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ETCETERA Fashion from page A7 Alber Elbaz, the American still feeling his way in Yves Saint Laurent’s Rive Gauche line, has plenty of good technicians, but the clothes are neither fish nor fowl; they don’t have The Master’s touch or the Elbaz fantasy style. However, the trench coats and white or dark pinstripe trouser suits are reassuringly chic. Yohji Yamamoto shows Mainly long looks that hark back to another century. Slyly clever as they are with their ruffle-puffs at the waist, arabesques of stitching, hints of romantic skirts, they’re still an exercise in nostalgia. Karl Lagerfeld at Chanel took the familiar theme of quilting and moved it off handbags into clothes, mainly fencers’ vests. They looked handsome with sleek black skirts. The latest evening Chanel look for the sophisticate is narrow black pants with a jet-sparkling lacy tunic. Notice also very fitted jackets in “papier de soie” the new tissue paper-like silk. If Lagerfeld was colorful enough in blacks and oranges to double for Prince ton at Halloween (and this is summer?), several other top designers went in for rainbows of color and romance, among them Jean-Paul Gaultier, Emanuel Ungaro and Valentino. Gaultier’s work exemplified the typical sexy, brief and sunny look of many spring collections. Lots of bare midriffs and hot pants came out in clever and col orful Lycras. A good idea was the wild print convertible Lycra dresses to be peeled off over the teeny bikinis underneath. His fondness for hipster denim jeans caters to the young. Emanuel Ungaro’s take on 70s disco looks included some pretty print flounced dresses, stretch tie-dyed jeans with tunic-dresses, and some swing ing trouser suits — one in hot fuchsia worn with a dotted turquoise silk blouse. As always, Valentino could not resist luxury with a capital L. His watery crepes de chine, the pretty embroidered dresses and cardigans, the fine prints are in daz zling good taste. In tune with the times and her good haute couture name, Hanae Mori opted for red-stitched and red leather-piped denim styles in a new take on the denima nia sweeping recent fashion shows. But her pieces de resistance were the silky huge butterfly-flower prints for evening gowns. These evening looks —Mme. Mori’s trademark — are to die for. The general silhouettes from Paris are feminine, un remarkable, no exaggeration except maybe in the skin trade. A lot of bared navels and legs are shown, though usually for beach clothes. Skirts may be long for daytime but are usually short. Trousers are still a hap py favorite. Stella McCartney for Chloe brought back hints of her parents’ era, with flared, dressy pants — acres of real gold chains as toppers. Apparently it’s the end for now of strict minimalism. Fancy is replacing plain again. Denim and tie-dyed hipster jeans of the ’70s have made a comeback. Syn thetics get better looking all the time, including the stretch fabrics. Luxury goods include leather, crepe de chine, chiffon, and lace. But this is not to foiget the plastic, molded (aeroplane) dresses shown off first in London, then in a Paris exhibition by Hussein Chalayan. The future is here, if you want to look slick as a plane, fuel flaps and all. The body look is female, the details aeronautic. Color is newly important, with the dreary grays and muted tones of recent seasons giving way to cheerier options. Oh sure, you’ve got chic Yohji Yamamoto, mostly white and a tad of black. But there are also explosions elsewhere of chartreuse, grassy green, daffodil yellow, sea-blue and lagoon turquoise. Hot siren red, shocking pink, plum, laven der and violet appear, usually mixed in prints. You can still bet on desert whites and sand shades for summer suits in cottons and linens, along with chic Nile and khaki greens. The shoe scene sports anything from Gaultier’s tie-up thong models matching the swimsuit to simple low two-strap sandals and death-defying stilettos. And then of course the boots, cowboy-style at Dior and cutely striped at Christian Lacroix. Italian fashion designers shed dark colors in 2000 by Daniela Petroff Associated Press MILAN, ITALY — Black has become such a way of fashion life these-days that even children feel garish in anything brighter than light gray. But that'will all change when