague Hardy Amies. When I raised! the issue with him the Other day, he replied: “Most successful couturiers are men because they are not only designers, but heads of their respective houses. “A good house usually has a family atmosphere. And a family likes to have a father figure at the head rather than a mother.” COMPLICATED The fact is, too, that dress businesses are extremely complicated organisations. You need to have a head for business as well as a flair for design. So if Mary Quant has succeeded why haven’t a lot of other women? As I said, Mary Quant is one of the exceptions. But she, remember, does leave the business side to her husband. That talented young designer, Ossie Clark, puts forward,another explanation why the top designers are tisuidly men. “It is,” he says, “because with few exceptions women designees tend

to judge garments on how they look on themselves.” In other words, women are not detached enough; they think too personally. They tend to take the view that if a certain type of garment doesn’t flatter them, then they simply won't design it. $ FASHION CONSCIOUS Of course, it isn’t only in dress designing that you notice the. lack of top women names. Haute coiffure, for example has produced no female Raymonds or Vidal Sassoons. One famous hairstylist, Marc Hilliard, has very definite views on why this should be. “Men make better stylists,” he says, “because basically they are more fashionconscious than women. They regard their jobs with a longterm view. “When you get a good woman stylist she is usually very good indeed, but most girls in hairdressing tend to regard their jobs as jobs : rather than careers which a . man would never do. “Most famous salons publicise their male rather than their female stylists because i of this very point. GALLING “Whereas a man is likely ' to stick in his job for a long ' period, a Woman is just as likely to stay only a short ■ while. Continuity of service ' means a great deal—especi- , ally to the customers, s “It can be galling for a • client if she wants a particu- > lar stylist to look after her needs only to find that she s ; no longer there the next > time she calls?’ i Marc Hilliard also makes s the point of'needing a sound , business sense in addition to - designing talent. And many 1J women, he feels, are at a dis-

advantage when it comes to combining designing skill with administration. One thing is for sure. Prejudice of not, the women customers themselves seem to prefer a man’s touch. And who am I to argue with that? CLOSE-FITTING According to my colleague, the Paris couturier Ruben Torres, we’ll be providing women with “close-fitting clothes based on stretch and knitted fabrics” by the year 2000. And that’s not the only innovation he foresees. The traditional wardrobe categories of sweaters, dresses, tights, trousers, under-wear and nightwear, he reckons will be with us no longer. “Instead, wtell have streamlined dressing down to its barest essentials covering ourselves with a second skin of varying thickness to suit the weather,” is his view. What will these all-in-one garments look lifce? You can do no worse than study some of the creations of today’s design college students to get an idea of what’s likely to be.

One such student has designed gold-knitted brassieres to be worn on top of transparent gold dresses which in turn are designed to go over knitted catsuits—with gold knitted briefs worn under the .catsuit. Another student has come up with outerwear that nedds no underwear. Think of a skinny rib sweater wom with hot pants which have a bra top. That’s the sort of thing a Hit of women could be wearing in 30 years’ time. In other words: jump suits in elasticated yam Which will control plump contours without spoiling a youthful look. How’s that for a lorigrange fashion forecast?