WASHINGTON — Washington is widely assumed to be an unfashionable town. Like most conventional wisdom, this is only partly true.
Consider this:
Washington is home to one of only three Yves Saint Laurent boutiques in the country, one of four Gianfranco Ferré boutiques and one of only two Louis Féraud boutiques.
Saks Fifth Avenue carries Romeo Gigli’s line only in New York, Los Angeles — and Washington. This fall, a local Saks is opening an Armani Black Label boutique; the next nearest is in Atlanta.
Competition among retailers is so cutthroat that one boutique owner, Harriet Kassman, removes the labels from some of her lesser-known German and Italian designers to prevent rivals from picking up the lines.
A local Neiman Marcus employs 115 fashion consultants to provide personalized service to Washington shoppers.
“Years ago this was considered a dowdy town, but there are women here who really know what to wear, and you can find everything here,” said Kassman, the owner of the two Harriet Kassman specialty stores that provide Washington women with such lines as Armani, Escada, Thierry Mugler, Genny, Claude Montana and Emanuel Ungaro. The city’s stodgy image is largely a holdover from the past, when Washington was “such a male-dominated society in many circles that I think professional women felt a need to be very careful about the way they dressed, so they were not perceived as frivolous,” said Joanne Pierce, a spokeswoman for Neiman Marcus here.
While such attitudes still exist in some places, Pierce said, “I think women have become established enough in the workplace that they can feel comfortable dressing the way they would like to dress — they can express their own personal style.”
When Pierce moved here from New York three years ago, she expected to find a city with little fashion sensibility, but came to realize “that’s a myth perpetuated by people who don’t know Washington.” She said, “Our clients are very interested in what’s new and what’s upcoming.” Two factors in fashion’s favor are the region’s wealth — D.C. and the neighboring counties in Virginia and Maryland constitute the single most affluent major market in the country (after-tax household incomes, according to 1992 statistics from the Census Bureau, average more than $58,000) — and a large international community of diplomats and business people who bring the latest looks from abroad.
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On the other side of the fashion equation are Washington’s traditionally conservative industries — government, law, banking and business — where professional women might feel they “need the focus to be on their thought and their actions, and not on their looks,” said Chi Chi Labarraque, the regional public relations and fashion director for Saks Fifth Avenue.
While most of the major designers are available here, and virtually anything can be ordered through boutiques and high-end department stores, retailers said the designers that tend to do best are suit makers: Armani, Chanel and Feraud. “Women are not nearly as trendsetting or flashy in Washington as in New York, but I think they want to convey through their clothes an air of self-confidence [and] an awareness of style,” said Tracy Mullin, a lifelong D.C. resident and president of the National Retail Federation. Retailers report that over the last few years, Washington women have virtually abandoned the formerly ubiquitous “uniform” of a conservatively cut navy or gray skirt and jacket worn with a white bowed blouse. The most striking change recently has been the addition of pantsuits, which are now widely worn here. Retailers also are selling more mixed separates, including vests, which women are combining in interesting ways in place of the matched suit. Above-the-knee skirt lengths are popular, although they rarely reach the daring level. And dress-down days have resulted in more sales of sportswear, although the highest echelons of government and business still frown upon even occasional casual dressing at the office.
Another Washington fashion trend is the popularity of office wear that can easily be transformed into something appropriate for social occasions at night, since D.C. women often must go directly from the office to events such as dinners or political fund-raising receptions. “We’re selling a lot of slipdresses with boleros or long jackets,” Neiman Marcus’s Pierce said. “Then they can remove the jacket at a club or at a function.”
Tammy Brown, director of Washington’s Chanel boutique, said she has been selling many more fashion items in the last year or two than in the past.
Popular items include a “metallic leather vest” and a black-and-white faux fur bolero jacket.
“I think women are ready to find something new and exciting to add to their wardrobes,” Brown said. A trend toward more stylishness was also noted by Susan Flack, a lawyer-lobbyist, whose firm, Flack & Associates, represents retailers such as Spiegel and Dayton Hudson Corp.
