Word: armanied
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...directional." All these concepts are greatly honored in the world of fashion, even when they may not be recognized. Show clothes that are funny, disrespectful and touched by madness, as Vivienne West wood did, and you risk not being taken seriously. But show without a show, as Giorgio Armani did with his mannequins and video, and you JE risk being taken no way at all. You may default on your lifetime role in that seasonal display of glamour, giddiness and social scrambling that travels from country to country like a medicine show offering cures for which there are no known...
...Channing's cheek at opening-night curtain call, this sort of thing happens with regularity in the theater of fashion. After the show, fans review the designers with the kind of blurbs that usually run in block letters in movie ads. Lagerfeld was tops, Ferre was a knockout, Armani's still the master, Montana was wild, Mugler was a kick, Saint Laurent is still the high priest, and what about these Japanese, anyway? America tends to a greater uniformity of style, mostly because of heavier commercial pressure from a larger market. So Bill Blass becomes classic, Ralph Lauren...
...ozone. Fashion is an arbitrary and slightly irrational concept that needs all the buttressing it can get. Fashion shows not only describe a look, they perpetuate a myth and keep a fantasy airborne. A designer has to be dead sure of himself and certain of his reputation, like Armani, to take the radical step of discard-big all the trappings and still come away with a full order book. A younger, beginning designer would never take such a risk. And, young or old, most other designers do not want...
...favorites: Yamamoto, Armani, Ferré, Miyake. One also has one's diversions (Lagerfeld, Montana), one's objects of respectful admiration (Saint Laurent, Kenzo, Blass, the knits of Sonia Rykiel that move over the body like a Slinky toy) and one's comers (Vivienne Westwood or the Tunisian-born Azzedine Alaïa, whose clinging, deep-dish dresses could make even a mermaid look like Rita Hayworth in Gilda). But one also and ultimately has befuddlement, an impression of satiation that dwindles only gradually. Ellin Saltzman, fashion director of Saks Fifth Avenue, points out very sensibly that "fashion...
...press, an agreeable and often fawning conduit, exacts its price for this service, just like the buyers and the fashion freaks. Everyone has to feel important. Armani cut to the heart of this when he remarked, "Ready-to-wear clothes blew away the pretensions of haute couture, but the shows have assumed the same social functions. Where am I sitting? How much time do I get alone with the designer? Will I be invited to dinner? For myself, I want people just to look at the clothes...