New cover-ups for long-stemmed spectators
This season women's sportswear and boot designers, inspired no doubt by all the leg that American girls are showing of late, have gone to new lengths to protect, while still showing off, the celebrated American limb. Extremities that would get chilblains in stadium and arena will be covered up by long, glove-soft boots made out of two-way-stretch pseudo-leather and pliable stretch vinyl. They slip on as easily as nylon hose; in fact, many of the skintight boots are meant to be held up by garters, like stockings. Because they are warm and water-repellent as well as sleek, the boots demand snug accompaniments in clothing, and designers have created winter's warmest coats and slickers to go with them. There are new vinyl rain slickers that are either thigh-high or calf-length, with blanket-plaid wool linings. There are short woolen dresses meant to be worn with snug boots, an extra woolen underskirt and cape coats. The extremes of the look, the long and the short of bundling up for fall festivities, are shown here by a group of New Yorkers on a spree in the winter departments of New York sporting goods specialists.
Vinyl thigh-high boots and multi-striped wool leggings are worn with fall's new stitched-camel and striped-llama polo coats by Claudia Duxbury and Viveca Insulander as they shop for a pre-fab ski house at Abercrombie & Fitch with polo-coated Ric Colby (left). Stretch pseudo-leather boots that fit like a glove are counterpoint to a leather-trimmed Cossack great coat with plaid lining worn by Marsha Metrinko, shopping for Ski-Bobs at the same store.
Vinyl boots match vinyl slickers, long or short, yellow or black, worn by Christel Ibsen and Helene Ferguson (left) at Cosby's Madison Square Garden hockey shop. At right, they underscore the many-plaided, many-layered costume worn by Alice Mac-Graw at the Princeton Skate & Ski Shop.
WHERE TO BUY
On page 56: Claudia Duxbury and Viveca Insulander wear polo coats by Donald Brooks. Claudia's is $265 at Amelia Gray, Beverly Hills; Lord & Taylor, New York. Her fisher hat is by Adolfo. The brown vinyl boots by Herbert Levine are $65. Viveca's coat is $325 at Halle Bros., Cleveland; Lord & Taylor, New York; all Saks Fifth Avenue stores. The striped stockings are custom-made. Ric Colby's double-breasted camel's-hair coat is $195 at Dunhill Tailors, New York. On the following page: Marsha Metrinko wears a coat by Oscar de la Renta. It is $475. She also wears a tunic dress with matching wool shorts that is $215. Her black fox hat is by Adolfo. The boots by David Evins are $75. The outfit is at Hutzler's, Baltimore; Sakowitz, Houston. On the color page opposite: Christel Ibsen wears a stretch-vinyl slicker with a plaid wool lining. The coat is $110, the matching boots $65. The sou'wester is by Adolfo. Helene Ferguson's black slicker is $60 and the boots are $65. Both outfits and boots, by Herbert Levine, are at Bonwit Teller, New York; Neiman-Marcus, all stores. At right: Alice MacGraw wears Rudi Gernreich's black-and-white wool-tweed tunic and separate dirndl underskirt with matching cape coat. The tunic and the skirt are $215, the coat $195 at Bonwit Teller, New York; Nan Duskin, Philadelphia. The vinyl boots by Capezio are $35.
FOUR PHOTOS
JOHN G. ZIMMERMAN