Italian designers shed their dreary winter cocoon and burst out in radiant color, for the spring-summer 2000, the first fashion season of the year 2000. , . This is true not only of labels like Versace, where black suppresses a natural tendency to flaunt a Mediterranean palette, but also of conservative labels like Armani and Prada where bland tones are meant to emphasize; the understated fashion message. Shades of lilac, burgundy, champagne and glistening silver highlight Miuccia Prada’s summer look, while Armani opts for pastels. Bright leaf green and orange red are Donatella Versace’s colorful choices. The summer color scheme starts with a pale pastel, then bursts into bold citrus shades ranging from bright lemon to orange and lime green. Pink finds its way into almost every collection. Blue replaces gray. To emphasize the new cheery chic, the designers use lots of shiny plasticized fabrics, glistening Lurex and multicolored beading. Add to all this bold floral and geo metric prints and you come up with a summer bright as fireworks on the Fourth of July. .With the new release of color comes a new freedom of choice for the upcoming season. “Fashion should be pick and choose,” said Stefano Gabbana, of the Dolce & Gabbana duo, after their spring-summer preview presentation in Milan in October, staged in the setting of an open-air market. Designer inspiration this round goes from ethnic to peasant, glitzy socialite to scruffy punk, with a general trend toward a return to ladylike dressing. Trouser shapes range from extra-tight to comfortably loose, with the favorite style cropped anywhere between ankle and knee. With the new emphasis on the prim and proper, skirt hemlines play mainly around the knee. Others, however, creep up the thigh, culminating in Dolce & Gab bana’s six-inch strip. Both Tom Ford for Gucci and Miuccia Prada, trendsetters in Italian design, have great plans for the new 2000 lady. The Prada socialite loves the soft feel of cashmere in a myriad of sweaters with a slim graceful belt to mark the waistline, worn with knee-length skirts and thick heeled pumps. 2000 Sophistication for Tom Ford means a sexy black dress jazzed up by a pair of cherry pink stockings. Footwear is an open-toed sandal with a six-inch sensibly thick heel. There will be fewer tank tops next summer, replaced by bare-backed apron tops in anything from traditional silk to high-tech plasticized fabrics. But one can also be fashionable in a T-shirt, blouse, bra top or closely fitted sweater. Not forgetting that it is freedom-of-choice season, Prada offers hot pants worn with flaming red fishnet stockings, Armani suggests colored punk strands in the hair to go with the pastel colored embroidered clam diggers of his Emporio line, and Donatella Versace lets her woman choose between a demure floral printed silk gown and a pair of sizzling sequined hotpants. Summer will be a good season for silk manufacturers with designers favoring silk jersey, silk and chiffon prints, and heavy doses of gilded and silver silk fabric. Footwear comes mainly in high-heeled pumps, slingbacks or one-strap sandals. Karl Lagerfeld for Fendi introduces the suspended heel, built on a metal brace. In an odd season switch, stockings, declared out of fashion for winter, make a summer comeback in fishnet, leopard print and bright pink. With all the sparkle from shiny fabrics and twinkling sequins there is not much need for jewelry next spring and summer. Makeup, too, tends toward a natural look, Except for the spiked style at Gucci, intended to be neo-punk but actually closer to latter day scarecow, hairstyles are sedate, either long and straight, or pinned up in a ladylike manner. In conclusion, a quick tip: enjoy the color while you can as there may be more dark days ahead. In January, Milan hosted the Italian menswear shows for the winter of2000-2001, the first hint of next year’s trends. The guys all wore black. Student Organizations: - Send 4 Members, Send 5<h FREE Registration will not be accepted after January 28, 2000 wt $25 for USC-Columbia participants ^ $35 for non-USC-Columbia participants Make checks payable to Leadership Programs. For more information, please call 777-6688. Presented by: Office of Leadership Programs»Department of Student Life-Division of Student and Alumni Services