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Tailoring was back in the black at the autumn-winter 2008 collections, writes Stephen Todd from Paris
REMEMBER the ruffle? Forget it. If you see a frill, kill it. If it shimmies, shivers or otherwise undulates, just say no. I know this because I have seen the autumn-winter 2008 Yves Saint Laurent show. Just as he pioneered the renaissance of the tulip skirt and the trend for riotous ruffles with his inaugural YSL collection for spring-summer 2005, this season YSL designer Stefano Pilati has refocused on tailoring. And while that's more difficult to properly rip off than a ruffle, bets are on it'll be a big new trend.
Opening with high-waisted, ample trousers that tapered to above the ankle, worn with a turtle-neck sweater and collarless mid-thigh- length jacket, the collection moved quickly into a succession of austere silhouettes. Wide-shouldered sack dresses came with tweed insets that echoed the body's shape (and, incidentally, Saint Laurent's famous 1965 pop art collection). Other dresses came cap- sleeved and cascading to below the knee, teamed with high patent leather boots.
One excellent brown velvet skirt suit involved an asymmetric envelope jacket with fine mesh sleeves and intricate, origami-like folds on the skirt. Sheer turtleneck sweaters. Raglan sleeves. Radically oversized jackets and coats.
You could be forgiven for thinking Pilati was quoting the 1980s, but there was an elegance and an evident reflection on tailing and cut that took the collection beyond simplistic '80s redux, even if the black bowl-cut hair and lips were redolent of Blade Runner's replicant chic (itself, in effect, a refraction of Saint Laurent's influential '40s collection). For once, though, the styling was more than mere caprice: it picked up on a mock-goth vibe that has been reverberating around the Paris catwalks for a few seasons.
It probably first emanated from the catwalk of Ricardo Tischi, the...