Return to 1997 CHRISTMAS Index
Return to 1997 CHRISTMAS Index
Au Revoir, arrivederci 1997. For Britain, especially London, it was a great year. The International media dubbed it the place to be. Spice Girls and It Girls vied for attention. Our models and designers continued to wow the world. Not too bad for a little island with a population of fifty-seven and a half million. There were fashion highs, lows and victims. The New Millennium gives you the low down and dishes the alphabetical dirt...
Auctions. Diana and Janet Street Porter may have started a trend by
auctioning off their old clothes. Diana's sale grossed an incredible £3m for
charity but how much did the frocks cost in the first place? Street-Porter's more
low key sale at Christie's in London raised a more modest sum but the eclectic selection
(including Zandra Rhodes and Jean Paul Gaultier numbers) was infinitely more
entertaining.
Black. Scientifically not even a colour, black has held sway as the essential
shade for over a decade. Traditionally symbolic of death, it is a colour that is associated with power. Sober yet
subversive, sexy yet sophisticated, it is a colour that empowers.
Maybe we'll all come out of mourning next year?
Colour. Forget it! As Henry Ford said, "Any colour as long as it's black." Brown somehow didn't cut the mustard
as the new black and has been ousted by grey. It's not really about colour but about oxymorons. Mark Holgate of
Vogue summed it all up by declaring that “Grey is the new Brown”.
Diana. Died In A Nasty Accident. A premature death has ensured her iconic status. Loved her clothes and charity
work but not so sure about the media manipulation and cultivation of victimhood. I shall miss Hello! Magazine's
annual poll of her best outfits.
Elson, Karen. This years new Super with the haircut from hell. A Lancashire lass who has skyrocketed to fame,
spearheading the Versace advertising campaign and becoming the latest Chanel muse. Super model credentials
include endlessly long legs and a distinctive red `bad bob' reminiscent of ginger Oliver Reed on a bad hair day.
Factory Outlets. Outlet shopping is no longer the treat that clothes junkies could only indulge in when holidaying in
the States. Factory outlets and Discount Villages are proliferating. Landlord BAA McArthurGlen is behind the new
outlets in Swindon and Chester. McArthur aim to be the leading owner of outlet villages in Europe and have
embarked on a £400m building programme. They expect to have about 15 to 17 outlets within the next 5 years. Presumably
the more shops there are the more thinly the real bargains will be spread but at the moment they are excellent hunting ground
for thrifty shoppers.
Perhaps as BAA (British Airport Authority) are involved they might like to swap some of their airport Duty Free shops with mini Factory outlets when Duty Free between EEC countries is abolished at the end of the decade.
G-Strings. Forget big knickers, the only way to solve the problem of VPL is having no PL. Okay, so they can look
a bit gruesome with wobbly bottoms and cellulite (I'm speaking from personal experience here) but they still get my
vote.
Heels. If you're prepared to damage your feet, ruin your posture and wreck parquet floors then you ought to be
doing it with a bit of panache. Platform trainers and grotesque clompy boots are just not stylish. Welcome back the
stiletto.
High heels are all about allure. Lengthening the leg, pushing the body forward provocatively and creating vulnerability by restricting movement. Synonymous with femininity and sensuality, there is a long historic association between sex, the foot and the shoe. Foot binding may have been an exclusively Oriental fetishism but the Western world has not been immune to the allure of a well-turned ankle and a tightly constrained foot. Chic Simple writer Christa Worthington summed it up when she described footwear as “…psychologically speaking, the libido of the wardrobe…”
It Girls. Famous for being famous. Trust fund, upper class dolly birds with sloaney names like Tamara and Tara.
Tatler photographed them naked, modesty just about preserved by the latest must-have handbags. It Girl and friend
to the Royals, Tara Palmer-Tomkinson, chronicles their lifestyle in her Sunday Times Social Column. It's actually
quite witty, full of self-deprecating quips and infinitely more readable than the average Society pages.
