BUENOS AIRES, Argentina — With cinched waists and sleek chignons, two dozen models showed designer Jorge Ibanez's new "Evita 2010" collection, inspired by Argentina's iconic first lady, Eva Peron.
"We are in the year of the bicentennial, showing our patriotism just below the skin," Ibanez told The Associated Press backstage before his fashion show Tuesday night. "I thought, 'What woman, more than Evita, has represented us during these 200 years?'"
Projecting femininity and power, these Evitas appeared in updated versions of Peron's wasp-waist suits and ball gowns, drifting down a spiral staircase in the historic Palacio Paz mansion on Buenos Aires' Plaza San Martin. They wore modern versions of the tailored suits Peron wore while attending to Argentina's poorest, the people she called her "descamisados," or shirtless ones.
Ibanez included black sequins, silver fabric and in some cases, shoulders so exaggerated and angular that they almost seem menacing. His bell-shaped ball gowns echo those Evita wore to state functions — complete with gloves, hats and seamed stockings.
Peron was one of the first Argentine women to wear pants in public. Ibanez tucks jodhpurs into riding boots with a belted, fur-trimmed jacket.
Maria Eva Duarte Peron emerged from poverty to become the second wife of strongman Juan Domingo Peron. Her advocacy led to women getting the right to vote, and her social programs helped many join the middle classes. She was reviled by elites, who called her a hypocrite for wearing Dior and diamonds while allying herself with the poor. For workers, however, her rags-to-riches story was inspirational, "a living example of social mobility in Argentina," said Santiago Regolo, a researcher at the Evita Museum in Buenos Aires.
Evita, who died of ovarian cancer at just 33 in 1952, wore clothing by the best Argentine and international designers. At the time, some Argentine fashion designers hid the fact that they dressed Peron to avoid upsetting their high-society clients. She still has many detractors, but attitudes are changing, Regolo says: "You wouldn't have seen this 20 years ago."
Asked how he would have dressed Evita herself, Ibanez barely paused.
"I would have made her a black velvet dress with a touch of crystals. It would have been fantastic."
Closing the show, Argentine singer Valeria Lynch, the first to sing the title role in the Spanish-language version of Andrew Lloyd-Webber's rock-opera "Evita," sang "Don't Cry for Me Argentina," from a balcony in a plaid Ibanez suit. Another Evita, the blondest seen all evening, showed off a wedding dress with silver crystals below. As the song's final notes were fading, the model collapsed on a chaise, but was soon revived by a techno tango song as Ibanez skipped down the stairs.