London is back in style

Press, 6 November 1984, Page 10

London is back in style

Bernadine Morris, fashion editor of the "New York Times," surveys London f s vibrant fashion scene, for NZPA.

British fashion is on a roll. Modest increases in exports have been achieved over last year — about 10 per cent. More retailers attending the 30 major shows and hundreds of smaller presentations during the recent spring and summer fashion week, are tangible signs of the rehabilitation of London as a source of international style. Not since the 19605, when designers here invented the mini-skirt that symbolised the decade’s anti-establish-ment spirit, has there been such an outpouring of energy and ideas. In a matter of months, new names such as Body Map, Katherine Hamnett, and Betty Jackson have won recognition in cities as different as Tokyo and New York. A few designers are appreciated as being of worldclass calibre. At the top of the list is Jean Muir, who emerged from the maelstrom of the 1960 s with a serene, distinctive style that is as recognisable in its modesty as Zandra Rhodes’s more flamboyant effects. Miss Rhodes’s particular brand of eccentricity has achieved the status of a British classic. Sheridan Barnett blends British understatement and the dash of American sportswear in his unobtrusive designs. The official openings began with the Individual Clothes Show, which introduced 52 designers who are too small to support their own shows. Betty Jackson and Body. Map began with this group, sometimes called the nursery of British design. Most of the trends that turned up later were well represented in this show. London’s strength is based on the talented youngsters who emerge from design schools such as the Royal College of Art, open their own businesses, and express their own points of view. This ranges from “artsycrafty” to coolly conservative. The neophyte designers focused on the shirt as the key to warm-weather dressing. It was < blown up (o jacket or even coat size, and

Dots and plains are Roland Klein’s motifs for next summer, following bis success with combinations of plain and striped neutral linens for summer ’B4, right. worn with shirt-tails flying, hips belted, or ends neatly tucked into skirt or trousers. The new designers emphasised patterns with a contemporary quality derived from computer printouts. Most of the shapes of the clothes were loose and unconstructed, falling around the body to be anchored by knots, ties and belts. Midriffs were bared un-

selfconsciously. Mini-skirts were rare as most hemlines approached the ankles. All of these ideas were fully developed in the showing of Betty Jackson, the first big hit of the season. Her signature was an oversized, upside-down rose with black foliage, credited to Brian Bolger, the textile designer. v Her crisp, striped cotton shirts had bib fronts. Her coats and jackets were covered with colourful crewel emvroidery, and worn over cotton shirtdresses. Her cool, casual clothes never looked over-designed. Among the established designers, Sheridan Barnett, who believes clothes should “look anonymous on the street,” introduced a single off-beat note in his collection of spare, uncluttered clothes. This was the bloomer,

similar to the style Amelia Bloomer advocated for suffragettes in the nineteenth century. He made it look relevant for today. Zandra Rhodes’s clothes were softer, and her embroideries more brilliant than usual. A skyscraper desisgn was worked out in crystal beads on white chiffon, or in sparkling red jewels on black chiffon. Other dresses were full and floating, with her signature capelet tops and triangles at the hem edged in pearls. With occasional drapery at the hips, her dresses beautifully expressed her sense of fantasy for evening. Jean Muir injected strong notes of colour in her generally . sombre collection, opening her show with casual jackets, skirts, and pants in shades of camel hair and red, and following with sweaters in orange,

blue and red stripes, and a red suede suit Nevertheless, many viewers found her familiar black crepe or jersey dresses, and her navy or grey cashmere bathrobe coats for men and women most comforting. There were satisfying segments in most of the showings. Standouts included Wendy Dagworthy’s oversize shirts for men and women in large, pale flower patterns, and the dressy styles in racing colours, including bare-midriff skirts and jodhpurs by Arabella Pollen. Benny Ong’s canvas coats were printed with squares, arcs, and triangles. Roland Klein’s interplay of dots and plaids gave a fresh look to traditional spring navy. Jasper Conran ended his show with a blaze of sequins. Like many designers, Conran showed men’s clothes along with his styles for women. There was usually not much difference between the two.

The Body Map presentation was bizarre. Men, women, including older women, and children all wore the same clothes and either flesh coloured rubber caps that hid their hair or fright wigs. Men models carried sweaters as if they were security blankets or superman dolls. Decals were pasted on cheeks, arms, legs and buttocks. Shoes included high cork wedgies. Fashions included baby

doll pyjamas revived as dresses, sweaters with a lot of extra armholes and tight skinny tube skirts. Most of the audience paid far more attention to the presentation, the unisex for the whole family idea, than to the clothes. Apologists called it eccentric. Others called it sick. Katherine Hamnett didn’t do too well either. The resident rock star was said to be Holly Johnson, the lead singer from a group known as Frankie Goes to Hollywood. He kept his face hidden with a yellow scarf. While drummers pounded out an African beat, the models, who also included men and children, never stopped dancing up and down the runway. Their clothes represented some sort of comic strip parody of 1950 s fashions. The skirts were gathered tightly at back ending in fishtail effects, . and wide knitted circles clinging to the body from midriff to hipline.

Brashness is what has attracted attention to the London scene again. Decadence may burst the bubble.

London is exporting much of its high fashion women’s wear. But men are still making the pilgrimage to the city’s famed street of tailoring. These days the men with the money are usually oil-rich clients from the Middle East and the United States.