Adolfo Embraces 'Reality' for Fall
LEAD: LIKE most other designers, Adolfo has simmered down for fall. 'After the fun comes the reality,' he said Monday at the St. Regis Hotel. The reality, according to Adolfo, means chemises, dinner suits and trousers, with an emphasis on black.
LIKE most other designers, Adolfo has simmered down for fall. 'After the fun comes the reality,' he said Monday at the St. Regis Hotel. The reality, according to Adolfo, means chemises, dinner suits and trousers, with an emphasis on black.
These are some of the major fashion points of his fall collection, in which hemlines graze the knee and even chemises graze the body.
What he did not mention in an interview after his noon show was hats. For a decade, Adolfo, who started his career as a milliner, has hardly shown a hat with his clothes, but this time there were plenty. Mainly they were flower-pot shapes, but there were also nautical berets and rounded fur toques. Hats swathed in tulle accompanied evening clothes.
'Just for the show,' the designer said when asked about the hats, which were made by Eric Javits. 'I don't think the customers are ready for them yet.'
Some undoubtedly will be. The flower-pot hats looked especially pertinent in checks and plaids to match his suit jackets for day, and the tulle-draped styles contributed to the drama of black sequins and lace for evening. With these hats, Charles Nicholas created shoulder-length 1940's hairdos to complement the clothes.
Short jackets are Adolfo's favorite styles, in checks and plaids for day and in black silks for evening. The jackets function well with his shorter skirts, the designer believes.
The audience of longtime fans broke into applause for the ruffled silk print dresses draped to one side. With three rows of asymmetric ruffles and background colors of wine, black or green, these side-wrapped styles showed a lot of leg. Amusingly flirtatious, they did not make reality look too grim. Adolfo said they were ordered by many customers who stopped by his salon while the collection was being assembled.
The designer approved. 'I like print dresses for winter,' he said. 'There is nothing prettier under a fur coat. But the prints have to be dark.'
Adolfo's faithful seemed to agree that prints are in. Marife Hernandez wore Adolfo's red silk with white dots, Edna Morris an anemone pattern, Roberta Peters a dark blue floral, C. Z. Guest a muted plaid pattern and Jean Tailer one of the lozenge prints popular in red or green with white. Cecile Zilkha's puffed-sleeve red print dress was by Yves Saint Laurent. Stella Reichman and Livia Sylva were in black and white prints. Pat Mosbacher and Mildred Hilson chose solid-color knitted suits, but they were the exceptions.
Adolfo's prettiest evening suits had black lace boleros over warp print satin dresses in floral patterns. Organza blouses in pale shades were paired with black satin skirts with double flounces. Trousers appeared for both day and night. With knee-baring skirts the norm, Adolfo said women will find it convenient to wear trousers occasionally.
'They may not want to show so much leg all the time, so they can get trousers as well as a skirt to go with the same jacket,' he explained.
Black crepe or sequin-paved pants are worn with small jackets with lace sleeves and fringed epaulets. Some jackets are decorated with long-stemmed rose designs embroidered in bugle beads.
'I tried to make functional, easy-to-pack clothes that you can take with you to Paris, for instance, and wear immediately, without pressing,' the designer said.
As a replacement for last year's bubbles and poufs, the trim dinner suits were welcome, women in the audience agreed. 'I'm too big for the poufs, but the beaded jackets make sense,' said Mrs. Reichman. 'I'm going to get one.'