Back to the Body

It will be a great winter for girl watchers--and for girls who watch their figures. In show after show last week, as Paris couturiers unveiled their fall designs, last year's loose look yielded to slim, trim, body-conscious clothes. Hubert de Givenchy came out with a shape that Women's Wear Daily was quick to label "the TT--or Tight Torso." Pierre Cardin's bottom-cupping skirts cling as tightly as the skin on a peach. Yves Saint Laurent, couture's most influential designer, has also rediscovered the slim look, with cool, understated dresses and near severe tailored pants and jackets. At Dior, Marc Bohan showed below-the-knee skirts topped by waist-length confections he calls "waiter's jackets" --and most women doubtless will have to wait a long time to afford one.

Morocco Inspired. Yves Saint Laurent celebrated detente with a Russian look: three-quarter-length suede coats bordered in mink, worn over a sum velvet skirt and a printed cossack blouse in crepe de Chine, all topped by a huge matching mink toque. Another Y.S.L. standout was a silk poplin pelisse lined and trimmed in fisher, over a tweed suit with a tweedy patterned crepe de Chine blouse. For evening he had many floating mousselines, including several djellabas that were probably inspired by Saint Laurent's trips to Morocco, where he has a house.

Givenchy's look is sporty but soft, straight but supple. "I think we must all simplify," he says. "There is a minimum of construction, and the tops and sleeves fit like skin." Indeed, a few of his slinky evening clothes mold the body almost as closely as Cardin's, but with greater subtlety. Givenchy's basic sweater dresses hug the body to the hipline, then end in a shirred skirt; many have turtlenecks, which he finds "much more today" than decolletes. Among the last to design trousers, Givenchy showed pants superbly tailored in fine wools, gabardine and jerseys. To accentuate his sporty look, always popular with Americans, Givenchy accompanied his showing with jazzy music from such trans-atlantic productions as A Chorus Line.

Bohan's collection was possibly the best he has assembled in his 30 years in couture. "Poetry," cooed Vogue Editor Grace Mirabella. "Out of this world," said Ohrbach's Sydney Gittler, who plans to copy Bohan's so-called ponchos, or cape coats, which were the talk of the show. Though Bohan maintains that "the richest people these days are the ones who avoid looking luxurious," his deluxe sport daytime clothes are made of opulent materials--alpacas, cashmeres, vicuna--that cost upwards of $100 per yd. His evening designs are quietly sumptuous. Sum black sheaths with minute straps or halters are covered with richly embroidered jackets that Bohan calls, quite correctly, "investments" --they can run over $5,000.

Endangered Species. At Dior and most other houses this year, the fur flew freely. Bohan's coats have collars of red or silver fox; raincoats are lined and hooded in mink and moleskin; his anoraks are lined in seal or fox; sheer jackets are bordered in matching ostrich plumes. But if Bohan's clothes hurt the purse, they should not distress the conscience. Said a program footnote: "Christian Dior Fourrure hereby declares that none of the furs shown in the collection are on the endangered list of the World Wild Life Fund." Indeed, if their prices keep rising, the only endangered species in Paris may soon be the designers themselves.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so viewer discretion is required.