|
NEW YORK
— The clothes that designers showed for fall during
New York Fashion Week, which ended Thursday, invoked the
classics, but with interesting, modern ideas mixed in.
Among the trends we think we'll see women wearing come
September are these five.
MENSWEAR
MASH-UP
Alexander Wang
is the young
New York
designer everyone is watching right now, and his
collection of sexy, deconstructed pinstripe suits set
the tone for a season of creative menswear dressing for
women. Among Wang's most memorable offerings: pinstripe
pants with the waistband lopped off to expose a bare
navel, and a morning jacket with the front removed and a
bandeau left in its place.
For other
designers, the trend was more about mixing hard and
soft, tailored and ruffled in one outfit.
Ralph Lauren
paired a charcoal wool men's vest and "spat
pants" that buttoned at the ankles with a romantic
purple plaid blouse with puffed sleeves.
Diane von Furstenberg
put a rosette-embroidered bolero over a pinstripe suit
with cropped, flared pants.
Designers
put an emphasis on classic tailoring. In a logical
extension of the boyfriend blazer and boyfriend sweater
craze,
Donna Karan
described the oversized, man-styled coats in her DKNY
collection as "boyfriend coats."
And it
wasn't a fussy gown but a tuxedo that was the season's
most viable evening option. The best?
Phillip Lim's
gold lame version and
Vera Wang's
charcoal wool jersey tuxedo jumpsuit.
BLACKOUT
Black is
the new black. (We had to say it.) In a season when
retailers and shoppers alike are pinching their pennies,
there's a premium on clothes with added value. And so
designers knew they couldn't go wrong with the classic,
goes-with-everything color. The resurgence of black also
reflects an attempt to cut through the clutter of fast,
celebrity-fueled fashion in favor of a less complicated
way of dressing.
For some
designers, this meant showing black on black. At
Mary-Kate and
Ashley Olsen's
line the Row, slouchy black tie-front silk trousers were
paired with a black silk blouse buttoned all the way to
the top, and a black leather shell was worn over a
long-sleeved, black chiffon shirt, with black
full-legged pants.
Ralph Lauren
layered a short, black tulle Deco beaded dress over a
black cashmere turtleneck for a more understated evening
look.
Donna Karan
and
Vera Wang
presented entire collections that were almost all black,
emphasizing texture and drape to bring out the richness.
When it came to timelessness, you couldn't get much
better than
Derek Lam's
plunge-front, long-sleeve silk jersey gown.
CAPED
CRUSADERS
We
started to see them on the streets this winter, but come
fall you will be able to get your pick from nearly every
New York
designer. The cape came in a dozen permutations, from
preppy sport to Russian czarina luxe.
Alexander Wang's
camel-colored, ankle-sweeping cape had a military feel,
while
Zac Posen's
camel-colored cape was shorter and sweeter, with an
oversized collar.
Neither
wind nor snow would ruffle
Marc Jacobs'
cape, in thick shearling with a bushy fur collar, which
looked like it would be at home on a Bronte on the
English moors, while
Peter Som's
cape, in deep blue broadtail with a fur hem, seemed
suited for a snow princess.
Phillip Lim
had capes and ponchos aplenty. His buff-colored
blanket-checked cape was as suited to the hoof and hound
set as it was to denizens of hip downtowns. Lim didn't
forget the women who live in climates that rarely if
ever get wind and snow. For them, he has a white Oxford
cloth button-down cape shirt.
ART CLASS
Painting
and collage are an endless well of inspiration for
designers.
Proenza
Schouler's collection conjured street art, particularly
the splattery, graffiti-print jeans, the result of a new
collaboration between designers
Jack McCollough
and
Lazaro Hernandez
and J Brand jeans.
Ralph Rucci
worked with
Kyoto
gold leaf master Hiroto Rashusko on textiles, while the
knits and color patch knit dresses at DKNY referenced
the graphic style of the Bauhaus.
When it
comes to collage, Rodarte designers
Kate and Laura Mulleavy
have perfected the technique, presenting garments made
from mixed materials for several seasons now. This time,
they combined floral prints, tulle, lace, beads and
pearls to make romantic rag dresses. In the Ohne Titel
collection,
Flora Gill
and
Alexa Adams'
collage dresses combined black leather, crystals and
mesh for a look that was more utilitarian but no less
artistic.
TACTILE
SENSATION
"Texture
mixes, crushed cashmere, clouds of mohair." That
was how Michael Kors summed up the tactile sensation of
fall dressing. At his show, camel-colored cashmere coats
and jackets had a rumpled, lived-in look reflecting a
new kind of relaxed glamour.
Comfort
dressing doesn't have to mean sweatpants (though there
were some of those on the runways — in cashmere, of
course). It can mean Kors' cowl-neck mohair sweater
dress,
Phillip Lim's
merino wool poncho,
Marc Jacobs'
oversized fisherman's cable knit sweater, Rodarte's
looped knit skirt or
Oscar de la Renta's
fuzzy-wuzzy shaggy white tunic.
It can
also mean something entirely more dressed up, such as
Jason Wu's
pink, embroidered gauze ribbon dress, which resembled
spun sugar, or
Tory Burch's
lavender feather skirt.
There's
always fur too, which turned up on nearly every runway.
Those fur-trimmed clutch purses from Kors really had a
soft touch.
———
|
