International Herald Tribune, France
Sept 23 2004

Hyping history: 18th century cool
Suzy Menkes IHT

As London’s spring/summer 2005 season draws to a close, a backward
glance has been the strong message.

That can mean inspiration from the past, making over vintage clothes
from every decade. And also from England’s beloved 18th century, with
its swooshes of succulent fabrics, pageboy breeches and portrait
necklines.

Historicism is often the essence of British fashion. Instead of a
starting with a blank sheet on which to draw the future, designers
turn for inspiration to the past. There was hardly a collection in
London’s Fashion Week that did not have references to existing
designs, especially in the many and striking prints.

Yet for every Vivienne Westwood – a designer who is able to take a
tongue-in-cheek look at England’s heritage – there are 10 others who
play the same game without any sense of irony.

As the model Linda Evangelista made her stately way down the catwalk
in a printed gown with vast sleeves and a circle of wood hanging on a
cord around her neck, it was possible to read a scenario into Giles
Deacon’s bold collection. Perhaps he had been around the furnishing
stores which carry swags of fabric printed with monkeys, patterned
with bumble bees or with Regency stripes apparently made with pinking
shears. What a waste to use them for stately home curtains! Surely
they could be coaxed in all their silken glory into dresses with puff
sleeves and skirts which flared out from waist or knees.

The “Giles” show, from a fledgling designer in his second season, was
big, bold and done with style. Its prints of owls, thistles, wood
grain and jewels seemed to the manor born. Yet for all its smart
pieces, such as a rainbow-striped chiffon dress hung from a circle
torque necklace, who will wear clothes that look like a cross between
Bette Davis in a silver screen movie and 1980s flash? Deacon has yet
to give his soaring imagination a reality check.

Julien MacDonald had his trademark audience of raucous celebrities; a
familiar showbiz buzz and mirrored silver runway. But now that he has
returned from Paris, the designer showed that he has brought back
from his role at Givenchy all the refinement and technique of
couture. His show was filled with calm and charm as sweet young
models stepped out in pretty dresses, whose full skirts or tiny, lacy
capped sleeves showed more fashion and less bared flesh.

“I got my knitting machine out again,” said MacDonald backstage and
his spidery crochet stitches on dresses or thistledown jackets showed
just why Karl Lagerfeld had originally picked the young British
designer out for Chanel and why Givenchy had appointed him. MacDonald
mixed high fashion with innocence: finely tailored shorts and tulle
dresses piped with icing sugar ruffles. Even straw baskets shaped as
fish or monkey showed a youthful refinement.

But MacDonald’s new-found elegance may not stay in London. He is
planning to take his show to another fashion capital, probably New
York.

“I have to grow my business,” he said. “And I have always loved
America and Hollywood.”

The duo behind Clements Ribeiro were also lured to Paris, by
Cacharel, but Suzanne Clements and Inacio Ribeiro have managed to
keep a spirit going in their eponymous British collection.

Paradoxically, their Indian inspiration could have done with a bit
more historical, geographical or ethnic references, rather than just
the Beatles in Maharishi mode on the soundtrack and a dream of a
British botanist roaming the subcontinent.

The inspiration was appealing as a fashionable mix of stripes and
florals that cut the sweetness of flower prints. Obi sashes at a
raised waistline made even caftan shapes seem fresh; and an
occasional cashmere sweater with wavy pattern was a reminder of
Clements Ribeiro’s original talent.

But it was with their accessories that the duo scored. From an
origami of butterflies clustering on a shoulder, through
barrel-shaped lepidopterist bags to the platform sandals slung with
pearls, this was a powerful new area of creativity.

Eley Kishimoto, known for imaginative prints, has extended the
company’s reach through a collaboration with the sports label Elesse.
And that influence showed in the collection from the Anglo-Japanese
design duo. The show opened with a coat slung over slouchy pants for
a sporty, boyish look that permeated the collection. At its best,
that spirit brought lively mixes of stripes and patterns, a distinct
London trend. The patterns included cameos of London buildings that
had a whimsical charm. But the designers did not quite have the
courage to let go their previous decorative style and ended the show
with paisley-meets-Pucci patterns, complete with swirling patterns on
hose and a sense of outfits drowned in print.

Another Japanese-English design combo is behind fledgling label
Swash, whose designers were picked out at the Hyères fashion festival
in France. Toshio Yamanaka said that the moment when he failed to put
the belt on his baggy jeans through the back loops was the
inspiration for the sagging posteriors in the cute collection. The
mix of bright, childish prints, draped tops and some abstract
deconstruction, gave depth to the recurring theme: the back stuff.
Jeans or dresses were scooped out at the rear, showing fitted shorts
underneath. It was a slight idea, but it worked.

Preen is an established label that has moved forward from its
underground image on the music scene. Significantly, the designer
Thornton Bregazzi had turned his back on the deconstructed and
unfinished pieces that once characterized hip labels and made instead
a sleek, forward-looking collection.

Showing in a stark, high-rise building in the heart of London’s
financial district, Preen proved that embellishment can be severely
modern. For ruffles, read flat folds tracing the backbone of a dress
or the rear of a skirt. Pleats were inset at an angle to decorate
tailored pants. For color, think of gray and white making a graphic
statement on soft jersey. Those ubiquitous florals were pallid
patterns, while a bolder print in tomato red was a Jackson
Pollock-style splatter. It all made for a fresh collection.

Who says that the 18th century can only be a Mozartian flutter of
frills and flowers? That period was the inspiration for Gardem, the
label of the Lebanese Armenian designer Garen Demerdjian, working out
of Paris. And his interpretation of pants as soft breeches, of a
corset as a loosened camisole and of a fancy sleeved doublet as a
washed cotton jacket was resolutely modern. Fashion may have seen
before reconstructed garments and patchworks of fabrics, but these
were deftly done in pale white and beige fabrics, decorated with
clusters of silver charms, re-interpreting Middle Eastern coin
decoration. These glancing references to the past but with an eye on
the future, made a promising collection.

Suzy Menkes is the fashion editor of the International Herald
Tribune.