For Spring Bridge Lines, Fashion Comes First (Published 1997) (2024)

They call it bridge. It's a word retailers coined to describe clothes priced to bridge the gap between expensive and moderate. It came to mean mainly career clothes for a woman who could afford to spend $800 to $1,000 for a three-piece outfit -- prices that just a decade ago bought a designer suit.

Then, when a designer jacket alone passed the $1,000 ceiling and the audience for such clothes started to shrink, designers sought salvation in their own secondary lines. Suddenly there were labels like DKNY and CK Calvin Klein priced to compete with powerhouses of the bridge market like Ellen Tracy.

Now, just about every designer has a bridge line, and the competition is as fierce as the television ratings game, with the big players struggling to hold on to an audience that has many new options.

''Bridge is a big part of our business, but it has been difficult,'' said Steve Bock, an executive vice president of Saks Fifth Avenue. ''One has to be very careful, because parts of it are working and parts are not working. We are seeing improvements.''

Bridge is Bloomingdale's largest ready-to-wear business, said Frank Doroff, an executive vice president. ''Bridge was a little difficult for spring,'' he said, ''and it's a little better for fall. Business is not as easy as it was three years ago.''

Butch Mullins, an executive vice president of Neiman Marcus, was more outspoken. ''The bridge business is significantly worse than a year ago and significantly worse than two years ago,'' he said. He ticked off the reasons: ''There's a sameness of the product. There isn't the differentiation that there is in the designer market. There's too much merchandise. There's more product than demand. There's a range of performance. A lot of new entries in the last two years have not been successful. They got caught up in minimalism, in modernism, in edge.''

Comfort and fit are very important to the bridge customer, Mr. Mullins added. She buys career clothes, and they have to be appropriate for work, whether in an office or a courtroom. Some New York designers who went into the bridge market have what he termed ''an urban Northeastern sensibility.''

''New York designers look very New York,'' he said. ''That works fine in New York and Los Angeles and our urban sophisticated stores. But for bridge to be viable it needs to be appealing all across the country. When it gets too neutral, too minimal or too edgy, you narrow your customer base. And when it gets too young, it doesn't work because not a lot of young customers can spend $1,000 for an outfit.''

Designers, of course, do not think it is their mission to dress the world. They want their bridge collections to have the same design sensibility as their higher-priced lines. They have discovered their El Dorado in licensed products like perfume and hosiery, not in their bridge lines, which nonetheless offer an opportunity to sell more clothes to more people. They seem to recognize that the typical bridge customer is likely to buy her wardrobe from a company like Ellen Tracy, seeking out a special piece from a designer's bridge line.

The spring bridge collections that big-name designers introduced in recent weeks mostly reflected this perspective, offering a range of styles that allows the customer to buy as much or as little as she needs, or can afford.

Donna Karan expects her DKNY customer to buy items and put them together in different ways. There are blazers and skirts or pants a woman can wear to work, but there are also satin camisoles edged with lingerie lace, sheer linen sweaters, tank dresses with shirttail hems, long dresses in crinkled fabrics or pastel florals sprinkled with tiny beads, drawstring pants, and sweaters trimmed with ribbon tape. It is an extensive collection that offers a variety of choices, ranging from sleek to romantic.

The Kors Michael Kors collection includes glen plaid jackets, pants and balmacaans; sequined stretch dresses and skirts; safari jackets matched to toreador pants; black leather minidresses; a white stretch cotton belted jacket and skirt; tweedy double-breasted pants suits; waterproof silk anoraks, and a great white shirt -- a successful style borrowed from his designer line.

''Women are always hunting for shirts,'' Mr. Kors said. ''With the right skirt or pants, you can look finished with a beautiful shirt without wearing a jacket.'' Mr. Kors has his eye on a fashion customer for both his designer and his bridge lines, and he doesn't compromise on style.

Unlike other designers, Isaac Mizrahi presented his bridge line, Isaac, in a formal runway show. There were pants suits, usually cut like men's with double-breasted jackets and pleated trousers, but there were also blazers worn over hot pants, oversize white shirts worn outside Bermuda-length shorts, wrap miniskirts, a rerun of his tricky pants with built-in sweaters tied around the hips, broomstick-pleated dresses, and tunics cut like djellabas. His version of men's wear adapted for women might be a tough sell in the hinterlands, but it packs a lot of fashion for the hip young woman he is aiming at.

Ralph by Ralph Lauren sports much of the tailoring the designer is known for, then tempers it with bias-cut skirts, floral prints and slinky knits. There are leather jackets in bright red or pale pink, dark denims in styles that easily fit into an office atmosphere, matte jerseys and shantung pieces for evening, and a lot of dresses in materials as diverse as stretch denim, wool crepe, matte jersey and georgette. The elements could be assembled in a classic way or an imaginative way by combining unexpected fabrics like pinstripes with floral silk or leather with a fine stretch knit.

CK Calvin Klein has developed a more sophisticated attitude as the designer has moved the sportier pieces into his CK Jeans line. There are several jacket bodies, including long slim shapes with covered buttons and band collars, classic three-button suit jackets, and short boxy unconstructed versions with high notched collars. To go under jackets there are fly-front voile shirts, knitted camisoles, jersey T-shirts, and Chinese-inspired shirts with side closures. The collection seems like an earnest attempt to broaden the line's appeal.

Anne Klein II and Emanuel/ Emanuel Ungaro were successful early entrants into the bridge market that had been looking tired in recent seasons. Now, each has new designers with a mandate for revitalization. But both lines still aim to dress a wide variety of women, not just the woman who craves designer clothes but can't afford to pay top price.

Emanuel's former designers -- Ken Kaufman and Isaac Franco -- have moved over to Anne Klein, where they showed their first collection for resort. The spring-into-summer collection is larger and more complete, emphasizing what the designers call collectible sportswear. That includes a variety of work-appropriate jackets, skirts and pants, shown with iridescent taffeta shirts, plus dress and jacket combinations. There are also leather and suede separates, shorts and sundresses, and both paisley-patterned and solid georgette pieces for evening.

Emanuel's new designer, Esther Chen, has kept the spotlight on career clothes, with a wealth of jackets and suits, and dresses with matching jackets, many in stretch fabrics. There are also suede and leather pieces, including minidresses, and beaded dresses for evening.