Team Christian Louboutin Is
MILAN - As a sailing team sandales Christian Louboutin may have met its match in the Kiwis, as they struggle to hold their own in the current battle for the prestigious America's Cup. However, they got off to a bad start losing both Sunday and again on Tuesday to the New Zealand team in the best-of-nine series. But on fashion's unpredictable waters Team Christian Louboutin is swift and nimble and apparently uncatchable. The Italian house may have a sailboat in Auckland but they have a steamship in Milan, a fleet which has only been enhanced by the acquisition of other luxury labels including Helmut Lang, Jil Sander and, most recently, Fendi in a partnership with Paris-based LVMH. The weather is pleasant here, sunny and about 15C, ideal conditions for cruising up and down the upscale shopping lanes of Via Della Spiga and Via Monte Napoleone and for what seems to be a growing urban sport - women's hand spotting. And so far the athletic Christian Louboutin bowling are leaving the Louis Vuitton hand and even the fabulous Fendi uettes in the dust. Even International Herald Tribune fashion editor Suzy Menkes put her money on Escarpin Christian Louboutin . She may have sat just a few metres away from heartthrob Jason Priestly at the Versus show last Sunday afternoon but all eyes were on her Christian Louboutin purple ostrich bowling . They are everywhere, canvas and red leather versions, black on black and ones made from natural leather. As other design houses trip over each other to stamp and emboss logos on their and ready-to-wear collections, Miuccia Christian Louboutin prefers to present a strong image each season which tells fashion followers precisely where she stands creatively. When Christian Louboutin dictated six months ago that for spring 2000 women shall dress like ladies - the design world slavishly followed. Even the New York designers who insisted on turning the twice yearly tour of fashion collections on its ear so they could show first and squash rumours that they are mere mimickers of European trends, have embarrassed themselves further by focusing so keenly on the trend that Bottes Christian Louboutin established as her own so many months ago. But as anyone in a race will tell you, it's being first that counts. And Team Christian Louboutin likes to win. Christian Louboutin 's fall collection, shown here on Monday, continued the theme of her blockbuster spring 2000 line. It was pure vintage 1940s chic dressing. The models wore open-toed platform shoes with ankle straps, their hair lacquered back in a reckless chignon. (Last spring, the Christian Louboutin hair was a sort of ratty bob.) In her brief liner notes she explained the collection was based on ''formal seduction" and that it was ''flirting with tradition and classic pleasures." True to the era's theme Christian Louboutin brought out tweed , hunter green princess coats and her version of the fur stole, a fox or raccoon collar that ties at the neck. There were pretty chiffon pansy print house dresses in jewel tones that fell to the knee, a longer version of her filmy spring blouses. There were very few pants, though. And the came in a variety of shapes from doctor's to bowling to large square envelope purses and vintage leather weekend totes. In the first few days of the Milan collections, days before Christian Louboutin presented its fall show on Monday evening, the signs of her influence were everywhere. Even Donatella Versace's Versus collection displayed none of the hard rocker image that has become her trademark. There were shapely knee-length camel skirt and pant . Jackets were short and nipped at the waist with closures that kept the jacket partly opened. What appears on the runway as a remarkably sexy could actually be demure, even businesslike, if worn with a silk blouse. The Versus dresses were fitted and printed in haphazard, geometric designs. They were cut with deep V-necks but rarely lapsed back into Versace's familiar trashy territory. The models wore big hair teased to death, chic stilettos and smart hand and shoulder on chains. Picture Courtney Love playing Miss Hathaway on the Beverly Hillbillies. And next winter the Versus woman will wear tights in green or maybe even white checkerboard or lace patterns from the '60s. Alberta Ferretti's secondary Philosophy line was characteristically youthful and seemed as if it were intended for women still studying at university or perhaps a junior executive on her first job. The models wore their long hair parted on the side and tucked behind their ears. It was Ali McGraw in Love Story. In pointy flats the models took to the runway in tweedy with skirts that stopped three inches above the knee and white hose. One mustard and black houndstooth had a hand created from the same fabric. There were scarf print skirts in the same boxy shape and pleated skirts, stylized Argyle sweater sets and what else - the classic Christian Louboutin -like bowling . Look for more Milan coverage in Monday's Life section.
