The French Line

It was show time in Paris last week, and the spring fashion collections proved the usual circus: patrons clawed for chairs, models for air and buyers for exclusive rights. Over all, suspended in the salon air like a huge, equivocal cloud, hung the crucial question: What of the miniskirt? Would couturiers give it short shrift, lowering hems to midi and maxi lengths? The answer, by week's end, was yes--and no.

Emanuel Ungaro remembered the mini fondly in a series of short, pleated skirts but covered most with midi-length coats, while Jacques Esterel's "he and she" collection featured tunics all round, ankle length and so narrowly cut as to be equally hobbling for either sex. Courreges lowered his sights with a floor-length black vinyl apron atop flaming red briefs. (It is not the most practical outfit, but that did not seem to matter when Raquel Welch modeled it.) Mostly, Courreges fell back on the old jumpsuits, made of vinyl and stickier than ever, with cutouts cut out wherever the scissors led him--and in one bikini he reached the bottom.

Chanel kept her hems right where they have always been, demurely covering the knee and, just by standing still, came out ahead of the game. Marc Bohan was not sure who was winning: so as not to offend either team, he showed see-through, midi-length chiffon evening dresses with minislips worn underneath. But it was Pierre Cardin who saved the day for leg fetishists with a series of long skirts that are almost as revealing as the mini, and even more alluring. The Cardin trick: a slit that runs from ankle to thigh, occurs either at the sides or at the back and front, and flashes skin in and out of view as the wearer moves, affording viewers the best peep show in town.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.