Word: fairchild
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...Longuette? Although the term midi has now come to mean anything from below the knee to the ankle, it still meant mid-calf at the beginning of 1970. So Fairchild coined the word Longuette to launch his midi juggernaut last January. The paper's Paris bureau complained that there was no such word, but Fairchild knew better. He mailed them a page from his Cassell's French-English dictionary, where he had found it. WWD's front-page kickoff story began: "The word longuette means, in French, 'longish, somewhat long, pretty long, too long.' That just about sums...
From then on, WWD relentlessly pushed the midi. In stories, gossip items and pictures, it pounded the theme: "The whole look of American women will now change, and die-hard miniskirt adherents are going to be out in the fashion cold." In Rome, Fairchild photographers found "Longuette Thoroughbreds" at a horse show. In London, they spotted "Longuette Birds" and "Sportive Longuettes." Back in the U.S., the paper claimed that executives along Manhattan's Seventh Avenue, the central
...Completely" is too strong by far, but many in the fashion trade have indeed placed huge stakes on Fairchild's gamble. Because of the recession and the mini-midi hesitation of American women, fabric mills have slowed down, clothing manufacturers have gone out of business or "into suspension," and retailers are hurting. If hemlines go down far enough, women will have to buy complete new wardrobes; midi dresses, skirts, coats; belts and bags; higher-heeled shoes and boots. That could mean millions of dollars in sales, and security for thousands of jobs. Katherine Murphy, a fashion coordinator for Manhattan...
...into its pages nearly every day, midi purchases are still pretty much limited to the fringe crowd?women who want to be first with anything new, no matter what; women who need to hide atrocious legs; women who do things just to be different. Manhattanites who might run into Fairchild at Restaurant X, Y or Z (see glossary) probably own at least one midi; eager candidates for a mention in a WWD gossip column certainly...
...many ways, Fairchild seems to agree with the anti-midi movement when he talks about the changing influence of fashion. "No one can dictate fashion," he says. "It is like telling someone what they must eat." He also stresses the growing influence of youth: "Paris still gives fashion authority. But today, fashion is born on the world's streets, in the East Village, and on the Left Bank, on King's Road and the Corso in Rome." He would be the first...