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10 International Herald Tribune
Thursday, Februar y 21, 2008
The choice: Life or theater?
From Page 9
spreading skirt.
‘‘I was thinking of a young Elizabeth
Taylor or Natalie Wood,’’ Cavalli said,
referring to a glamour bombshell of a
dress in layers of black lace or to the
opening ode to springtime. Even if it is
supposed to be a winter season, you
could almost smell the roses, violets
and mimosa blooming on dresses (and
pretty shoes) that suggested the New
Look of Christian Dior.
But Cavalli is too smart to get mired
in history and as the colors deepened to
a stained-glass richness, other elements
came into play. There were dresses,
straight and intensely colored or with
stenciled flowers, all suggesting a coun-
try freshness. Interspersed were black
and white dresses, as if taken from an
old movie, and pencil-thin mannish
tailoring to contrast with the romantic
rest. For an orgy of gorgeousness, the
designer then turned to a combination
6267
Patrice Stable
Thierry Mugler, 1997-1998.
of fur and flowers with his signature an-
imal prints.
Cavalli is a romantic and he even
closed his show with full-skirted de-
butante dance dresses topped by tiaras.
But he only has one eye on the stage —
or is it that coming Oscars red carpet?
The designers in Milan seem to be ex-
ploring the same areas: new long, slim
volumes to counteract puffy shapes; the
allure of black and white; and the mas-
culine/feminine dichotomy.
The duo behind 6267 — Tommaso
Aquilano and Roberto Rimondi — did
all that with skill and some dash, when a
graphic print of upturned triangles
broke up a long, lean dress, its waist
raised and perhaps its shoulders exten-
ded to create a modern silhouette. The
same effect, always played out in black
and white, had a diamond pattern across
a suit with snug jacket and wide skirt.
When the designers were not break-
ing up the surface with patterns, they
turned to decoration, creating tactile ef-
ANTONIO MARR AS
Superheroes — Fashion and fantasy
uperman took center stage and
S alongside the iconic comic book
figure himself was a spidery dress
designed by Giorgio Armani in 1990.
‘‘Superheroes: Fashion and Fantasy’’
is the title of an exhibition opening at
New York’s Metropolitan Museum of
Art in May. And in Milan on Wednes-
day, Harold Koda, curator of the mu-
seum’s Costume Institute, gave a fore-
taste of the influence of the legendary
American figures on fashion.
He described the Incredible Hulk, as
Fashion
fects, dense with ruffles, dark embroid-
ery or feathers. The 6267 label is not in-
venting a whole new concept for Italian
fashion, but it offers a fresh take from a
new generation.
An Antonio Marras collection al-
ways has a surprise in store. But long
before the love birds were entwined
over the runway, the show had unfolded
its quirky romance. The male/female
thing was emphasized in silhouette and
in decoration.
But by padding his tailoring to create
rounded shapes, or by mixing a tailored
jacket with a tulle skirt, the designer
avoided the clichés of androgynous
dressing. Marras favored appliqué dec-
oration but there also were pin-striped
cloth and fresh, white, pleated cotton
shirts. Like all good designers, he
caught the right balance between the
theater and real life.
Suzy Menkes is fashion editor at the
International Herald Tribune.
envisioned by the Belgian designer
Walter Van Beirendonck, as a garment
that inflates phallically in various
places. On the theater rostrum was a
Superman garment from the Antwerp
designer Bernhard Willhelm, although
that royal-blue fringed dress, em-
blazoned with the ‘‘S’’ symbol, looked
more like a hero-worshipping child’s
party costume and not nearly as im-
pressive as the real deal projected on
the backdrop.
Those designers who have absorbed
Coats dominate
at Daks
iles Deacon sent out his third show for the English
G heritage house Da ks on a runway lined in slate. One
thing missing was all reference to the company’s
history as a brand for the horse and hound set, except for a
solitary checked jacket or scarves tied at the neck. Instead
this was a collection filled with buttery leather pieces, from
long coats to loosely pleated circle skirts and cropped
jackets in practical colors of black, navy, olive and terra
cotta.
The coats dominated the show, long and lean leather ones
and boxy ones with balloon sleeves in nubby wool. Deacon
channeled his edgy British style into the clothing’s
adornments. Prickly rosettes on a sleeveless top, jagged
shards of leather across a jacket’s shoulders or beautiful
tiers of cool, differently colored chiffon on a slip dress that
trailed out to one side in a floating handkerchief hem were
all outlets for his creativity.
There also was a bit of well-executed sportswear in the
show, most strikingly a black and orange quilted jacket on
the model Agyness Deyn that should serve Deacon well at
his new job designing the young and sporty brand Fay.
— Jessica Michault
POLLIN I
Photographs by Chris Moore/Karl Prouse
Ozbek focuses
on shimmer
ooking at the Pollin i show Tuesday, memories of
L prepping for college entry examinations came to
mind: Rifat Ozbek is to prints what Christian Lacroix
is to color. Effortlessly, the designer seems to bend to his
will even the most over-the-top, and generally ethnic,
prints, taming them in a way that is palatable for general
consumption without extinguishing their inner fire.
His autumn/winter collection was no exception. The
ethnic feel of this shimmering show, full of rich autumn
colors and gleaming fabrics (even the models’ eyes were
covered in glitter), flowed beyond the prints to the cut of the
clothes. Kimono jackets and obi belts showed up on the
runway, along with a dark-brown leather jacket whose
cracked surface resembled a dry African watering hole.
Just when the cumulative effect of the prints might have
overwhelmed, Ozbek sent out a sleek and simple gray high-
necked and long-sleeved top with matching pants; the outfit’s
only adornment was a bold necklace by Erickson Beamon.
From the first look of a stunning straight coat in a crazy-
maze pattern that was trimmed in fur dyed in autumnal
colors and belted with a contrasting russet leather obi to the
final exit of a sleeveless top covered in curling waves of
sequins paired with full pants, the collection did not take
one high-heeled misstep. — Jessica Michault DA KS
the culture into high fashion include ors to have a large roster of exhibitions.
Thierry Mugler, John Galliano at Dior
and Gareth Pugh, whose gothic geo-
metric-winged creation from 2007
The display will be created by Nathan
Crowley, the institute’s creative consul-
tant and the production designer of the
looked suitably menacing. new Batman movie, ‘‘The Dark Knight.’’
Koda thanked Anna Wintour, editor Armani, who said that the ‘‘Super-
in chief of American Vogue, for her 10- hero’’ subject particularly appealed to
year tenure as mover and shaker behind him, will be joined at the gala by
the Met’s gala evening, which takes George Clooney, no one’s idea of a
place this year on May 5. The participa- comic book character, but a staunch
tion of Condé Nast apparently helps to Armani customer and a Hollywood
raise funds beyond the dreams of most name to pull in the supporters.
fashion institutes and enables the curat- — Suzy Menkes Dolce & Gabbana 2007