Fashion 88 : Milan Hems and Haws Over Skirt Lengths
MILAN, Italy — Frustration is surfacing here as retailers end the first leg of their fall fashion buying spree, headed next for London, Paris and the homestretch in New York. For public consumption, the retailers’ message reads: “All is well. We’ll offer a little bit of everything to customers back home.” But privately they admit some distress at the lack of direction evidenced so far in collections here.
Hemlines shown this week, if charted on paper, would look like the cardiograph of a heart in spasm--way up, then way down, then a flat line to perhaps indicate the extinction of the skirt completely in favor of pants.
At the Genny show on Thursday morning, for example, designer Gianni Versace showed almost nothing but pants for daytime: wide pants, skinny pants and form-fitting pants that ended just below the kneecap, Gainsborough-style.
Only about seven daytime dresses appeared, all above the knee. For evening, not one but three lengths of similar, princess-style bouffant black taffeta dresses: just above the knee, just below the knee and ballerina length.
The night before, however, designer Giorgio Armani showed lots of skirted daytime outfits, all but two of which hit just above the knee. Earlier that day, Luciano Soprani for Basile showed Dr. Zhivago skirt lengths that swept the ankle, along with some handsome knitwear that touched the knee or just above.
Muriel Grateau’s look for Complice was delightfully young. It featured narrow-bodice dresses that fit closely to the hips, where they arched out into very short bell-shaped skirts that ended well above the knee. Her pants with high-bib bodices fit as closely as those worn by mimes. Some were topped by very short, very fitted jackets. Grateau’s theme carried this season’s red color scheme to the limit. In addition to some adorable, red minidresses like the one worn in Roman Polanski’s “Frantic,” it extended to red shoes and red stockings worn with everything, and even some red gamine-cut wigs on some models.
Laura Biagiotti’s cashmeres were exceptionally pretty in leggings with matching sweaters and long or short skirts with oversize cardigans, some of which reverse from moss to grape.
Callaghan, designed by Romeo Gigli, showed the season’s requisite narrow-shouldered, closely fitted tops above slender pants, some with shawls wrapped like miniskirts around the hips. Colors were rich earth and spice tones. Missoni’s knits, some in lush, Turkish-rug patterns, ran the gamut from short to long, many topped by long coats.
Armani’s collection was hailed by store executives as one of his most beautiful ever. His skirts had divided legs or were side-draped. They were topped by new-looking jackets, some of which had origami-like folds of fabric down the front. His pant suits were generously cut, almost slouchy, allowing for grace of movement. Colors were subtle shades of sand, brown and gray.
‘Courageous’--but Jury Is Out
But more than just beautiful, Armani’s collection was considered by some to be a bold move toward fashion sanity. Eva Muttenthaler, buyer for Macy’s Shop on Union Square in San Francisco, called the designer “courageous, because he confirmed the shorter skirt for fall.”
He certainly did. But early word filtering in from Paris has Karl Lagerfeld and other important French designers lowering hemlines to below the knee. Women’s Wear Daily, the “must read” of America’s fashion industry, is also talking longer skirts for fall. And reports from those who have recently shopped New York showrooms assert that designers there are waiting to see what happens in Paris before finalizing their collections for fall.
Sal Ruggiero, fashion director of Marshall Field’s in Chicago, says his stores will “carry longer lengths wherever they look right. By and large, though, we are into skirts at around the knee. Long skirts will be really long, and pants will be a big factor.”
Although the immediate future seems murky to some retailers, it’s a good bet that U.S. women will be the winners at the end of the line. They’ll apparently have a lot more options to choose from for fall--and so far most of the options look good.
