Femininity reigned on Milan and Paris runways

Fashion industry bids farewell to Gucci Group's Tom Ford, Celine's Michael Kors and Givenchy's Julien McDonald

As another season drew to a close in Paris and Milan, never had the fashion industry been left with so many intriguing questions waiting for answers.
What will Tom - and his Sundance Kid, Domenico De Sole - do when they officially leave Gucci Group at the end of April? Can fashion survive without them? Who will take over designing for Yves Saint Laurent and Gucci? And will fashion's brightest star, Alexander McQueen, stay with the group?
Over at LVMH there are questions over Givenchy and Celine. The exit of the British designer Julien McDonald from Givenchy is not official but industry insiders consider it a done deal. No successor has been announced at Celine, even though the American Michael Kors has now done his last show.
The season yielded another batch of very strong collections. All of them reflected the mood of empowered femininity, with barely a pair of pants in sight, although knickerbockers have started to look surprisingly appealing, especially in bright pink velvet at Christian Lacroix.
At Louis Vuitton, Marc Jacobs sent out what looked like an ode to Vivienne Westwood in plaid with 19th century accents like ermine capelets and mini-bustle skirts. The quirkiness was offset by more conventional coats and dresses, enlivened by sequined borders and ruffled hems.
In another fine collection for Lanvin, Alber Elbaz developed his theme of the ultra-light silk dress, with the clever use of integral capes that unfolded into glamorous trains.
Soft silk dresses in appealing green and cocoa browns were also a big hit at Chloe, balanced by the key new jacket shape with a swing back and wide sleeves.
Collette Dinnigan served up one of her strongest collections yet, staying true to her signature style of curvaceous lace and rich adornment, with edgier runway styling and the use of cream and white lace and panne velvet.
At John Galliano's signature collection the theme of movement was Nomadic as models were a mixed of bag lady homeless chic, and Eastern European gypsy. They wore thick duvets pinned to their hips, cutlery and Coke cans in their massive wigs with babushkas and fedoras piled high.
The Kenzo collection, with big patchwork skirts, chunky cardigans, shrunken blazers and oversized bags also used a Nomadic "Exodus" theme, with slightly less enthusiasm than Galliano. The runways were boardwalks at Kenzo and a long paved asphalt highway at Chanel.
Gaultier presented stiff leather bustiers constructed like saddles, crocodile stamped leather skirts with uneven rough hemlines, dyed pony skin shirts, jodhpur skirts and odd leather halters used on the head to secure Hermès scarves, all of which may seem a little outré for the traditional Hermès customer.
Valentino played up references to the divine decadence of Marlene Dietrich in her Blue Angel era. That inspiration was best expressed by the black chiffon evening dresses that closed the show: slim columns, their simplicity complemented by a draped bodice or a back or front sliced to reveal an embroidered or satin bra.
While the designer showed mostly black for evening (and put on the runway only one of his trademark red dresses, a taffeta number appliquéd with flowers) there were welcome flashes of colour in his daywear: a reed-thin mauve silk charmeuse dress, a pale pink organza shirt worn with a floor-length ruffled skirt.
Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana showed their D&G line in a faux vintage store. For fall, the D&G racks will be full of excellent rummage finds, starting with Victorian taffeta jackets and moving on through velvet Poiret-esque coats, thirties tea dresses, tweedy Joan Crawford tailoring, Chanel-esque plaids, Courrèges go-go boots, Loris Azzaro gowns, and even a slithery homage to Versace chain mail.
Giorgio Armani drew a long, supple silhouette with dresses, coats, and jackets that were cut close to the body and gently fluted toward the hem. Standouts included laser-cut and printed velvet pieces, scalloped-edge lace jackets, beaded halter dresses, and crystal-encrusted evening jackets crafted as softly as blouses.
Miuccia Prada took woman into new realms of intellectual exploration on the print front: back to the future, in fact. The cyber fantasy came in computer-generated prints on her signature big, puffy skirts and the odd quirky robot appliqué on gray T-shirts. Yet none of that seemed jarringly obtrusive in a collection that concentrated again on the in-and-out silhouette she established last season. For colder months, she's added more layers, adding in dip-dyed cable knits and buttonless cardigans betwixt tweeds and bejeweled fifties-style couture-like pieces.

Publication Date: 2004-03-21
Story Location: http://tandemnews.com/viewstory.php?storyid=3765