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International Herald Tribune

12 Saturday-Sunday, March 5-6, 2005 FASHION

Edgy romance from avant garde

GIAMBATTISTA VALLI

ANN DEMEULEMEESTER
CACHAR EL
By Suzy Menkes
By Jessica Michault
new star scintillated on the flagstone runway on

A Friday as Haider Ackermann emerged as an impor-

tant avant-garde designer. With Laurie Anderson’s
hyper-cool existential ballads on the soundtrack,
Ackermann played with volume, sheen and decoration — all
the strengths of current style. But his collection, mixing skin-
tight synthetic pants with rich brocade and lace, created a fu-
turistic romance.
The Belgian-trained designer with a multicultural back-
ground, said that he had been inspired ‘‘by the Taliban and
everything that is happening in the world.’’ Perhaps that was
the message of coverup dresses voluminous in their sharp
pleats. But Ackermann’s strength was in his concept of new
millennium sportswear: the stretch pants with cargo pockets
and a full-sleeved blouse with upper arm smocking. That
smock detail appeared at the hips of a perfectly tailored coat,
while regular pants were shaped with a wrap waist and pinch
pleats at the thigh. Mixing a gray flannel cape with ostrich-
trimmed suede shorts and making a pouched safari jacket in
gilded lace seemed a modern approach and made the familiar
exceptiona l.
Ann Demeuelmeester is a fixture of Antwerp’s avant garde,
but her shows have become increasingly poetic as the gloomy,
introverted spirit that once accompanied her all black clothes
has emerged in an embellished and lighter version. Nature
SONIA RYKIEL
HAIDER ACKERMANN
IPhotos by Christopher Moore/Andrew Thomas
helped her new vision as a flurry of snowflakes floating
through a leaking glass roof landed on white feathery bibs
and snowy bobble necklaces. But this Demeulemeester col-
lection had more than the weather (give or take subzero tem-
peratures) on its side. The designer absorbs what is happen-
ing in fashion without letting go of her layered looks,
grounded in pants and boots to give women a strong but fra-
gile look. Standout pieces were the cream dresses caught up
in artful folds shown with fitted jackets. But the focus of at-
tention was the embellishment of mohair and fur scarves,
twisted with Rapunzel braids of fabric and jet beads to create
the season’s spirit of edgy romance.
T
he Cacharel woman got an around the
world ticket to shop as the design duo Su-
zanne Clements and Inacio Ribeiro
showed an eclectic assortment of iconic pieces
from far and wide. A tartan coat picked up in
Scotland, a red checked cowboy shirt from a
trip out West, or gaucho pants tricked out with a
tuxedo strip from a visit to Chile, all made it
onto the runway. Pleated petticoats that peeked
out from under skirts and three-quarter jackets
gave the clothes a youthful charm, as did the
multicolored pompom-ball trim on scarves and
colla rs.
Eveningwear consisted of long dresses with
Peruvian-inspired embroidery at the neck that
looked fresh and wholesome. This, paired with
fringed boots and black stockings dappled with
flowers, made the clothes a smorgasbord of pat-
tern and color.
While strong Ikat prints and flower motif
dresses were broken up by flower appliqué belts
and strips of black, this was a collection that ar-
gued the case for not wearing one label from
head to toe.

Continued from Page 11 ping for her upcoming wedding to

not least on men, whose lime green em-

bellished sneakers were eye-popping.
As at Chanel, menswear was inter-
spersed, and it seemed to have ener-
gized Lacroix into making his women’s
clothes more boyish. Tailored shorts
competed with short straight skirts,
and they were a sobering element
among the curvy fur-trimmed jackets
with puff sleeves, the glittering choker
necklaces and the exceptional pieces of
handwork, such as a coat with em-
broidered motifs.
This fresh daywear and the models’
loose hair blew the collection from
salon towards the street — even if pink
shoes with high pimento-red heels
seemed less practical than the roomy
houndstooth bags. The evening clothes
included predictable but beautifully
executed dresses, perhaps in turquoise
under a green suede coat or with pink
drapes and often with a colored velvet
Chanel rings the tills; Lacroix turns the page
bow at the waist. Pattern — even in-
cluding a fur scarf — was artistic, but
under control. The bright velvet men’s
suits might have crossed the gender di-
vide to add another element, but with
this show Lacroix proved that he could
take the light spirit of the January cou-
ture show and translate it into ready-
to-wear. Falic said that it will be full
steam ahead to serve Lacroix licenses,
expand the brand in America and open
boutiques, with the first in Las Vegas
this year.
Hussein Chalayan’s collections seem
increasingly crisp and couture in spirit.
Even the venue was a gilded mansion in
which the designer created a concave
silver runway. The concept was so
dense that it was difficult to grasp.
Backstage, Chalayan talked about a ‘‘re-
lationship between sound and form’’
and how he had started his collection
from sound frequencies, taking the per-
sonal DNAs of sonic experts and see-
ing how ‘‘each reacted differently to the
environ ment.’’
So that translated as bafflingly com-
plex clothes that were conceptual
rather than wearable — right? The op-
posite was true. Chalayan sent out one
of his most polished and approachable
collections, with glancing reference to
his own 10-year oeuvre — inspired by
his preparation for an exhibition at the
Netherlands’ Groninger Museum in
Apri l.
The coats that opened the show, after
a sound of wind had ceased sighing,
were tailored, tweedy, fitted to the body
with curving lines. There was just a
touch of invention in volume at the col-
lar, a flying panel at the back or the in-
sertion of V-shaped seaming. Chalay-
an’s look was no longer austere but
sensual, with a bodice of a dress sliced
to reveal an insert of lace. As a band
drummed away, fringed dresses in exot-
ic bird shades of brown, rust and king-
fisher blue, perhaps with beads attached
to the front, all suggested an African in-
fluence. But Chalayan insisted that all
the carpet patterns and the pieces
sculpted out of shag pile carpet to cre-
ate a head-rest of a collar were products
of the sound-and-form studies.
It will be music to the ears of retail-
ers. But the show was also an impor-
tant cultural step for Chalayan, who
has completed a decade of invention by
proving that absolute creativity can
function as fashion.
If you are a young Italian actress, all
lips and legs, does Giambattista Valli
have the wardrobe for you! It is off to
the awards ceremonies in a belted coat
with a flirty swing at the back or in a
black military jacket with cropped
pants and a bright bag swinging from
the finger tips. In capacious luggage
there should be room for all the cute
pieces: sweaters smothered with velvet
bows at the shoulder; puff-ball cocktail
dresses with hem swinging high at the
front; and a sex bomb of a ruched scar-
let gown with a red fur bolero.
In his first solo collection since leav-
ing Ungaro, Valli tapped into the cou-
ture spirit, with a stab at early Yves
Saint Laurent in feathered and pouf
dresses. Dita Von Teese, no doubt shop-
Marilyn Manson, embraced Valli on
the runway. With Italian manufacture
behind him, he has some chance of
building a client base of bellissima
young things.
‘‘Belle in Rykiel’’ was the slogan of
the season — and if anyone can make a
dark romance out of black clothes it is
Sonia Rykiel. Lean coats and elongated
cardigans, the wrists smothered in
woolly roses, created a moody opening
passage, where only scarlet shoes or a
sparkling belt stood out in the gloom.
As colors emerged, it was still with a
touch of romance, with floppy pink and
purple bows on sweater shoulders. The
1970s silhouette of high-waisted dress
brought the Rykiel silhouette close to
the body, although big volume ap-
peared on colorful ruffled skirts that
ended the show on an upbeat note.
Suzy Menkes is the fashion editor of
the International Herald Tribune.

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