No Strikeouts in Versace-Armani Doubleheader
MILAN, Italy — A Gianni Versace and Giorgio Armani doubleheader wrapped up the five-day spring-summer 1993 Italian ready-to-wear showings Thursday night in Milan.
First at bat was Versace, the hot-blooded designer known for black leather, soaring hemlines and skintight styles that have made him the fashion pet of the rock and film star set.
In keeping with the happy mood of this season’s collections, Versace offers a series of ruffled peasant skirts in floral printed silk, both in mini and floor-length versions. De rigueur footwear? Super-high platform mules.
Exquisite tailoring and sumptuous fabrics have always been the hallmarks of Armani’s collections. This time around he introduced exotic flights of fancy. His tissue-weight silks softly billowed away from the body, and his jackets were softer and looser.
The latest Armani trend is the apron skirt worn over pants for day and night.
His suits are loose but not baggy, often in stripes. Colorful North African uniform trimmings add extra class.
But the real magic of the collection comes in the many finely embroidered fabrics with Oriental and Polynesian prints. These fabric jewels are used for evening jackets, wide pajama pants and a series of pareu dresses.
Armani footwear is always flat.
The collection, more sensuous than sexy with its decollete necklines and bared waists, thrilled his fans.
But the glacially cool Armani was next, and the crowd found itself cheering again for his super-soft pajama suits and apron skirts swirled around pencil pants.
The back-to-back shows were the result of a tiff between Italy’s two top designers for the last slot on the show schedule and thus the last word on spring-summer fashion.
In the end they both came out winners, crowning a week of shows marked by a return to the 1970s, complete with bell-bottom pants, bright prints, platform heels, chains and beads.
Versace, never one to hold back, offered the widest and prettiest bell-bottom pants seen on the runway all week. The low-waisted pants adorned by a gold chain belt began to fan out at the knee in ruffles or pleats.
They were worn with gaily printed silk shirts knotted in front to reveal the bellybutton.
According to Kal Ruttenstein, vice president of fashion direction at Bloomingdale’s, there’s room for both champions in the fashion game.
Asked who won the world series of the fashion week, Ruttenstein said: “Armani and Versace are at the two poles of fashion. The one believes in the understated, the other likes to be noticed. We buy them both . . . and sell them both.â€
