Paris alive with fresh spring fashion

Press, 6 July 1988, Page 15

Paris alive with fresh spring fashion

In vogue

Paula Ryan.

Ten days in Paris is time enough to give anyone the feeling of the place, but in spring it takes on new meaning. Last month the shops, the parks, the people of Paris all looked as though they were enthusiastically welcoming a cheerful new season. Of all the cities of fashion, Paris greets spring better, fresher, and with the most colourful gaiety. There is even a sweet smell in the air.

One cannot wait to throw down luggage and leap out into the streets among it all.

Flower carts burst with colour. Parisian men smile and wave, even whistle approval as you pass. Cafes bubbles with chatter and everyone is stylish, from the wine waiter to the patient poodle.

My favourite part of Paris is the Rue Faubourg St Honore. There you find every Parisian, Italian, and Japanese designer in the limelight.

The newest showcase is Christian. Lacroix, whose new house of, fashion is still receiving final decor touches of elegance.

Most shops have opted to show fashion in the windows on sewing dummies, new and old. Others

simply drape garments over early French furniture.

There are now only a few shops where one feels one must have an appointment to enter. On previous visits I couldn’t have said this, but this time the French scored in friendliness.

The Rue Faubourg St Honore is very long, and covers everything from cosmetics and French culture to fashion and food. If time is not on your side you can find everything to give you that taste of Parisian panache, even as a window-shopper. Florist shops arrange flowers into works of art, chocolate boutiques have displays too lovely looking to eat.

Our dollars go further now in Paris, most designer shoes range from SNZISO to $250 and great, unknown labels go as low as $5O. Paris is now a fashion shopper’s paradise. Or is it that we have become too expensive? If you’re like me and have a passion for shoes, go to the Left Bank for variety. Start at Rue de Bac or along Rue de Grenelle and you’ll find Kenzo, Ungaro, Maud Frizon, Clergerie, another Jourdan shop, Tokio Kumagai. Even Karl Lagerfeld has launched a footwear collection for summer.

In this area the streets are narrow, the cafes overflowing, and intellectuals rub shoulders with fishmongers.

Taxis aren’t expensive in Paris and the Metro is a cheap way of getting about quickly, but if you have the time and it’s not raining then walk. That’s when you really see Paris, but keep your handbag close by. Unfortunately, Paris still has a “pick pocket” reputation. I speak from experience on a previous visit. But this is not a major factor. Each country has its share of opportunists.

The fashion looks that

had the greatest impact on the streets when I was there were the long-line fitting jackets worn with walk-shorts and low heeled or flat shoes. They looked wonderful, and there appeared to be no age restriction. It seemed to me that everyone was wearing the shorter length. The younger the woman the shorter the skirt.

Most women are opting for just above the knee. It’s a very elegant look

and the Parisian women have a built-in sense of panache. The hose are almost .always pale. None of last year’s sheer black hose were sighted. Handbags are smaller. Now Parisian women have a small, longer shoulder bag or clutch, with a larger shopping bag. In the main there appeared to be a longer length for hair. The best dressed women wore classic hair held back with a velvet or satin fabric Al-ice-band, or, with a city suit, held it back with a

tortiseshell bar placed low at the back of the neck.

Everywhere the city suit came in matched fabric or with a plain skirt with a patterned jacket, or vice versa. Very little jewellery was worn apart from large clip-on earrings. Sunglasses are the biggest news for facial ornamentation: shapes are less classic, more shapely. For evening, lots of stunning, glittering pieces for wrists, ears, and necks. Paris spring fashion

wasn’t very colourful. There was more use of navy, white, browns, blacks, creams. However, the summer windows were promoting plenty of colour with primary shades mixed together, and stripes and spots with florals. Even the summer shoes were very bright, spotted, or made of floral fabrics. Just about every shoe had some ornamentation whether it be a big bow, a pleated fan, or uppers and heels in different colours. But the legs were always the same colour — a little paler than skin tone.

Well those are my on-the-street impressions of spring in Paris. We wait now for the New Zealand shops to launch with a similar feeling for a new season in early August.

‘That taste of Paris panache’

‘Younger the woman the

shorter the skirt’