Junkies. The fashion and Entertainment Industry have for a number of years been accused of glamorising heroin
use. President Clinton highlighted the problem in an address at the White House, reports of which created a wave of
publicity about the Heroin Chic phenomenon. Clinton's comments were an indictment of the industry's vogue for
emaciated, spaced-out models as exemplified in Calvin Klein's advertising and the photographs of Davide Sorrenti (who
himself died of an heroin overdose in February) and Corinne Day.
Kit. The replica football (soccer) strip industry is worth a staggering £200m.per annum in the U.K. and there is huge
competition between the big manufacturers Nike, Reebok and Adidas to sign up the most attractive teams. There are
large amounts of money to be made selling replica shirts by both the manufacturer and retailer. Chelsea F.C. has just
opened a multi till mega store and Harrods now has an in-store boutique for Fulham fans. There's even a designer angle with
Britain's Bruce Oldfield, Jasper Conran and Wayne Hemingway sprucing up the kit of Norwich City, Leyton Orient and
Chelmsford City.
Nike have long profited from their association with the athlete Michael Jordan but the company is increasingly turning its attention to football. This year, it signed a £250m.shirt sponsorship deal with the Brazilian national team as well as a more modest £12m. deal with Arsenal. The company is also becoming increasingly involved with marketing and managing sport stars and was involved in the transfer negotiations for Brazilian striker Ronaldo.
Teams may benefit at club level from kit deals but individual players can also cash in from sponsorship. Sponsorship and marketing deals from sportswear manufacturers are often their most lucrative source of income. Manufacturers are looking for that crucial mix of sporting prowess, good looks and attitude. Speaking about the appeal of sports stars, Danny Kelly, editor of Total Sport said, “These people are bigger than pop stars and film stars in the advertising market. Whether you are talking about training shoes or cup cakes, sports stars are highly marketable”.
Adidas have seen a meteoric rise in sales that contributed to Nike's share price dropping from $76 to $55 in May. In the U.K., Adidas sales have been boosted by key signings such as Tim Henman, David Beckham, Prince Naseem and Denise Lewis.
The sportswear boom is not limited to replica football kit. Sportswear has become main-steam fashion. Nightclubs are full of crop tops and stretch pants, polyester fleeces are de-rigeur and even Prada sent models down the runway wearing comfy zip front sweatshirts. The success of Polo Sport, Versace Sport, D & G Athletic, Sam de Teran and DKNY are all indicative of the popularity of sportswear as high fashion.
1997 was definitely a year to Get your kit on.
LVMH. As Bernard Arnaud quietly acquires more and more prestigeous names for his Louis Vuitton Moet
Hennessy group, one wonders if he has also got world domination on his agenda.
Magazines. There's been a proliferation of new fashion magazines this year
and it will be interesting to see which ones survive and which go belly up.
Frank is probably the most hyped new monthly and has a broad coverage of
media, fashion and social issue's. So is for laddesses, a men's lifestyle magazine for
women. Attitude with intelligence according to the front cover. Editor Kirsty Robinson
says that So is for women “...who party, work to party and shop to party” and are “...up
for a laugh, straight talking, to the point not to mention mad for it”.Journalist Kira Joliffe
is behind magazine-come-fanzine Cheap Date which is all about thrift and second hand
culture. The man from W H Smith's looked at me very oddly when I asked for a Cheap
Date so I'm afraid I can't tell you any more. For 6 issues, send a £7 cheque to PO Box16778, London EC1M 5XA. There's
also Made Up, a makeover magazine and B, which bills itself as “Everything you want”. A bit of a tall order perhaps? And for
something a bit weightier, Encore is the Evans store quarterly for larger ladies.
Navels. Crop tops and hipster trousers have continued to provide an excuse for the flat of stomach to exhibit their
belly buttons to the world. Caprice sported a £250,000 diamond in hers and stole the press coverage, if not the
show, at the National Television Awards.
Belly dancers have been exploiting the erotic potential of the midriff for centuries but it's taken the Western world a while to catch on. Go on; show us your omphalus.
