“BARE LOOK”

Press, Volume CV, Issue 30976, 4 February 1966, Page 2

“BARE LOOK”

Shifts Sheer And Short

(N.Z. Press Assn.—Copyright*

PARIS, Feb. 3.

The designer, Yves SaintLaurent unveiled a Follies Bergere-like spring fashion of sheer organdy short dresses with only beaded bikinis underneath.

Although high fashion has ignored the bosom this year, Paris is burning with cutouts, bare midriffs, shoulders and backs.

Buyers who viewed the opening Saint-Laurent presentation were either amused or scandalised by the organdy shifts with demure long sleeves and high necklines. Underneath, the models wore nothing but a few rows of strategically placed beads and bras that bared the navel. “Who could ever wear them? Practically nothing underneath,” one New York buyer sighed. The crowning touch to the “bare look” that has infected the spring collections was the tongue - -in - cheek “bridal” gown that wound up the Saint-Laurent show.

A mannequin glided out wearing only a white bikini bottom, silver shoes and sprays of lilies-of-the-valley hiding her chest and face.

Nontheless the Saint-Laur-ent show, to which the press was not invited, was declared a roaring success by several buyers. Saint-Laurent got on the bare knees bandwaggon by hoisting his hemlines two to three inches above the knees.