Paris: fashion for everyone

Press, 12 August 1985, Page 8

Paris: fashion for everyone

JOAN HARRISON, “Observer,” reports from Paris on the latest trends from top designers.

Chanel built an artistic reputation around the cut of an arm hole. «That tight, unpadded shoulderline was once .the trademark of a Chanel suit — it all started there — but it’s there no longer. The Chanel suit, as now seen by Karl Lagerfeld and shown this week in Paris at the autumn haute couture collections, is a beautiful elegant object but with shoulder pads. It is no longer a living memorial but an international best seller at upwards of $9OOO. Lagerfeld is an excellent designer, well tuned in to the present day, and has boosted the house of Chanel back into being one of the top moneymakers in the world of couture. As Lagerfeld says himself his Chanel collection “is more than ever reproportioned and remade for 1986.” “Coco,” one of the models most typically Chanel, is navy-blue and red, has big shoulderpads and raglan

sleeves,' the Chanel trimming widened, the round neck split open to a low decollete, the chain belt replaced with a wide quilted leather belt like the Chanel handbags and fastened with a jewelled plaque.

The collection was also an indirect tribute to the late writer Colette. Each outfit was named after a Colette heroine or book title or a place or person related to her life.

So La Femme Cachee, or the Hidden Woman, was shown as an enormous shot taffeta trenchcoat in leafbrown, olive and copper over an adjusted taffeta body-hugging dress in shimmering green. Tales of 1001 Mornings turned out to be an ivory tweed jacket bound with navy-blue over a navy-blue flannel, knee-length skirt worn with navy-blue matching tights and shoes. Hairstyles by Alexandre were straight fringes with long smooth sides and backs worn by all the model girls,

with the exception of the house model, Ines de la Fressange, who is a law unto herself.

She almost stopped the show by giving an illusion of being naked under a floorlength coat.

There are an estimated 3500 rich women in the world who can afford the luxurious original models of the French haute couture. But as all the main designers now translate these originals into their own ready-to-wear, and international buyers and manufacturers spread it out even further, you can be sure there is something here for everyone in some form or

another. Each leading designer showed ideas that will translate down the line, with Yves St Laurent as usual in a class apart, underlined not only by the classical simplicity of the clothes but because for the first time in about 20 years there was no music as the models showed them off — back to the early days of couture for couture’s sake.

Things to watch out for from Yves St Laurent: Roll-neck collars on blouses, sweaters and dresses and stand-up collars on coats. Where there was not a high neckline, a folded scarf was tied to make one

or four or five rows of pearls or chains tied in a choker knot.

Colours were grey, beachleaf green, leaf-brown and black. None of the sombre range of purples and violet seen elsewhere. The clothes were all stripped down of trimming and excess jewellery, except for large square earrings for daytime wear, and heavy glittering ones about five inches in length for the evening. Yves St Laurent is consistent in that he showed more trousers than anyone. Tunic tops were worn over both skirts and trousers, jackets were slimlined and fingertip length. Collections are built around fabrics and this year there was lots of velvet, printed velvet and specially woven tweed. Pierre Cardin has his own fabric factory in China and imported as well nine Chinese models from the People’s Republic to show off his collection of beautifully tailored clothes,

hanging straight and flat with skirts split up the side and all the fantasy in the sleeves. He even showed that it was possible to design an elegant outfit for the pregnant woman: a pleated dress hanging straight from the shoulders but swinging out over trousers worn by a model girl padded in front for the occasion. The best thing at Dior were the slim black velvet dresses with high roll-top necks. All the model girls wore hairdresser Jacques Dessange’s new winter style. Severe, pulled back from the brow, lacquered like a cap, short at the back with kiss, curls on the cheeks. Mme Gres, at well over 80, is backed by the young French businessman Bernard Tapie. She is the last to cut and drape her silks and mousselines on a living model: they hang like a Greek statue, cost a fortune and are complete originals.