Word: leathers
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Jenkins' victory margin belied the close race that preceded it. Right up to election day, opinion polls gave him at best a slight edge over his rivals. In the end, it seemed, it was the sheer accumulation of smiles and shoe leather and handclasps that put him over the top. At times exuberant with enthusiasm, at other moments almost weighed down with weariness, the 61-year-old political veteran toured the streets with the doggedness of a fledgling candidate standing for his first seat...
...unstructured jacket. An easeful elegance without stricture. Tailoring of a kind thought possible only when done by hand. The layering of fabrics by pattern, texture and color so that clothing takes on for a second the quiet shimmer of a 17th century Japanese print. Surprising combinations of garments-leather pants as part of a suit, a long jacket over foreshortened slacks, a vest worn over a coat-that scramble clichés and conventions into a new and effortless redefinition of style. A functional celebration of fabric. A reshaping of traditional geometry with witty contours, sudden symmetries and startling vectors...
...scattered about the feudal fashion kingdom of Milan sent their models gadding down runways in all the latest but did not succeed in dislodging the king. Gianni Versace, Armani's keenest competitor, took up the historical theme with a vengeance. He weighed in quite literally with some rarefied leather and chain-mail combos that looked like rough-trade rigging that Prince Valiant might have worn to go cruising. Mariuccia Mandelli, who designs for Krizia, sent finlike flounces cascading all over suits and dresses-something, perhaps, for the spouse of Jaws' elasmobranch villain to slip into for the Oscars...
...there is a consistency in Armani, it is one of adventurousness and quality. If there is a trademark-besides those winged initials that work their way onto the backs of his jeans, the loops of his leather pants and entirely too many other places-it is the tailoring. This means not only the standard of craftsmanship but, more generally, the look, shape and fall of a garment. English Designer Bruce Oldfield maintains, "Men's wear hasn't looked back since Armani dropped the lapels and made the softer tailored look." Says another English designer, David Emanuel, who with...
...others all over Italy. And only, for the time being, in Italy. Prices can be kept down because the items are produced in quantity and locally: this fall, an Armani Emporium blouse may go for $35, a skirt may range from $40 to $65, a man's leather jacket from $250 to $300. There have been plenty of designer boutiques-most notably Saint Laurent's Rive Gauche-but never any that set out to sell a full designer line at such reduced prices, without a precipitous decrease in quality. One would be hard put to tell the difference...