MILAN, Italy — The crowd loiters after a great fashion show, milling backstage as if fairy dust were being served with the champagne. Following the Gucci collection, the magic on the runway lingered in the atmosphere. A spell had been cast, convincing everyone here to preview fall styles that exciting clothes can possess transformative powers.
If the men and women wearing Gucci Creative Director Tom Ford's designs looked sexy, wealthy and cocksure, then anyone donning his sleek clothes would acquire the same attributes, wouldn't they? How else to explain the international throngs that flock to the Gucci boutique on Via Montenapoleone, the Rodeo Drive of Milan. The buying there is so frenzied that the store occasionally fills to capacity and the front door must be locked, leaving eager shoppers lined up outside, clutching their impotent plastic currency.
The Gucci spring collection in the stores now, and the fall '95 line that preceded it, took a colorful trip back to the '70s. Ford, the influential American who helped bring back screamy prints, hip-huggers and other mercifully forgotten elements of post-Vietnam War style, delivered a more classic, opulent collection for next season.
"Rich is back," whooped Andre Leon Talley, the flamboyant Vanity Fair style consultant, as a model paraded in a big-collared blond faux beaver coat over white flat-front pants and a tight shirt unbuttoned to the waist. A group of winter-white pieces, including an ankle-length A-line skirt belted with a thin circle of black leather, could be enjoyed by someone with a laundress on staff. Yet they don't hark to a bygone era of glamour. Without clear reference points in Ford's designs this time, clothes look really new.
There were long, tight-bodiced sweater dresses in navy, strictly tailored pantsuits of brown or navy twill worn with dark shirts, and black suede pants paired with a black shirt and a long suede coat lined in shearling. The furs in the collection were mostly fake mink and beaver, dyed lush jewel tones or bleached pale. Faux pony skin, tinted navy, brown or black, was used for handbags, belts and a high-heeled, ankle-strapped platform shoe that anchored long skirts, slacks and even stirrup pants. (Ford ignored short skirts completely.)
