Exactly who started this season s trends for transparency, pale color, and bouncy crinolined skirts, we may never know. All that s certain is that it takes a practiced eye to handle all three of them at once—but if anyone can get away with it, it s Karl Lagerfeld. On the Fendi runway, he made bell-shaped dresses—with their accompanying three levels of sheer fabric in the skirt—look molded in a graphic way, rather than ingenue-cute or dubiously sleazy (pitfalls that have been encountered by others who ve gone the way of see-through).
With that, Lagerfeld established a modernist, cinch-waisted silhouette, further de-cloyed by up-sprouting quiffs, that ran throughout the collection—and he cleverly dispensed broderie anglaise, tablecloth lace, and laser cutouts as he went along. It made enough of a statement to carry the show, but, as always, the real news-making content was the shape of the Fendi bags. This season, it s the "kangaroo pouch"—vaguely similar to the Hermès Birkin, but with one side draped open.