Opulence. There has been a renaissance in the use of luxurious fabrics and opulent materials. The ultimate anecdote
to grunge, it perfectly compliments the pared down, minimalist clothes that have characterised the year. Velvet,
brocade, lace and fur provide fin de Siecle opulence. Embroidery and beadwork transform simple shapes into
sumptuous dresses. A Cartier retrospective at the British Museum reflects the mood.
Paris. London has again become a serious player in the fashion business but Paris remains the home of Couture.
Press and buyers may have flocked to London Fashion Week but not in nearly the same numbers as to the Paris
equivalent. It is therefore no surprise that many of Britain's top designers choose to show their collections in Paris or
alternatively go to work for Parisian Couture Houses.
Bernard Arnaud of LVMH has been quick to exploit the creative genius of John Galliano at Dior, Alexander McQueen at Givenchy and Stella McCartney at Chloe (although the latter is perhaps as much about celebrity as creative genius). Rivalry between Galliano and McQueen is an open secret in fashion circles and it was ironic that they jointly won British Designer of the Year at the recent British Fashion Awards. McQueen, who still shows his own label collection in London, made a thinly veiled criticism of Galliano's right to the award in his acceptance speech saying "I think British Fashion Awards should stay in Britain and not move outside the country." Galliano did not attend but had made his own comment at an earlier catwalk show in Paris, playing This town ain't big enough for the both of us.
Quaglino's. The trend for bigger, better, and newer restaurants and bars continues unabated in London. As neither
of Sir Terence Conran's new restaurants, the Bluebird Garage or the Zinc Bar and Grill, begin with Q, Quaglino's
gets a mention here. It was the first of Conran's mega restaurants, complete with designer staff uniforms by Jasper
Conran (a touch of nepotism there?).
Terence Conran is one of a new breed of restaurateurs and hoteliers whose attention to detail extends from designer décor, designer food to designer clad staff. Label lovers should also check out the downstairs bar at the Metropolitan Hotel (the Met) where the barmen look gorgeous dressed by Donna Karan. These are not the sort of places to wear your minimalist black trouser suit unless you're an aspiring member of staff.
Revivals. Both the 1970's and 1980's have been raided this season to give us stripy knits, boob tubes, Halston
style jersey dresses and even the occasional shoulder pad. Revival has always been an integral feature of fashion and
each season is marked by trends that are essentially a resurrection of a previous era or style. There really isn't much
around that is entirely new. Hardy Amies said that the only new item he had seen in his lifetime was the Shell Suit! The industry
has always survived by constantly reinventing itself but the cycles of revival seem to be getting faster and faster. Do we really
want to see some of the tackiest and most unflattering fashions of recent years come back to haunt us? Following hot on the
heels of Seventies knitwear wedge heels and boot-cut trousers may be Ra-Ra skirts and tank tops. Aaaagh!
Sex and Shopping. A recent study of buying habits has confirmed the link between sex and shopping. Many
shopaholics get a physical pleasure from shopping that may be compensating for a disappointing sex life.
Helen Woodruffe, a lecturer at Lancaster University, conducted research into the psychology of shopping and found that spending sprees were often akin to comfort eating and a palliative for those with something missing in their lives. Customers queuing at the tills in Agent Provocateur may disagree.
Trousers. Boot-cut trousers must come a close second to Puffball skirts in the fashion disaster hall of fame. With
the exception of the odd super model, they hold the unique position of looking awful on pretty much everyone. Think
of Edina in Absolutely Fabulous and male ice-skaters circa 1970 and you get the picture.
On a more desirable note, trouser suits make for minimal effort dressing and black leathers have made a big come back this winter.
Union Jack. Forget the Stars and Stripes, London is swinging again and the Union Jack is flying high in celebration.
Liam and Patsy Gallagher appeared under one on the cover of Vanity Fair, David Bailey captured Naomi Campbell
in one for the front of Elle and virtually every tabloid newspaper in Britain relished Gerri Halliwell (Ginger Spice) in a
very minuscule one at the Brit Awards.
Symbolic of the British Empire, the flag is steeped with imperialistic associations and in recent decades had become closely linked with racists and right wing extremists who carried it as a badge of Caucasian superiority. Reclaiming the flag as a symbol of a multi-cultural, revitalised Britain must surely be a good thing.
