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The distinctively American style has emerged only in the past few years. Its spirit is free and frisky, its emphasis on casual comfort. Rejecting the rigid formalism of European haute couture, American designers rediscovered the body. They started making versatile, flexible attire that can carry a woman through the day and past the evening. The ready-to-wear lines are virtually ageless and classless, and are within the reach of most women. A trendy suit from a top designer can cost less than $200; T shirts, from $10 to $20; an eye-catching swimsuit goes for $25 to $60. Women can pay far more, of course. But the quality and durable panache of today's off-the-peg clothes make them a sound investment at almost any price.
Fashion Doyenne Diana Vreeland, who reigned at Harper's Bazaar and then Vogue for more than three decades and has always favored European designers, concedes that the men and women on Seventh Avenue today "have a great fastidiousness, simplicity, and everyday elegance that is wonderful and very American. For the first time, American designers' ready-to-wear clothes are a perfect turnout." The winning look is based on the almost all-encompassing range of clothes that are misleadingly labeled "sportswear." In fact, the designation covers about 80% of the clothes women wear.
"These clothes work for people as uniforms do for certain sports," Designer Geoffrey Beene maintains, adding wryly: "To survive today is a sport of sorts." Beene has the impression that people the world over are working harder than ever before. Says he:
"Clothes today must fit into this supersonic pace of living. It's an economic reality. The indulgence is over." American chic is the country cousin who came to the city, the drop-in guest who stayed for a candlelight dinner. It has drifted in from the gold mines and cattle ranges of the Old West, from the wharves, barracks and boiler rooms of today, carrying a look as cleanly functional as sled or scythe. It is fluid, soft, supple, slithery, sexy and unstuffy. Says Consuelo Crespi, editor of Italian Vogue:
"It's the effortless look, the throwaway chic that the Americans do so well. They can give a dinner party for eight, be up early next morning on the tennis court, and still look fresh the next day." The great and relatively recent accomplishment of American fashion has been to take dictatorship away from the designer.
Acquiring separate items that can be mixed and matched, dressed down or up, the American woman can create her own look for all hours and occasions (see box). American women will no longer accept the abrupt style changes that characterized fashion until the great midi debacle of 1970.
Appealing as they are, ready-made clothes from the U.S. have yet to offer a serious challenge to the great European collections. Marc Bohan, 49, who for 15 years has kept the Paris house of Dior in the forefront of world fashion, has high praise for what he calls the Americans' "relaxed, sportive way of putting clothes together." However, like other Continental designers, he maintains that most innovations still come from Europe. Says he: "American designers work on ideas rather than invent them."