Scherrer's Youthful Try
By Karl Treacy
Photos by Gruber-FWD
PARIS, Oct 11, 2002/ FWD/ --- In her second outing for the French house of Scherrer,
Ritu Beri had sport on the brain, Ivana Trump in the front row, and trainers everywhere else.
The plastic trainer prints on the runway were a sign that a shoe fetish was in the air and
Beri literally lifted it for all it was worth, though she stressed to FWD that "it was not
about sport - it was about youth, about being young."
Beri's trainer/youth look popped up everywhere - from great wide belts in black, white and
red to bustiers to bags with tongue and lacing detail that bore a rather uncanny similarity
to Celine's World Cup accessory offerings.
Mounir Moufarrige, president of France Luxury Group, which owns Scherrer, reassured FWD that
"the bags will fly out of the shops. And those corsets, they will fly out too."
What Beri's vision for the house is, is anyone's guess, for the collection she showed veered
from beaded Eurotrash disposable chic to evening looks, of which some succeeded.
Beri's enthusiasm for embellishment meant that a flowing back gown that looked great from
the front had its impact jarred by a leather trainer laced tongue over the posterior.
Graffiti print scarves etched with 'Scherrer' were cool, especially when they were worked
into and fluttered out of asymmetric seductive dresses.
A black cocktail dress cut in bias sheer and opaque panels was the right mixture of naughty
and nice, and icy blue satin tops gathered roughly into round necklines had a couture feel.
But that was about as good as it got.
When it came to daywear, which made up two thirds of the show in one form or another,
Beri was treading water.
She could have taken her trainer theme and run with it - but her need to paste it as-is onto a
mixture of discount-style fashions left a disappointing aftertaste.
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