Word: balmain
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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William Calvert, 29, has made an even quicker trip to important retail venues. Just two years ago, Calvert, who refined his tailoring skills at the fabled Parisian houses of Balmain and Balenciaga, decided to make six sample dresses in New York. Barney's and Bergdorf Goodman placed orders, and suddenly he was in business...
...with important things to have time for adornment. If that were true, they would all be aiming at Hillary Clinton, and this is patently not the case. Alternatives to night-club life do exist, however. At the high end of the scale, Oscar de la Renta's clothes for Balmain in Paris are exquisite, better than the ready-to-wear he produced for his own line in New York. Anne Klein's offerings, now designed by the deft Richard Tyler, are impeccable without being boring. And Calvin Klein remains a great editor of trends. He suited up models, mixed...
...carrying the clothes are still threading their way through traffic. The defile gets started nearly an hour late. By that time, the covered courtyard of the Ecole des Beaux-Arts is jammed with the press and the fashion faithful -- a tribute to the stir that de la Renta and Balmain are causing. On hand are a healthy number of designers and well-known customers: Valentino, Claude Pompidou, some major Agnellis and Rothschilds and a generous sprinkling of American celebrities, among them Marisa Berenson, Paloma Picasso, Mica Ertegun and Barbara Walters...
...designer makes daytime clothing, his real arena is the evening. In a very successful show, Christian Lacroix produced dazzling ball gowns, grand, inventive yet harmonious. Erik Mortensen, of Jean-Louis Scherrer, had a couple of extravaganzas worthy of an Edith Wharton parvenu. Compared with these flights into fairyland, the Balmain show is almost severe. De la Renta's gowns show the most exquisite materials and embroidery but are presented, as it were, in translation -- to a modern idiom. The last-minute bolts of georgette appear in a series of elegant sheaths, delicately layered, that have the cool beauty...
...into Cafe de Flore for a celebratory lunch, and the whole room stood and cheered. Even better news awaited back at the atelier, where phones were jammed with clients ringing for fittings. The French press gave its blessing, predicting that the tasteful collection would ensure a steady clientele for Balmain. So the old house has been restored to life...