“I think women in D.C. today are standing out more and willing to look more like women,” she said. Flack said she wears more colorful clothes than she used to and in just the last few months began wearing pantsuits, even when she is meeting with members of Congress. But expressing oneself through fashion can be taken only so far in Washington without attracting unwanted attention. Laura D’Andrea Tyson, chairman of the President’s Council of Economic Advisors, said she received a number of telephone calls, from strangers as well as friends, after she wore dangling earrings at a televised news conference. She was told the earrings were distracting. Coming from a professorship at the University of California at Berkeley, Tyson said she had to quickly stock more career pieces after moving to Washington early last year. “I try to dress in a way that is appropriate without looking like everyone else, but I do take on things like the earrings,” said Tyson, who is regarded as one of the more stylish members of the current administration. Tyson said her typical work outfit involves either a matched suit in a color other than black or a black skirt and brightly colored jacket — always a solid color because it looks better on television — along with a scarf and earrings. Except on Saturdays or Sundays at the office, she never wears pants or goes without a jacket because she might have to appear at an impromptu press conference. But these choices are her own, she said, noting that some women in the administration wear pants, including White House spokeswoman Dee Dee Myers and Carol Browner, head of the Environmental Protection Agency. Tyson said she usually shops on weekends or during vacations. Locally, she favors department stores such as Nordstrom and the specialty store Episode, two retailers she patronized in California. When asked about her favorite designers, Tyson said she has only a few designer pieces, mostly Dana Buchman.
“I like Donna Karan very much, but it costs more than I choose to spend,” Tyson said.
This economical approach to wardrobing is typical of many Washington women, according to retailers. Lobbyist Flack, for example, said she rarely pays full price for clothing, and she still has a Calvin Klein suit she bought in 1972. She asks sales associates to call her when pieces she likes go on sale. “Washington takes a sensible approach to fashion,” said Katja Leonardi, a fashion consultant with the Saks Jandel boutiques here. “People save things, they cherish them. It’s a very thrifty town, in a way.”
Leonardi was also more critical of Washington fashion than other retailers interviewed. She bemoaned the “ill-fitting clothes, handbags that are very, very inexpensive and kind of neglected-looking, little makeup and haircuts that aren’t very good” that she said characterize Washington. “On the plus side, Washington women are very natural-looking, and they don’t sacrifice their individuality for fashion,” Leonardi said. “I think women should be interesting, have interesting lives and do worthwhile things. That’s part of style, too. It’s not just the stockings you wear.”
Washington fashion watchers had mixed opinions about the role of the First Lady as a trendsetter. While some maintain Hillary Rodham Clinton has no influence on the fashion scene — many cited her intellectual achievements as more of a force than her fashion sense — Mullin said Clinton has literally caused the stock of St. John knits to rise. “I went to a Women for NAFTA meeting at the White House with 200 or 300 professional women in the audience and at least 50 percent of them were wearing St. John knits,” Mullin said. “A lot of them were talking about it.”
A Saks Fifth Avenue in nearby Chevy Chase, Md., recently staged its most successful St. John knits trunk show ever, selling an unexpected $100,000 worth in two days, Labarraque said. Neiman Marcus’s Pierce believes the days of any first lady’s style sweeping the country are over. “I think women have moved beyond the kind of Sixties attitude that if Mrs. Kennedy is wearing a pillbox hat, we all want to wear it,” she said. “I think women are making intelligent decisions based on their lifestyles and what’s appropriate for them.” Clinton was unavailable to comment on her role in fashion, but her spokeswoman, Lisa Caputo, said her boss “likes to showcase the best in American designers.” In addition to St. John knits, Clinton is known to wear outfits by Donna Karan, Bill Blass, Pamela Dennis, James Purcell and Heidi Weisel. She prefers “jewel tones” and is partial to pins, Caputo said.
As for other influences, fashion magazines appear to be as important in Washington as elsewhere. Saks Fifth Avenue shoppers frequently want to order outfits they have seen in magazines, Labarraque said. Tyson said she recently bought a pink jacket after reading in Vogue that pastels are in for fall, “although I may very well have bought it anyway.”
— Fairchild News Service