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12 The Global Edition of The New York Times
Saturday-Sunday, October 4-5, 2008
Chanel’s trip home;
chic severity at YSL
From Page 11
away overalls.
‘‘I loved the sleeves,’’ said the model-
turned-movie star Milla Jovovich,
while Zoë Kravitz twirled for the pho-
tographers in a strapless tweed dress,
which proved that classic does not have
to mean grown up and dull.
The show was spelled out in black
and white, with the same soft pink on
the models’ pretty makeup tinting the
clothes. This worked better at night
than for day, where the sparkling pink
top and skirt of the opening outfit
looked like something designed for a
political wife — except she would not
have chosen the weird hose with a deep
band of black at the knees, nor to
wobble on awkward Lucite shoes.
The suits were classic, but not stern,
especially when tweeds were given a
sparkle with Lurex weave, a trick La-
gerfeld has often used. But as the show
moved along, there was something
sweet, elegant and real about the
clothes on offer.
Lagerfeld made a smart move in
bringing Chanel back to its luxurious
‘‘basics.’’ It felt right not to be straining
too hard to be cool and to offer women
— not to mention panicked retailers —
a safe fashion haven.
YSL: Chic severity
At Yves Saint Laurent, the designer
Stefano Pilati pushed, pulled and
tugged at the house’s references and
manipulated his own architectural
spirit to give a modernist interpretation
of a power woman.
She was multicultural, with her ki-
mono jackets and bifurcal pants, drop-
ping low at the crotch. She was stream-
lined in a pale pantsuit with a curled
leaf of a collar. And she was surely com-
fortable to stride out in lattice boots
that gave the show a brisk energy.
But this YSL woman seems so com-
plex, even conflicted. Where Yves Saint
Laurent himself focused on ‘‘the silence
of clothing,’’ Pilati strains to under-
score the new. Some ideas worked well.
A teardrop pattern was both graphic
and carried a hint of the emotion that
was mostly hidden under the chic
severity. A flowing white satin gown
was a rare moment when a dress
stroked the silhouette, rather than
pushing the body to the fore, either
with flesh flashed around the middle or
when hefty bras were displayed
Will Facchinetti
leave Valentino?
From Page 11
on which he made no comment.
Sassi refused to discuss Facchinetti’s
future, saying that he first had to report
back to the company’s management
board. An interim collection is expec-
ted to be done by the in-house team.
If the designer is removed and ulti-
mately replaced, it could be damaging
for the image of the house that
Valentino Garavani himself left earlier
this year. It also would prove how diffi-
cult it seems to be for the owners of his-
toric and iconic fashion houses to
handle the departure of the designer
whose name is on the label.
Since Lagerfeld entered Chanel in
1983 and Galliano sent shock waves
through Dior in 1997, it has been axio-
matic that a house must find a super-
strong designer to pump in energy, cap-
ture press attention and rejuvenate the
bra nd.
Yet with so many venerable design-
through a thin veil of transparency —
or even through a sleek sequined dress.
Pilati has delivered so much that is
good for fashion. He has helped to erad-
icate the child woman in favor of a
grown-up look. He has been early to
create strong trends, including deep
belts and the divided-skirt style of
pants. Yet the pieces that worked like a
dream in the collection were the
simplest, like a coat sculpted out of the
lattice work seen on the shoes. Pilati in-
jected glowing colors among the neu-
trals, as in bright navy blue, green and a
sheath of ruby red sequins.
Of course, the buyers will decline
floppy, divided rompers in favor of
skirts and ask for split hem dresses to be
offered normally. Pilati made a strong
ers now reaching retirement age, it
would seem that respect for the brand,
rather than an abrupt switch, would be
the most desirable.
And that is what Facchinetti has
brought to Valentino, with her younger
silhouettes — this season based on the
cuffed-shorts suit — and with a light
touch, such as offering a fluid polka dot
dress or a safari jacket with a soft asym-
metric skirt.
Modernistic decoration included
twisted silken ropes at the neckline, a
pinwheel of embellishment on a chiffon
sweater and a single glove encrusted
with jewelry. Although fancy épaulettes
were a little too insistent, the decora-
tion was never loaded with opulence.
Considering that trouble has appar-
ently been simmering at Valentino
throughout the summer, Facchinetti
did a heroic job. The Valentino woman
had stepped down from her pedestal
onto a floor-level catwalk. Flat shoes
with evening gowns in off beat colors,
Fashion
HAIDER ACKERMANN
Photographs for Chris Moore/Karl Prouse
statement at YSL but the fine pieces will
look all the better for being simplified.
