Paris fashion looks youthful

Press, 21 October 1989, Page 21

Paris fashion looks youthful

By

SUZY PATTERSON,

NZPA-AP in Paris.

Lots of youthful, feminine clothes were shown in early openings as ready-to-wear shows for summer 1990 got underway yesterday. Great fabrics, curvy silhouettes and soft colour palettes were about the only things designers had in common as everybody did his or her own thing. In her tent show in a courtyard of the Louvre, Lolita Lempicka showed clothes with just enough chic to keep the sweet fashions from being cloying. Her bi-coloured fitted linen suits, either short to the knee or maxi-length, often had fitted jackets with scalloped necklines. One of her main silhouettes was formed by gold-buttoned long redingotes giving a funnel shape to the linens or textured “beehive” ivory silks. Other flowingly feminine shapes came out under billowy-topped dusters with long, wrapped skirts. Emmanuelle Khanh brought out a lot of long and slinky suits for cruise wear, as well as some modest one-piece maillot bathing suits with little flounces at the hip. Her sailor looks ranged from pants to shorts to skirts — in crisp navy and white or more original rusty brown cottons and linens. For late-day, her best lines were easily fitted outfits with strong black and white arabesque embroideries around collars and shoulders. The Japanese are out in force as usual. Hanae Mori, who will show later in the week, was awarded the Legion of Honour on Tuesday evening for her contribution to Paris fashion in the couture and ready-to-wear lines she has shown and sold here for over 20 years. Junko Shimada’s bouncy young styles were always figure-hugging. The neat linen suits with decollete, small-waisted jackets in shades of sand, turquoise, pale pink, and chocolate had details of big bucket pockets, tab pockets, or perky pointed peplums. Hiroko Koshino’s collection was based on a cruise down the Nile, from safari suits to outfits with asymmetrical details, folding and pleating that could have come right from an Egyptian fresco or the wardrobe of Cleopatra herself. In patterned silks and textured linens, the inspiration may have been ancient, but the lines were modern, with lots of high-waisted pants, some bare midriffs, original jackets with one side covered in a pleated scarf effect over wraparound skirts. There were lots of long jackets over pleated skirts or vests sewn onto the skirt in a dress. And whether worn with shorts, pleated or draped long skirts, the effect of these combinations was never heavy.