Major Attitude  Page 2

At other venues the modern woman emerged giving major attitude, for instance, wrapped in neon gauze layered over neon gauze at the Kenneth Richard as she stalked through an abandoned parking lot with her skirt over her pants and a delicate camisole slung over her broad shoulders for what was a triumphantly contemporary show. Sometimes she was languid, as at the Versus where after the influential madness of two seasons of clashing prints Donatella Versace behaved herself and cooked up a batch of the sweetest dresses imaginable exemplified by that long antique style piece on Linda or that stunning satin yellow number complete with a cape on Carolyn. Or the fierce girl could be provocatively intellectual as in that post-Margiela mode that Bernadette Corporation triumphantly exploited at their Roxy show. Again the blouses seamed to create the feeling of a built in bra was a sign that a virulent new idea was in the air.

The new ideal had the regal defiance of a Masaai princess in the form of Ford model, Alek Wek when she executed her controversial saunter through Ralph Lauren's Pan-African collection. World chic has always been a standard ploy with mainstream designers, but Lauren really went deep to pull out some exciting and original pieces that did not pander or condescend. The globalist influence was there too at D&G's debut NY show where (at least for this season) D&G stood for Disco Geisha, with all the irony that entails. Let's just say that there was nothing servile about those austere women sliding past each other in striped pantsuits with gold macramé purses. Pan-Asian cool resurfaced at Ghost, with a more literal exploration of the traditional Japanese style of dressing. Of course Tanya Sarne's referencing became very Occidental when she decided to add a long gold claw as an accessory to her bundled-up, prepackaged women.

Donna Karan, of all the majors, succeeded in engaging the dynamics of an insolent urban girl with her new diffusion line D for DKNY. True, she spoke with a foreign accent courtesy the willfully sagging waistlines à la Anne Demmulsemesster and the protracted asymmetry of Helmut Lang but that's what a designer bridge line is for: to translate and humanize last season's avant garde aesthetic and bring it into Middle America's shopping malls. This Karan did with much panache. And she served the coolest shoes imaginable. Every season has its spoiler and Diesel displayed their signature irreverence and high energy in a show that spoofed the worst of Middle American 70's style. It was young, it was rude, it was funky, and that's the way modern kids are. All of a sudden whole collections are beginning to reflect the utilitarianism of mix and match dressing and one feels almost like exhaling "finally." Now we wait with the proverbial baited breath for the Fall/Winter NY RTW's to see if American designers will maintain this breakthrough.

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