Donna Karan's designs for women's comfort

By Dini S. Djalal

JAKARTA (JP): If fashion trends take a year to seep into everyday life, by January 1996 all the trendy young things in Jakarta will be wearing hourglass knee-lengths skirts.

I'm not holding my breath.

Recent issues of Vogue have been parading models barely out of their teens sashaying in 18-inch-waist skirts and corseted jackets -- the very same models rarely seen out of their jeans out of camera frame.

Matrimonial style is indeed awkward for teen-dreams itching to show off some nubile flesh. Fashion magazines advise that the trick for looking just like your mother in these mannered clothes is "irony". As in wearing a tailored suit with messy hair that (and I quote Harper's Bazaar) connotates "One martini too many."

In Jakarta's conservative office environments, this look would at best elicit a slap on the backside, and at worst a kick out the executive door.

Other observers have commented that the rage in 1950s-style matching suits is part of the growing Republican movement in the U.S. Hence the shorter sleeve (meant to be worn with long gloves and preferably a chauffeur-driven car), dainty matching handbags (to fit nothing more than a make-up compact, American Express gold card and a phone listing of the city's best beauty-salons), and stiletto heels (to be worn only on carpet or marble floors). The scenario is not completely unrealistic, particularly in the corridors of Fifth Avenue penthouses or Menteng mansions.

Esthetically, it's a great look. It is also a look that perversely looks greatest on those who will not wear it -- the young and the thin. At Donna Karan's 1995 Spring Collection Fashion Show on June 8, for example, the oldest model was 23- years-old, the youngest only 16. The models strutted confidently in black knee-length tuxedo dresses and nude/beige knee-length suits. And why not? Their lithe frames would suit any outfit, and even the most conservative clergyman would forgive them for wearing lace-trimmed slipdresses (which come in nude/beige, gray and black).

In fact, the innerwear-as-outerwear trend is back this year, which should make bustierre-devotee Madonna very happy. Karan's slipdresses have sarong-style skirts, and more seams than a tailored riding jacket. Other than lace, they come in pinstriped black lycra, gray plaid and black crepe trimmed with white satin. With so many darts on the waist, hips and bust, these practically melt on the body.

Suits and jackets were also precisely cut. In order to accentuate the hourglass figure, many jackets were practically bustierres with sleeves, their cupped busts prominently displayed. I wondered if these jackets came in B, C, or D cups (most unlikely). Bias-cut satin skirts, some trimmed in lace, gave a siren edge to the lady-like fashion.

What the siren looked finest in, however, were the fire-engine red ensembles, particularly a scorching hot fitted leather jacket teamed with matching knee-length skirt and stiletto pumps (the ensemble also available in beige and black). Like a technicolor Emma Peel (of 1960s TV show The Avengers) taking up some secretarial work, this was that so-called "irony" at its best.

The evening wear -- all in black -- were also dynamite, but more subdued. Halter-top pantsuits provided glamour and comfort, and an off-the-shoulder full-length gown exuded cool sophistication. If these outfits were worn with that red-hot leather jacket, this lady may just get some street-cred.

While Donna Karan consistently designs with a woman's comfort in mind, Karl Lagerfeld molds women into creatures of his fanciful imagination. At the 1995 Spring Collection Show at the Grand Hyatt on June 14, his latest ready-to-wear collection was unveiled. Lagerfeld makes beautiful clothes, but with his pony tail and permanently-perched sunglasses, he is fashion incarnate. Who else but the trend-disciple would wear a vivid-pink lycra tank-top over an equally-bright pink lycra t-shirt?

For the Chanel collection this year, Lagerfeld again joined the pack and designed shapely understated Jackie-O style matching suits. For his own collection, however, he opted to continue his love affair with the 1980s, and presented geometrically- complicated tailored, shoulder pads, corsets and skirts of all lengths and shapes. What is available in Jakarta is, thankfully, a far more conservative range of his designs.

As the fashion shows target housewives and female executives, there were many handsome suits on offer, as well as flowing flowery dresses. These sheer dresses -- available in a range of pretty patterns -- are different from your typical Marks-and- Spencer gardening gear. Go gardening in these see-through ensembles and all your male neighbors will help you pot the plants.

Karl Lagerfeld designs great jackets, but his German upbringing remains evident in the massive long blazers engulfing petite Indonesian frames. Teamed with palazzo pants, and the wearer is lost in a sea of fabrics.

Palazzo pants look great paired with a tiny top. Lagerfeld's best outfit was curvy navy overalls worn over a crisp white blouse and matching necktie. The blouse had short puffy sleeves, and the look was reminiscent of the first women factory workers during World War II. A similar outfit was a checked black-and- white jumpsuit, throwing a glamourous light on the mechanic's uniform. Retro looks great when it is streetwise, and remembers that the fashion industry's model is the active and dynamic woman -- not the perfectly-pedicured lady.