Line for Line

Into Idlewild Airport last week flew two jets carrying the fashion world's legal tender--the first shipment of 1960 dresses from the chandeliered showrooms of Balenciaga, Balmain, Dior and other leading couturiers. Awaiting their arrival were buyers and designers from chain stores and dress manufacturers, ready to go to work producing "line for line" copies (e.g., near-perfect imitations) of the fashions.

In the past, manufacturers often pirated Parisian designs, but usually in a bits-and-pieces manner; seldom, except in the most expensive dress shops, were perfect copies sold. But in the past few years line-for-line copying has become a big multimillion-dollar business that is condoned by the leading fashion houses.

Ohrbach's, whose Paris copies are big sellers in its Manhattan, Newark and Los Angeles stores, this year has recruited nearly 40 dress manufacturers to produce "line for line" copies of 75 styles from most of the major Paris designers; prices will range from $50 (for daytime dresses) to $200 (for coats). In turn, Seventh Avenue will copy the copyists, produce $10 versions of Dior originals for the housewife in Pocatello.

This year's clothes are simpler and more wearable than in many years. With no single New Look, the fashions show a great deal of variety. Waistlines wander from bust (Laroche) to hip (Dior); necklines are generally bare. Pleats are emphasized in Nina Ricci's dresses and evening gowns. Suits are sometimes only suits, but often, as with Pierre Cardin, they turn out to be dresses with jackets. Several leading houses emphasized lounging pants, among them Dior, which designed a number of lounging costumes for formal evening wear. About the only thing the designers agreed on was that sleeves are out. Wrote the New York Herald Tribune's Eugenia Sheppard: "How to look old hat this summer will be simple. Wear a dress with sleeves."

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