New York Times: Tiptoeing Into the Stores

Start buying your lottery tickets, or marrying rich, or working 3 jobs...or get really good at going to sample sales: The Fall Season is upon us!!

August 21, 2008
Fall Fashion
Tiptoeing Into the Stores
By CATHY HORYN
The New York Times

SINCE the shows for next spring’s clothes start in two weeks, the window for surveying the new fall fashion seems to be closing before it has fully opened. A lot of the best pieces, the runway stuff, still haven’t arrived in stores. Not everyone follows fashion so carefully as to notice what has arrived at Barneys, or in Bryant Park. (Is it runway season? Isn’t it always?) But before these columns are suddenly filled with rompers and bathing suits, let’s see what looks right for fall.
A practical elegance ran through last year’s polished clothes. This season, things are more romantic, thanks to moody prints, dramatic blouses and antique effects, but there is a sting — namely, the economy. Lots of people can’t afford, and can’t accept, paying $3,000 to $4,000 for an outfit, which is entirely possible in Designerland. You can rationalize blowing your rent on Gucci’s $1,900 swinging fringed boots — by telling yourself you’ll spend only $89 for Zara’s copy of Gucci’s mini peasant dress. But you would know immediately that your cheap-jack Doctor Zhivago outfit wasn’t working, and then what?
The best style is almost always a result of an unexpected combination of good and less costly things, of masculine and feminine elements, with a sharp eye toward what’s in fashion. Bear in mind that proportions are generally longer this season: hemlines flutter around the knee; pants are full (with classic pegged variations, like those Stefano Pilati showed for Saint Laurent); jackets have extended shoulders or an extravagant collar; blouses all seem to have a stock tie or an old-fashioned effect, like Proenza Schouler’s draped charmeuse versions (about $850). And a cropped fur or shearling vest can be a good investment, as a finish to prints and long layers.
To be sure, there are some wonderful standout looks that make you wish your family held the patent to the lug nut. While pawing through the racks of new clothes at Bergdorf Goodman, I spotted Thakoon’s all-over sequined dress in a murky rose-pink pattern, the hem and cap sleeves edged with printed chiffon ($4,900). Another great look for the individually minded shopper, at Linda Dresner, was Stephan Janson’s deep-green tweed skirt with a matching popover top, its three-quarter sleeves fluffed with gray-green marabou feathers ($3,110). You could definitely slay the fashion sisters with that outfit, as different as it is chic, especially with a pair of Christian Louboutin stiletto pumps (O.K., another thousand bucks).
But while lots of women are pretty certain that Balenciaga’s molded wool dresses are the acme of fashion, they halt before the price ($3,475). I was happy to discover a slightly more realistic alternative — and one that doesn’t show up in virtually every magazine editorial. Balenciaga has a creamy white sleeveless blouse in a stiff wool crepe that is banded in black at the waist and finished with a modest bow ($1,345). With a slim black skirt, it would convey the same minimalist look.
Fashion snobs have an exquisite understanding of store deliveries. Most of the stuff hanging in stores since mid-August is from preseason designer collections, or from moderate-priced labels like Vince and Nanette Lepore. Over the next few weeks, they’ll be spruced up with runway pieces. A few designers, like Marc Jacobs, who makes most of his clothes in New York, delivered very early. At Barneys, I saw a terrific wool pencil skirt by Mr. Jacobs with an elastic grosgrain waist — just pull it on! Considering the name and the quality of the fit, it seemed a good buy at $495.
While in the store, I went in search of trousers. Mr. Jacobs’s slouchy version in black velveteen ($1,100) sums up the season’s look, but I found other styles, too, like Alexander Wang’s paper-bagged trousers in dark gray wool ($495) and a pair of muddy glen-plaid pegged trousers by Piazza Sempione ($695), a label many women like for its consistent fit. Lanvin also had a sharp-looking pair of pegged tweed trousers, but at $1,250, you have to start rationalizing.
It’s curious the things you see when you’re looking for contemporary fashion as well as good value. After my attention at Bloomingdale’s was drawn to a well-made knitted coat in cream wool with a rolled collar by Nanette Lepore ($650) and a cute navy wool-jersey dress by James Perse ($240), I saw across the floor a sleeveless blouse in papery taffeta with a spill of rock-star ruffles down the front. Made by Vince ($165), it was a dead ringer for a L’Wren Scott blouse.
For the most part, though, cheap blouses look just that. Nearly every store has some version of the stock-tied, lantern-sleeved or Victorian frilled blouse, but I hate to think how all that drippy polyester crepe will look on sale racks next season. This is one item where it’s worth trading up, especially since a blouse with a great pair of trousers or a slinky gold sequined skirt, like Proenza Schouler’s ($850), can make such a statement. The creamy silk crepe blouses shown by Mr. Jacobs and Oscar de la Renta, with a slightly asymmetrical tie, look best. There are more affordable variations by Doo.Ri, Thakoon and Sari Gueron, from $495 to $695.
Although the swirling prints of Dries Van Noten hold a certain artsy charm, the Russian-inspired paisleys and foulards that Frida Giannini did for Gucci have more kick, it seems to me. Six months after looking at that collection, at the modern proportions, the black tights and high fringed boots, the mix of prints with tough fur or leather jackets, it still has energy and muscle. Unfortunately, shoppers will have to be content with looking at the Zara knockoffs. In the Gucci flagship on Fifth Avenue, I looked with apathy at the preseason merchandise begging at the rails. Take me, take me. Fat chance. I knew about the good stuff.
It was a similar story at Yves Saint Laurent — a collection that led in every trend — and at the new Jil Sander shop in SoHo. The runway pieces hadn’t arrived.
“Come back in September,” a Saint Laurent salesman almost sang.
But ...
“They’re samples,” a saleswoman at Jil Sander said, referring to a display of gorgeous tweed dresses.
Let’s hope the entire fall season is not a figment of my imagination.