The current popularity of the flag as a fashion statement reflects the current feeling of optimism. British success in fashion and entertainment has given us something to shout about. It's a reminder to the rest of the world that we are in fact Great Britain.
Versace. Gunned down outside his Miami mansion on July 15, Versace's death was a tragic loss to the worlds of
fashion and entertainment. His glamorous, sexy clothes had a really unique style that established him as a design
genius and the celebrity couturier of the 1990's.
Son of a coal merchant, he studied architecture before becoming a designer and buyer for his mothers dressmaking studio. He then went on to work as a freelance designer for the Italian fashion houses of Callaghan, Complice and Genny. In 1978, in partnership with his brother Santo and Sister Donatella, he showed his first womenswear collection. 1990 saw his first couture or `Atelier line' in Paris. Fragrances and Home Furnishings followed, with a cosmetics line being launched shortly after his death.
Opulent and extravagant, his clothes were in tune with the hedonism of late 20th century culture. Combining the theatrical with the classical, his appreciation of fashion history and techniques was evident in his superb bias cutting and construction. Although Versace himself was frequently dressed head to toe in black, his collections were often remarkable for their Jewel like colours and fabulous embroidery. He controlled all aspects of his empire, ensuring continuity from design through to advertising. Turnover of £690m in 1995 afforded Versace a luxurious lifestyle and palatial homes in Milan, Lake Como, New York and Miami. Whispers of Mafia connections have so far been unproven.
Prior to his death, Versace had been grooming his sister Donatella as his successor. Long regarded as his muse, she had already helped to shape the look of the Versace lines and had been directly involved in the design of the diffusion Versus line. The Versace Spring/Summer 1998 Paris show in October was her first main line collection. Rock chic leather and micro minis had the usual sexy overtones but it is too early to tell if she can carry the torch.
Weight There's been a lot of controversy this year about the use of skinny models in catwalk shows and magazines.
Big bottoms and rounded bellies may have been the feminine ideal in the Middle Ages but slim has been the shape
that women have sought for most of this century. Wallis Simpson summed it all up when she said that "you could
never be too rich or too thin". But waif models with xylophone ribs have taken the obsession too far and 1997 has seen a bit
of a backlash. Sophie Dahl, a statuesque size 14/16, 38DD was taken on by the Storm model agency and has graced
numerous magazines and a number of catwalk shows. The Clothes Show launched a campaign for more realism amid
concerns over the link between unrealistically thin models and the increase in eating disorders. Omega watches withdrew their
advertising from Vogue in protest over the gauntness of the models. Vogue hit back with a fashion spread featuring the
voluptuous Sara Morrison. Trussed in over-tight black jersey, she looked more like a Beryl Cook fat lady than a fashion diva.
A rejection of unnaturally thin models must be a good thing but I don't think that we'll see too many larger ladies in our
magazines or on the catwalk. After all, fashion is all about aspiration and few people aspire to be fat.
X-rated. Less is more seems to be an appropriate maxim for the year, reflecting the trend for minimalism and also
an obsession with nudity. We never did get to see The Full Monty in the film but there was plenty of other titillation
around. The lingerie look is more popular than ever and the line between fashion and striptease gets hazier and
hazier. Madonna set the ball rolling in the early 1980's with underwear as outerwear. Lingerie manufacturers and dirty old
men haven't looked back. Fashion designers and aspiring actresses alike are well aware that revealing dresses guarantee
headlines. It's really more about sex than clothes. Nudity helps to sell newspapers and men's magazines but it's a bit of a dead
end street in fashion terms. There's much to commend an enlightened attitude to nudity and sexuality but it does seem to be
getting a bit out of hand.
Yawn. Maybe we've had enough of the Spice Girls, skinny models, black nail polish, 70's revivals, 80's revivals,
designer logos, brown, teletubbies, tamagotchi's and gratuitous nudity.
Zeitgeist. The spirit of the time. So what was 1997 about? Answers on E-mail please.