SPRING COLLECTIONS / NEW YORK : Untucked, Unbuttoned, Uninspired
NEW YORK — Neither rain nor snow flurries nor gusty winds can keep designers here from showing their latest collections. So far this week, all three elements have tried.
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On Sunday, showers tested the new white tents in Bryant Park, where most of the spring collections will be shown through Friday. This version of the setup used in Paris seems to be working very well. The tents, named Gertrude and Josephine, join Celeste Bartos, a room in the public library next door, to create three show spaces in one location.
Shiny green chairs dot the park and flowers perk up the gardens, freshening a usually run-down place. The new press office across the street deserves its own mention. Plied with pastries, coffee, phones, faxes and a beauty bar where Prescriptives and Clairol consultants do free make-overs, a reporter could spend a day there without complaint.
The novelty of all this, plus a few unexpected twists on the runways, have put a spark of excitement in the air.
Calvin Klein brought back the gimmicks he tried out last spring in California, at his Hollywood Bowl fashion show. Some of the amateur models for his lower-priced CK presentation awkwardly walked the runway Sunday in nothing but their Calvins.
More than 100 strong, dressed in layers of cropped Ts, untucked shirts, jackets and suit vests, long cutoffs and pants, these regular guys and gals were modeling Klein’s latest lesson in personal style. Basic stuff--with a few thrift-shop finds, or look-alikes, thrown in--give the CK line its true-to-life look.
There was more virtual reality earlier that day at Donna Karan’s DKNY show when she took bows wearing a sweat shirt tied around a bodysuit. The news here is that Karan has added active wear, with racing stripes running down the side of boxing “skirts,†oiled cotton anoraks stretched to the ankle, sweat shirts and swim-team jackets, all slathered with oversize, DKNY Authentic Active Wear logos. Right down to the running shoes.
Office clothes in this collection spin off men’s navy pin-striped suits. Dresses look like jackets or vests extended to mid-thigh. Karan showed them over blue shirts with crisp white collars. Her bib overalls with a matching tailored jacket were a bit of comic relief, for days when women would rather play grown-up than be grown-up.
With Karan’s signature label now at stratospheric prices, women buy DKNY for their “good†clothes. The spring line caters to the trend.
Karan got her start at Anne Klein. Now it’s Richard Tyler’s turn. The Los Angeles-based designer showed his first Anne Klein collection Monday morning. “It was a good start,†said Joan Kaner, fashion director of Neiman Marcus.
Guarded optimism was the going mood. This first attempt by Tyler had its share of misses, and was a clear reminder of the difficulty of creating a top-notch collection.
Jackets are its strength. Most of them nip the waist and curve over the hips, in soft linens and weightless wools that lend a relaxed feeling. One with a rib-knit collar is a novel look. Short, knife-pleated skirts or man-tailored trousers, showed the jackets to their best advantage.
Evening dresses, most of them long, sheer slips, did Tyler’s reputation no good. Flimsy and worn with black beach thongs, they lacked the polish expected of a slick fashion label.
Bill Blass mixed glen plaid and black lace for daytime suits with a touch of glamour. They seemed especially witty over silk mules with little gold heels shaped like martini glasses. Office glam, spring ’94.
Byron Lars took this opportunity to hit every social problem from coast to coast. His show opened with a clip from “The Avengers,†the ‘60s adventure show featuring bionic character Emma Peel. She showed her skills at kick boxing in high-heel boots to open this “Super Women†show.
Lacquered bouffants, bullet belts plied with lipsticks, opium pipes coiled around wrists like bracelets, drug-busting cops with mint-green pistols, black-belt masters who swung their long braids like lethal weapons. This show had it all.
The clothes lived up to the antics. Among the best: shirt-striped dresses with big circle skirts to the ankles over sassy green satin hot pants. Chinese embroidered red jackets curved over black stretch pants for a new look in kung fu wear.
Twenty blocks north of the shows was another fashion event not to be missed. Barneys department store opened a new branch at Madison Avenue and 61st Street, a quick jog from Bergdorfs and Henri Bendel.
Outside the new store, a woman talked into her cellular phone: “Call the store and have me paged.†That may get her some attention, but not for long.
There is a lot to see here, as the out-of-town press discovered, bumping into each other while checking it out--seven floors of beige and black. And some navy blue.
Conservative colors, not-so-conservative clothes.
Barneys doesn’t seem to have two of anything. One Christian Lacroix jacket, brown velvet, cuffed and gold buttoned, does just fine without the skirt, blouse, pants and shawl--in a thousand different patterns--that Lacroix tends to mix in for each complete outfit.
Bruno Magli loafers, clunky classics, get more respect than in most stores. Here, they mingle with other Maglis, instead of being relegated to the archconservative corner of the shoe salon.
Few top-to-bottom outfits are on display. The stores seems to get it--people don’t shop that way anymore.
California designers Harriet Selwyn and Peter Cohen are listed on the fifth-floor directory. They’re in good company, with Jean Muir of London, Antonio Fusco of Milan and Calvin Klein.
NEXT: The collections of Todd Oldham, Ralph Lauren, Anna Sui and Geoffrey Beene.