Ackermann: Stormy weather
‘‘Making something quite sensual —
I wanted to show more skin, but it has a
stormy feeling,’’ Haider Ackermann
said backstage. And those words
defined the wind-swept elegance and
purple and gray colorings of an excep-
tional show.
The designer succeeds in making
timeless clothes that are ancient in
their references to Grecian draping and
modernist in their use of metallic zip-
pers. As they spiraled around the body,
they revealed flesh, but only as the
wearer chose. This made a powerful
Giambattista Valli showed his Gamme Rouge collection for Moncler on Friday. The
installation was staged at the Romanian embassy in the Seventh Arrondissement.
but including Valentino red, increased
the feeling of freshness.
What the show lacked was runway
pizzazz, which might be considered a
positive rather than a negative, in the
difficult selling climate.
The awkward manner in which the
situation is being handled raises ques-
statement about the personal instincts
of a modern woman, rather than the
outmoded idea of designer dictates.
Ackermann can best be described as a
21st century romantic. He has a masterly
way of mixing tactile materials, from
sleek suede to an apparently knitted fab-
ric disintegrating like laddered hose. But
it is with his drapes that the designer ex-
celled, using thunderous pinks and
purples or brown with bronze to make
dresses that have a contemporary reson-
ance. Somehow, this fine designer has
stayed under the fashion radar, but it can
be only a matter of time before he is ac-
cepted as a burgeoning talent.
Suzy Menkes is fashion editor at the
International Herald Tribune.
tions as to who might be next. But the
rumor mill’s favorite, Giambattista
Valli, who showed his Gamme Rouge
collection for the Moncler brand
Thursday, issued a statement saying: ‘‘I
dissociate myself from the rumors
about any future projects with the
House of Valentino.’’
In the wings
By Jessica Michault
t has to be every fashion
I designer’s nightmare,
taking a bow at the end of
a show with the
knowledge that your
replacement already is waiting
in the wings. That was the
predicament for Ivana Omazic,
who has been the designer at
Celine for the past three years.
But the arrival of Phoebe Philo
next season didn’t push Omazic
into a change of direction or
style for her final show.
Once again, sportswear was
the name of the game. But this
time Omazic tried to
incorporate a little bit of the
tribal world into her active
wear. There were leather pants
embossed with oval shapes that
evoke the markings used to
adorn the skin in some native
cultures. A large metal
necklace that held up a floating
black top and one woven into a
draped indigo dress had faint
Masai influences. And most
striking were the Maori tattoo
prints that scrolled over the
shoulder on a sheer silk blouse
and dress.
So subtle were the ethic
touches that they didn’t
overshadow the collection. And
the designer should be praised
for her light touch. Her
strengths continue to be in her
print work, be they the wide-
brush-stroke outfits and the
degradé, or shaded, dresses at
the start of the show or the
more elaborate organic prints
towards the end.
It was a collection of
wearable pieces that had a
certain amount of impact but
nothing that would detract
from the woman wearing the
designs. And with tough
economic times ahead, is it
really such a slur to call this
collection commercial? CELIN E
Reptile rally
By Jessica Michault
he Guy Laroche show
T started out to be pretty staid.
Look, another black dress
with an asymmetrical top, a
fitted jacket over a flirty skirt, a
goddess draped dress.
But then things started to get
interesting.
It began with two looks in a
kaleidoscope black and white print on
a dress and then a cropped jacket and
matching pant. Next, a safe dove-gray
tunic jacket with a bit of beading on
the cuffs — but the model’s turn
revealed a back covered in silver swirls
of embroidery. Then came the fluid
navy blue outfits that got a bit of kick
with a reptile print.
It was at this point that the designer
Marcel Marongiu got into his groove.
By using cold-blooded creatures as
mascots for the second half of the show,
it gave the collection a direction and
focus that had been lacking. The
reptilian print came out again on a
group of green and brown pieces that
had an understated animal magnetism
compared with the more familiar feline
prints designers generally are drawn to.
But Marongiu took the idea further:
a dress in thick dark oval beads looked
like scales, and a floor-length gown
incorporated an alligator hide into the
design, attached at the shoulder and
then left to slither down the back.
Finally, that swirling embroidery
returned in a golden-hued jacket, skirt
and dress, but by revisiting the effect
after the appearance of the reptile
element in the collection, they
shimmered with a serpentine style. GUY LAROCHE