Fashion: Paris report

For a woman whose life centers around the swimming pool or the beach six months of the year, there's plenty of fashion news in the French spring and summer ready‐to‐wear collections. If every night there's a costume party or the opening of a new, lively discothèque she's got to be seen at, ditto. But if she works all day and is glad to put her feet up when she comes home, and maybe once or twice a week invites some close friends over to share her cooking, then she'd better look elsewhere for ideas for what to put on her back.

To judge by these collections, life is a cabaret when it's not a beach party. Such practical gear as a raincoat is rare. Blazers are unmentionable. Inevitably, some of these ideas wrought in the name of fashion will filter down to the lives of more plebeian mortals, But for serious clothes that fit into one's life and do not become the focus of it, the best advice is to think American.

Among the styles that are most likely to make the trans‐Atlantic journey is Yves Saint Laurent's laced‐front corselet top. It closely resembles the Merry Widow bra a generation of women wore under their strapless dresses 20 years ago. That was an undergarment that besides lifting the bosom nipped the waistline and held up the stockings. This one is worn outside, like a blouse or a T‐shirt, and it has its charm. The designer likes it best in khaki‐colored poplin, worn with a bouffant matching skirt. The poplin represents, he says, “the poor look,” which he considers most prophetic for evening wear.

But he also showed various other versions, often in black velvet, in his marathon collection, which ran to 281 numbers and offered, along the way, something for everyone. Except someone looking for a tailored jacket. The corselet looks amusing with Bermuda shorts, dramatic with big, flouncy skirts and a bit eccentric with the bloused pants that in Paris are being called Zouave trousers. But undoubtedly it will leave its mark on the way people dress, for both day and evening.

Karl Lagerfeld's special contribution to the world's fashion this time is a cummerbund, or obi, that wraps around the waist and has camisole‐type straps attached, thereby turning it into a kind of vest. He wraps it around his fragile silk dresses with their MarieAntoinette ‐ playing ‐ milkmaid airs and pairs it with bikinis as well. So here's another double‐threat fashion, adding its aura to casual as well as dress‐up clothes.

Conventional trousers have pretty much disappeared from the runways in Paris. In their place are Bermuda shorts, shorter shorts and a variety of bloomers, ranging from the rompers variety that children wear to the longer, billowing Zounve pants. Then there's another category of pants that wraps and ties like the Indian dhoti or diapers. Ter et. Bantine is one of the special advocates of diapers.

Of course, the mini is the big news. Its most dramatic form is the voluminous smock that Kenzo devised, always belted at the hips. But other designers showed shirts as dresses or shirts over shorts, as Dior did. Cardin's handkerchief‐pointed mini was most arresting. It was part of his first teen‐age collection, and its saving grace is that it was planned for 16‐year‐olds. As a beach or resort costume for young teen‐agers, the mini with points has something to recommend it.

Almost every designer jbmped on the short‐skirt bandwagon, including Givenchy, whose clients are mostly no longer teen‐agers. But he put together a loose little minidress with ruching, around the hipline instead of a belt just in case a young swinger does come along.

Sonia Rykiel bared the legs —quite a bit of the legs—with her first short skirts in years, Usually her skirts hover about the ankles. For evening, she showed brief shifts, generally accompanied by feather wraps. For day, she showed Bermuda shorts. Her new sweaters are tunic length, and sometimes they're worn over Bermuda shorts. Sometimes they're worn over long skirts, and sometimes they're worn alone. Rykiel sewed straps into her cardigans and her knitted coats so they can he worn over the shoulder.

Dorothee Bis has a habit of adding a matching pouch bag to her minisweaters, slinging it over the shoulder. Sometimes there are two pouch bags. Sometimes there aro knitted hip bands instead of belts to pull the sweater close to the body. Sometimes there are two hip bands as well as two bags.

Accessories? Crew socks and sneakers at Bis. Else where, espadrilles that lace up the leg, flat sandals — or sneakers.

Other trends: Polynesian prints; strapless tops, or sweaters with V ‐ necklines wide enough to fall off one shoulder; cancan ruffles on Saint Laurent's big skirts (which are worn with the corselet tops); drawstrings at Dior, along with knee‐length skirls; flounced skirts that look Caribbean or Spanish; gold belts, gold sandals, gold headbands—all for daytime, of course, not evening.

Obviously, there's a good deal going on in Paris, some of it memorable, some not. Occasionally arresting to the eye, these clothes seem out of step with the rest of the world. This time, Paris was one big sunst ruck bazaar, geared to everybody's summer vacation. Unfortunately, there are other aspects of living.