Michael Vollbracht for Bill Blass:

Like almost everyone else, Michael began his show on ‘neutral’ ground with the colors of the season- ivory, beige, and sand tones. His were in the form of little sweaters sets worn over short lace full skirts and trousers suits. Though Michael admitted his inspiration as “The wives of Roger Vadim, 1964 and the South of France”, alas, it sounded a bit sexier than it actually was. Instead of using those elements as a jumping off point, he took it a bit too literally. To get his point across, he had his models wearing Brigitte Bardot blond falls and in one crowd pleasing ‘passage’, a trio of Bardots came out in similar sherbert colored party dresses (fitted through the torso with full (petticoated) skirts.

Michael had also promised to feature variations on the ‘little black dress’ and noted that nothing looks better with black than sand. (And interestingly, though Bill Blass himself often used black throughout his career, and designed some pretty fabulous little black dresses, he had once observed that “rich women don’t wear black”. In any event, after having come through a fall season with so many little black dresses, Michael’s current take on the theme produced nothing too exceptional. However, what did look good was his soft, feminized take on the traditional black tuxedo. Michael’s version was a black organza jacket and short full skirt worn over a white tucked front tuxedo blouse. And continuing on with ‘The March of the Penguins’, another successful look was the sweet short sleeved organza blouse in white with black pin dots (dots again), worn over a black organza skirt. The show ended with some pretty, frothy, empire waisted organza gowns that easily recalled Bill Blass.

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