Saint Laurent looks to China

Press, 4 August 1977, Page 12

Saint Laurent looks to China

NZPA Paris The fashion designer, Yves Saint Laurent, abandoned the Russian peasant look in his autumn-winter high fashion collection and moved on to the lavish costumes of old China, the United Press International reported. To strains of Oriental music, the Saint Laurent girls passed like delicate figures on an old Chinese screen before wildly ap-

plaudmg international fashion,: reporters and buyers. i Gone are the Saint Laurent gypsy skirts, Russian peasant blouses and boyar; coats of the last two years. But Paris’s most influential designer has not given up the “ethnic look.” Most of; his show, which lasted nearly two hours, was drawn from the East. i The opulent parade was as staggering as his Russian 1 presentations. The audience clapped almost non-stop at ’

short gold or coloured brocade jackets over satin or velvet trousers or bloomers, high-he“led boots edged with gold leather or fur and wrapped with laces dripping tassels, gold lame gloves with floppy cuffs and little gold peaked mandarin hats. Some of the Chinese jackets had square “pagoda” shoulders or were edged

with glittering braid. Others had fox cuffs to the elbows. Saint Laurent also revived the bustle, of all things. He showed three evening gowns with padded behinds just the Lanvin salon did earlier. He also resurrected the wasp-waisted traditional ballgowns with bouffant skirts m stiff taffetas and satins, a sharp change from the soft chiffons of so many years. Occasionally the - designer with the touch of a master showman would change the Chinese mood to show ruffled peignor-like evening gowns or others with dreamlike floating panels of butterfly printed chiffon. For daytime Saint Laurent followed the current Paris craze for the bulky look, despite fashion writers’ predictions that he would bring back the female shape. The models were hidden under capes or coats with gigantic, T i b e t a n-monk-like hoods usually lined with fur. Underneath was another bombshell — Saint Laurent dropped day hemlines to below mid-calf. Skirts were softly gathered and topped by loose tunics with lowslung drawstring waitlines dripping with tassels. Sometimes the designer threw in huge fringed scarves to add to the covered-up, mysterious effect.