BY now it's a truism that successful fashion houses are never dependent on fashion. What matters in this business is licensing of a brand name; that's where the serious money can be found. Parfums Dior, for example, reported sales of US$863 million in 1994 - almost five times as much as was made by the Dior fashion label.
But there's still a need to manufacture a line of clothes because without this, the profile of a fashion house will go into steep decline, affecting demand for all products carrying the house name.
That's why many a well known company whose founder has long since died is still in existence; the difference of late, however, is that a number of these old fashion labels have begun to employ fresh young talent which in turn is revitalising the whole industry. An instance of new wine doing well in old bottles, there's frequently more interest in these collections than in those being produced by better known designers.
As quickly became apparent last week in Paris, members of the new generation share a number of important characteristics: fondness for a monochrome palette, dislike of extraneous detail and a keen appreciation of sharp edged tailoring.
All of these qualities were on show at Nina Ricci where German born Myriam Schaefer has been in charge for the past four seasons. Schaefer loves neat suiting but she is as happy to produce this in black vinyl as in the more predictable grey flannel. Her mannish jackets have their severity softened by being drawn in at the waist with bows of silk chiffon. Long militaristic black cashmere coats also lose their possible aggression when they open to expose wrap over dresses in wool crepe. At her most unyielding, Schaefer can serve up a khaki tweed belted safari jacket with tiny double vent at the back and matching close fitting skirt to the knee, but for evenings she turns irretrievably romantic with satin crepe and chiffon.
Unlike Nina Ricci, Nino Cerruti may be still alive but he has a new young designer for his womenswear; 35 year old American Narcisso Rodriguez whose debut collection last week again showed a distinct preference for tailoring. So he offered lots of trouser suits in shantung and wool, the pants showing a modest flare and jackets fastening high and sitting close on shoulders and at the waist. Coats were also either long and military inspired or else on the knee and belted. Rodriguez's colours were predominantly camel and chocolate; the latter for a suede fitted shirt jacket, the former for a ribbed mid thigh polo neck tunic top with matching cardigan. Naturally there was some black too, such as a sleeveless high necked shift dress in wool jersey or a belted black satin trenchcoat.
If Rodriguez's collection seemed a trifle severe, it looked positively indulgent next to that produced by Josephus Melchior Thimister, showing for the second time at Balenciaga. One of the greatest designers this century, Cristobal Balenciaga who died four years after his retirement in 1968, was renowned for the austerity of his work. That spirit lives on in Thimister and it's clearly right for now because from the very first outfit, he was drawing sustained audience applause on Saturday afternoon.
Pared down to an absolute minimum, his dresses and suits are made almost exclusively in double wool gabardine, organza, shantung and wool crepe. Like the original Balenciaga, he often gives cowled hoods to sleeveless knee length shifts as though to underline their Puritan quality. Many of these dresses also have flyaway sack backs and high square necklines. Coats are of the same length and unadorned save for large diagonally placed pocket flaps and, occasionally, half belts at the back. Mohair and angora knits are of the plainest design while with his flared flat fronted pants, Thimister teams backless waistcoats. Here again, colours are restricted to black, white, camel, chocolate and charcoal grey. If you're looking for purity of line and stripped back tailoring, right now Thimister has few equals.