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An early, startling sign of things to come appeared in January at Gianni Versace's couture show in Milan. Versace is more Vegas than Milan, a man who in the past has gloried in vulgarity and pagan displays of naked flesh. But down his catwalk came purring beauties in simple, classic clothes-smart little suits and dresses that Jackie or Audrey, Grace Kelly or Babe Paley would have been delighted to wear. And that is just what he intended. "Fashion is once again finding the right equilibrium," says Versace. "When I was working, I thought of both Hepburn and Kelly." Versace pursued the new look in his ready-to-wear collection a month later, with flattering and practical costumes that featured a real innovation: color. Like dozens of his fellow designers, Versace favored red and its cousins, pink and fuchsia. Even more surprising, there were plenty of pastels for cold weather.
Last week's New York collections underscored the trend. Because Seventh Avenue specializes in sportswear, the theme was expressed less dramatically, but it was evident nonetheless. Calvin Klein was true to form with a spare, functional show, mostly in those old standby tones: black, brown and white. Geoffrey Beene offered long wool dresses and satin evening frocks-all comfortable silhouettes.
As heartening as fashion's return to elegance is, it will call for a lot of rethinking on the part of consumers, and even a little discipline. "The young generation has been educated to dress in a wild, free way," observes Gianfranco Ferra, the maestro of Dior. Hemlines, for example, seem to have settled in at knee length. That may be welcome for women frustrated with trying to follow the fashion vagaries of the past few years. But knee-length skirts look best with stiletto heels-and few women born since the late '60s have ever worn them. On the runways this spring, even experienced models were teetering perilously, cantilevered over very slender columns.
The dizzyingly high heels are probably an example of catwalk theatrics, but the skirt length makes its own kind of social sense. Marc Audibet, who designs for Prada and Hermes and was an early exponent of the to-the-knee look, argues, "It is the only length that can be accepted in a feminist epoch. A long length isn't practical, and a miniskirt won't work because of today's sexual wars. This skirt length is the only one that could be really new." Prada, originally an Italian leather-goods firm, is perhaps the hottest designer line of all, quadrupling its business in three years by re-creating the Jackie look at its coolest.
The current direction, inspired by the '50s and early '60s, is in some ways a reaction against fashion that had become so extreme that it had reached the vanishing point. Skirts-or shorts-could get no shorter, boots no heavier or more aggressive. The entire apparatus of underwear had been exposed. Behind this facade was a highly artificial notion of femininity: butch, heavily lacquered, with lurid makeup and hennaed hair. At its best-when virtuosos like Jean-Paul Gaultier, Karl Lagerfeld or Vivienne Westwood were camping it up flagrantly-it had rare wit; but the idea has been consumed in its own fire.