A Flash of Leg Is Not a Flash in the Pan
If there are any women left who are still hesitant about shortening their skirts, listen to the prophecy of designer Bob Mackie: “I would say short skirts are going to last for a few years. Five years, conservatively speaking. Too many people jumped on it all at once to be a flash in the pan.”
Mackie goes on: “I’ve been through these things before. I remember doing shoulder pads 10 years ago and saying, ‘Next year if these go out, we can take them out and I can take in the shoulders.’ Well, shoulders just got bigger and bigger. When short skirts came in during the ‘60s, they lasted 10 years.”
Mackie has always been a believer in short for evening, even when nobody else was. “A few years ago, I couldn’t give away a short evening gown,” except to Carol Burnett, who sometimes ended up buying his samples. “For years she always wore short evening gowns,” he says. “She has great legs.”
This season, all of his daytime clothes have been cut just below the knee or shorter. But for evening, Mackie is showing more long than short. (He sums up his nighttime look with the question posed to a customer at Neiman-Marcus: “You want puffy or you want slinky?” He has both.)
Most women “aren’t ready” to bare their shins, much less their knees, at night, he concedes. “They’re nervous.” For spring, however, half of Mackie’s evening collection will be short. Presumably, women will be ready by then.
Except for the new Ollie North haircut, Bob Mackie has changed little since he lighted on Seventh Avenue five years ago, forsaking his Hollywood costume-design business to design for the stars of society, or anyone else who can afford price tags hovering around $10,000 for his most ornate beaded or fur-trimmed conceptions. (Prices start at $800 for the simpler designs.)
“In five years I found out what women are looking for and what their needs are. At first I did strange clothes that had nowhere to go,” he admits. Still, he has found there is a large demand for opulent showpieces. “For certain events, women like to feel that they might turn a few heads,” Mackie says.
Pepito Albert was anointed last month as the West Coast’s 1987 “Rising Star” in a vote by retailers and fashion editors sponsored by the California Mart. And that makes at least one person very happy: his father.
The 25-year-old Albert, a recent graduate of Los Angeles’ Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising, has just started his own ready-to-wear company backed by his father, a retired Philippine businessman living in Manila.
“When I won the award, he was very pleased. He said now he doesn’t have to worry about where he’s putting his money,” said Albert, who will be selling clothes under his own name starting next season. Zelle, a company Albert formed with another partner, fell through a few months ago. “My partner was in television and he decided he wanted to go back to that. I said, ‘OK. I’ll go on my own.’ ”
In his premiere spring collection, the long-haired (to mid-back) designer uses white cotton pique and organdy, both fabrics that can be worked into strict shapes. “My main focal point is silhouette, so that from afar you can see what kind of dress it is.”
After attending a summer course at the Paris Fashion Institute in 1982, Albert became influenced by Thierry Mugler, “the most interesting French designer I can think of,” he said. “I love his detailing and I use some of his ideas, top stitching, the use of pockets and zippers.”
The highlights of Albert’s 50-piece collection are a short halter dress with a hemline that rises in the back and is worn over bicycle pants, a voluminous swing jacket coupled with stirrup pants and a micro-miniskirt--only 16 inches of fabric--shown under a long, shaped jacket. “I wanted to do a 14-inch skirt,” Albert said, “but I don’t know if I can get away with it.”
