Armani's strength is consolidated, his influence lasting. The fashion world pays homage, genuflects and, like a child peeking out from behind prayers, starts casing the sanctuary for a little diversion. Some are suggesting that the next big fashion push will come from Japan. Others—like Kal Ruttenstein, fashion director of Bloomingdale's, who wears "only Armani," and Daniel Hechter, Europe's top-selling men's sportswear designer—believe that the U.S. will come to the ascendancy. If they are right, here are a couple of kings and two comers who will be riding the crest of the wave:
RALPH LAUREN. Tom Wolfe once derided Lauren's "Savile Pseud suits," and backpacking types have been known to mutter about the imposed funk of his Western look. But no one has so codified American traditionalism, or mined it quite so profitably, as Ralph Lauren. His Polo (for men) and Ralph Lauren (for women) labels, with their assorted subsidiaries, sidelines and licenses, pulled in more than $700 million last year. His logo of a mallet-wielding polo player has galloped across everything from ties to dresses, saddle blankets to note pads, and is well on the way to giving the Lacoste alligator a smart konk on the noggin.
Lauren, like Armani, began as a designer of men's wear, and both started cutting from the same English bias. The man from Milan worked his unstructured radicalization; Lauren stayed as close as possible to tradition, re-establishing and rejustifying it. His clothes, at first, were deliberately evocative of the 1920s and made their way— in a fashion that would both help and haunt him—into the 1974 film The Great Gatsby. More recently, Lauren has looked west for inspiration. His "prairie look" last fall for women, with the hem of a petticoat peeking out from under a skirt worn with a Navajo colored sweater, was fresh, simple and somewhat startling. It was also a smash, and will be repeated, with modifications, this fall.
The popular success of Chariots of Fire and Brideshead Revisited have, meanwhile, provided impetus for Lauren, 42, to turn back to his beginnings. Many of this fall's clothes for men and women will feature a British accent, with lots of strict tailoring: heathery tweeds for men, an elongated Norfolk jacket for women worn with a contrasting tweed skirt. Fabrics immaculate, tailoring impeccable: the best off-the-rack American stuff that comes to hand. Wearing Ralph Lauren is not exactly like falling into Jay Gatsby's closet; it is more like joining one of John O'Hara's country clubs.
PERRY ELLIS. If Armani rewrote the fashion book, Perry Ellis took a very close look at his opening chapter. "If we want to be honest," Armani says, "it is not only Perry Ellis but Calvin Klein who has gotten inspiration from my things. But I'd say that, perhaps, Calvin Klein is more of a stylist who can transform a good idea into a commercial success. Perry Ellis is more courageous. He produces a fashion more genuinely his."