Haircuts and lame ties

Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33453, 7 February 1974, Page 6

Haircuts and lame ties

(By

MARCELLE POIRIER)

PARIS, February 0.

The big news of “Fashion Week” in Paris was not what women were going to wear in the coming months, but the fact that Marc Bohan, the Dior designer, has cut his hair.

Instead of the lank, shoulder-length locks he first cultivated in the late 1960 s (and his late forties), he now has short back and sides again. Moreover, he has returned to a collar and tie.

This is newsworthy chiefly because Marc Bolan is so much in the public eye as a fashion creator and as a darling of the international society set. In fact, he is just part of a growing trend in male fashion. BUSY SCISSORS

During the past year barbers’ scissors have been very busy snipping off male locks and trimming beards. Fuzzywuzzy hairstyles and prophet’s beards are now outdated. There was an intermediate period of Byronic male charm (a la Yves St Laurent) but even that is becoming outdated.

The most popular look now is the cinema matinee idol look; short hair slicked back, most often with a slightly off-centre parting. As the twenties-thirties look is all the rage for women, it is inevitable that the men who squire the ladies should try to look like Rudolph Valentino. Even brisk young executives are cultivating that passionate, sloe-eyed look, at least out of office hours. CLASSIC SUITS Men’s fashion week does not start for several days yet, but Guy Laroche gave a preview of what to expect when he showed a few of his new men’s fashions along side his latest Paris fashion for women. The cut of his suits was

classic — tile 130-year-old Prince Albert styling with waistcoats again. But Queen Victoria would have fainted had she seen her consort step out in pale slate blue with matching shirt and tie, and paisley silk waistcoat.

She would have been wrong, for it is a colourful, and elegant solution for the male. UNIFORM AGAIN Good too, were Prince ofi Wales check ties made of the same featherweight fabric as the suit. With a shirt picking up a dominant colour; and for summer classically cut suits in pale blue denim. Guy Laroche himself, after I several years of less con-| formist tailoring, including ‘ open-necked shirts and crav- .l ats, is back again in a busi-l ness man’s uniform. Most of the department, stores in Paris now have i special boutiques which sell; nothing else than men’s ties, i Bow ties have been the male ■ fashion fad for the past few! months. For day wear these are big wide bows in stripes, spots, and solid colours, in smooth silks or nubbly tweeds, to contrast or co-1 ordinate with shirts. St i Laurent launched, and still wears, these himself. LAME TIES For evenings, there are beaded and sequinned ties, diamond studded ones, and others in lame and gold striped satin. The demand for coordinated shirts and ties and blousons is increasing rapidly as men begin to realise that by mixing and matching they can stretch a wardrobe and avoid monotony. BLACK VELVET Velvet jackets, which were originally way-out garments for young swinging males, are now establishing themselves as basic garments. For sportswear they are in fine-ribbed corduroy, and for evenings in rich-coloured and textured velvet. Even the “oldies” are going for black velvet jackets to replace the conventional dinner jacket. Jeans addicts are now wild about velvet jeans since an Italian firm launched a selffading corded velvet. The fading takes place during the first one or two washings, and concentrates on the seams and those spots which get the most wear — the ultimate in chic it seems — and after that the colour remains stable.