The New New Look

Not since 1789 had the word revolution been bandied about so freely in Paris as it was last week. Storming the barricades of conventional fashion was Designer Yves Saint Laurent, 40, whose latest haute couture collection could alter the way women will dress in the next decade. The 800 or so journalists, store buyers and private clients invited to the lavish showing were awestruck. Some were even reduced to tears as Saint Laurent's models glided along the runway, demonstrating what many predicted would be the New New Look: narrow waist, calf-length bouffant skirt for daytime and huge, all-enveloping coat.

Fantasy Look. The mannequins were laden with vast, tiered skirts of taffeta, mousseline, velvet, satin and faille in coruscating combinations of colors. They were turbaned, feathered, booted, shawled, cinched, tasseled and encrusted from head to foot in braid, beads, rickrack and passementerie. The so-called Fantasy Look, which seemed more suitable for grand opera than for real life, was a melange of styles derived from the Russian, Gypsy, Cossack, Moroccan, Indian and Victorian.

When the sumptuous 110-model spectacle was over, buyers and clients rushed to the dressing room, where the shy, soft-spoken couturier was waiting with his mother Lucienne. "Formidable!" his admirers gasped. "It will change the future of fashion," declared Ohrbach's fashion consultant, Sydney Gittler, adding portentously, "What Saint Laurent is saying is 'Ladies, put a match to your closets because you've got to go out and buy something new.' "

That was precisely the point. By autumn, buyers hope, the basic new Saint Laurent silhouette will begin to render obsolete the soft unstructured dresses and tailored pantsuits of the early '70s. The raves and somewhat overblown reporting of the collection by Women's Wear Daily and the New York Times reflected the yearning of the hard-pressed U.S. fashion industry for a replay of the late Christian Dior's New Look, the style that so profitably transfigured women and their wardrobes in 1947.

Still, there are many slips 'twixt showing and sales. The Paris prototypes of Saint Laurent's New New Look will have to be whittled down in price and size before they are widely accepted. The opulent couture outfits cost $2,000 to $10,000, while less elaborate ready-to-wear versions, which will be available at the Saint Laurent boutiques, will run customers well over $1,000. At the same time, the impracticality of the huge multilayered skirts may confound all but the most dauntless of Saint Laurent's private clients. "It's gorgeous but it's unwearable," complained one buyer. Said a rich client, "I buy clothes to travel, and with this collection it is one dress for one suitcase. This may bring back the steamer trunk."

Furthermore, Saint Laurent's stiff, billowing materials--though more flattering than the currently fashionable figure-revealing knit fabrics--threaten to engulf the small and puff up the large woman. The extravagant ornamentation and expensive bulk will have to be pared away by the manufacturers who will make unauthorized, mass-produced copies. But, as New York Designer Diane von Furstenberg noted, "Duplicated, it will look cheap."

Outrageous Designs. Saint Laurent, whose firm invested about $500,000 in last week's show, was optimistic that his collection would catch on. Since the Algerian-born French designer took over the couture house of his mentor Dior in 1957 at the age of 21, he has produced a series of highly successful--and often outrageous--designs, such as the Trapeze (1958) and the hobble skirt (1959). When the couturier opened his own house in 1962, he went on to launch tuxedos for women, hip boots, visor caps and, most recently, last spring's Ballets Russes collection.

Still, after reflecting on Saint Laurent's New New Look, some U.S. designers were saying at week's end that actually, it was hopelessly out of date for Americans. "The collection has no relationship to what's happening to women today," observed Ralph Lauren. Halston declared that "the costume party is over for America." Others, like Clovis Ruffin, loved it. "It reminds me of the grand old days of Paris." he said. Giorgio Sant' Angelo called it "beautiful," adding, "but to me it looks like a very old revolution."

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