For the past several years, the Grand Ballroom in Manhattan's Plaza Hotel has served as the initial stopoff for a multicity presentation of Playboy's Creative Menswear International Designer Collection--a black-tie fashion show and dinner dance presided over by our Fashion Director, Robert L. Green. "In today's world, fashion is art, and this collection may be viewed as the most comprehensive exhibition of contemporary creativity in (text concluded on page 184) turned out (continued from page 139) menswear," said Green, as he provided incisive commentary on the invitation-only offerings that had been submitted by 60 renowned designers. The audience of 400 personalities from the fashion, social, business and entertainment worlds, who had each paid $100 to dine, dance and view the clothes (all for the benefit of a menswear development fund at New York's Fashion Institute of Technology), found Green's sartorial critique almost as entertaining as the selections.
The list of designers invited to display one-of-a-kind wares that met Playboy's standards of design excellence read like an international edition of Who's Who in Fashion and included such eminent couturiers as Bill Blass, Hubert de Givenchy, Pierre Cardin, Yves St. Laurent, Pierre Balmain and Marc Bohan of Christian Dior. America's pop-poster king, Peter Max, was also invited to contribute; he came forth with the starstamped jump suit pictured on page 143. From Eastern Europe, the apparel firm of Cen-Tro-Tex of Prague, Czechoslovakia, offered a handsome three-piece wool walking suit. Xavier de La Torre of Mexico chose to focus his creative thinking on the influence fashion has on leisure and presented an embroidered white-cotton resort formal shirt and pants that would be right at home in Acapulco.
If one word could be chosen to describe the cumulative impression left by the Playboy Collection, it would have to be liberation. Men's clothing no longer is a tradition-bound industry in which a popular trend, such as the Ivy look, could indefinitely bind creative thinking. "Today, nobody's trying to force men into a mold," is Green's way of putting it. "All the designers are doing different things, so men can choose what they like. It's the guy spending the money who should decide what's right for himself."
Undoubtedly, the fact that each of the designers was obviously doing his own thing contributed to Green's decision, in establishing the show's ground rules, to bypass designer awards. And when the last model had left the runway, no one in the audience felt the need for additional accolades.
"Fashion is a great smorgasbord," says Green, "and all are invited to the table; nobody should be on a diet." After a look at our random sampling of Collection clothes, which begins on page 139, we're sure you'll agree.
