A delectable pink skimmer. a sinuous little suit. A shiver of cocktail chiffon. An international parade of pretty clothes.
It may be the first time a major trend began on the obituary pages. Last year's fashion spreads offered up the usual chaos: butt-high skirts, little-girl looks, underwear as outerwear, fake furs, fake feathers, fake everything. But the death of Audrey Hepburn and Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis inspired exhilaratingly lovely retrospectives, in magazines and on television, that lasted for weeks. These women always managed to be both sexy and classy-at a grand ball, on horseback, impersonating royalty or playing First Lady to the chandeliers. They had the combination of vitality, faultless grooming and alluring clothes that add up to glamour.
Can it be that designers, sick of their own tasteless japes and worried about a retail market that has been sagging since 1992, have finally decided to take notice? The fall ready-to-wear shows that began in Milan in March and ended last week in New York City showed a dramatic shift in direction. In a fashion world that has seemed, in recent years, increasingly remote, self-involved and obsessed with stunts, it was a remarkable about-face. Call it a return to elegance, to wearability, to more realistic apparel with commercial appeal. Most designers, at last, seem willing to trade the cutting edge for the cash register.
The movement is broad-based and a genuine good-news story for both customers and the industry. At the rich and influential house of Chanel, designer Karl Lagerfeld talks of a "new tendency for beauty to combat ugliness." New York designer Isaac Mizrahi observes: "People are in a kind of sobering position. In the '80s it was so incredibly over the top. Now it's about how can we express ourselves and still maintain a certain amount of dignity." Michael Kors, who presented a sleek, sophisticated collection in New York City last week, expresses the fashion industry's new sensitivity to the marketplace: "The plain fact is that it doesn't matter how great it looks on Helena Christiansen. If no one buys what I'm designing, then I really didn't do my job."
Retailers have been waiting to hear this for years. Says Joan Kaner, fashion director of Neiman Marcus, the upscale American department-store chain: "We have been complaining bitterly for the past few seasons that there aren't enough clothes for women to wear. Now there's a return to quality and beautiful fabrics." Says Nicole Fischelis, fashion director of Saks Fifth Avenue: "We are seeing a return to elegance, and it is unquestionably commercial."