Word: lagerfeld
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Those homely virtues-longevity, consistency-are the ones emphasized by Saint Laurent's rivals, such as Giorgio Armani and Karl Lagerfeld, in commenting on the Met's selection, and this is not faint praise. Members of the high-fashion elite are rich and coddled celebrities who seldom breathe unscented air, but they risk their names and their companies in the cold atmosphere of commerce with each new collection. There are not many truly wealthy private clients left, and they instinctively flock to whatever guru has had his inspiration certified by the press and by a chic popular line...
...fragrance ad in 1971 is now painfully isolated (see box). He has new rivals. Today Armani commands fashion's thinkers. The Japanese designers are the darlings of the avantgarde. Ralph Lauren has made distinctively American tailoring popular internationally. At Chanel, the talented, aggressive Lagerfeld seems to be mounting a direct challenge to Saint Laurent's supremacy in both the atelier and the boutique. As he did in the '70s when his couture values were threatened, Saint Laurent will probably respond with fiendish flare. If he does not, the reason may be that he is content to reaffirm...
...plant a big wet one on Carol 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...
...entire geometry of motion. "I believe clothes are living things," insists Claude Montana. Accordingly, his line of racy, kiked-up cycle-slut couture (a leather ensemble can go for as much as $3,000) is presented with some of the most elaborate and amusing theatrics in Paris. Karl Lagerfeld, whose beautifully wrought designs for Chloé, Fendi and Chanel Couture continue to bring the press to its knees, is characteristically canny and bemused. "People have just lost interest in seeing dresses in normal circumstances. They have been trained in recent years to view them onstage as part of a production...
...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...