Have heels replaced hemlines as a leading economic indicator? If so, then next fall the world’s markets will be soaring. At the fall-winter 2002 womenswear shows in Milan last week, Gucci, Prada and Dolce & Gabbana all sent models teetering down runways in ankle-breaking 11-centimeter high heels. In what one hopes wasn’t an economic forecast, models at Gucci and Prada fell off their towering stilettos and crashed to the floor. In fact, as if to mirror today’s seesaw financial markets, the Gucci model wobbled, then recovered, then toppled off her Betty Page pumps halfway down the runway. When she tried to get up, she fell again. She finally took off the shoes and finished her turn barefoot to resounding applause. Gucci and Dolce & Gabbana say they’ll be making a shorter, nine-centimeter version. Looks as if they’re hedging their bets.
The problem with men’s clothing today, says Michael Tapia, is that men under 40 were raised in sweats, T shirts and jeans, and don’t know how to dress well. “We don’t know what a good suit is, or how it should feel,” says the American-born Paris-based designer. So Tapia decided to educate his peers by creating a line of perfect-fitting men’s clothes.
He started with trousers, the most elemental part of a gent’s wardrobe. Using a basic flat-front straight-leg design, Tapia sewed the first pair by hand and then wore them to see where the weaknesses were. After searching the world for the finest artisans and materials, he chose Swiss-made titanium interlocking zippers and persuaded old factories in England to dust off their machines to weave his durable yet light fabrics. He found Italian seamstresses to sew the old-fashioned way, with nearly invisible stitches. In 1999, after two years of research and testing, Tapia launched his new pants. Then he went after shirts, which he modeled on military designs that looked neat and smooth whether worn tucked in or out. He used densely woven poplin and buttons made out of Australian mother-of-pearl. He followed that with a two-button jacket and a single-breasted topcoat, all available at Colette in Paris and Alfred Dunhill in London. Now he’s working on a thick, Army-inspired T shirt. Though the prices are steep–the pants go for $700 and a shirt $400–the quality is reminiscent of the old Savile Row. “Thirty, 40 years ago, no one made bad quality,” says Tapia. “Now it’s about profit. I wanted to put integrity back into clothing.” Not to mention style.
Kay Itoi and Dana Thomas
Never has style been so portable. Hermes is offering a line of furniture called Pippa, which includes folding chairs, stools, a desk and a chaise longue, all made of wood and cowhide. Louis Vuitton makes a bed-trunk like the one French explorer Pierre Savorgnan de Brazza first ordered in 1875 and a portable leather desk by furniture designer Christian Liaigre. “[Folding furniture] is there for you when you really need it,” says Pippa designer Rena Dumas. “Otherwise you fold it up and it’s out of your life.”
