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Showing posts from September, 2013

Calvin Klein Spring-Summer 2014 RTW Fashion Show

Francisco Costa is celebrating his tenth anniversary at the helm of Calvin Klein this season. It's a milestone, and the brand is doing it up: new Tribeca venue, A-list star power in the form of Nicole Kidman and Rooney Mara (the face of the label's just-launched perfume, Downtown) in the front row, and a glitzy party planned for later this evening.  Costa, for his own part, didn't let the moment slip by. True to the house's roots, minimalism has long been the designer's signature here, but you couldn't call what he did today pared back. If he didn't exactly play against type, he certainly tried a few things that felt new. "Elevated deconstruction," he called his Spring experiment afterward. It was a gutsy show for Costa. The collection started off much as they usually do at Calvin Klein—with white, but the exposed seam allowance on the opening look's strapless wrap top and skirt flashed pink. Color was the first difference; in addition to

Bottega Veneta Spring-Summer 2014 RTW Fashion Show

Fabric was the starting point at Tomas Maier's Bottega Veneta show today. Print and color for the most part were pared back, so that his expressive volumes could do the talking. Maier developed a cotton woven with copper; the metal threads gave it a memory. He used it to sculpt mille-feuilles of ruffles that circled the hips of a short skirt, cascaded down the torso of a day dress, and bustled the small of the back on a one-shoulder dress with leather straps. The results felt ladylike, not all that unlike his 1950s-inflected Fall show, but where that was retro-strict, this had a more relaxed spirit. Inevitably, it felt more modern. How ironic, then, to hear from Maier backstage that a visit to the Metropolitan's Impressionism, Fashion, and Modernity show was what sent him down this path for Spring. Like the Impressionists, process is paramount to Maier, but as a whole it didn't bog him down. There was a real sense of drama to these clothes, but they had a nice lightness

Betsey Johnson Spring-Summer 2014 RTW Fashion Show

When you RSVP to Betsey Johnson, you’re expecting theatrics. Last season, for instance, the designer asked her runway models to do an aerobics routine incorporating Champagne bottles. For Spring, Johnson focused a little less on the extravaganza and more on the fashion. “It’s as serious as I can get,” she said backstage before the show. “It’s all about the clothes, which is very rare for me.” When Johnson focuses on the actual garment, she tends to go with her greatest hits. She sketched out the collection of jumpsuits, bodysuits, and prom dresses in just one weekend, creating a wardrobe for any eighties-obsessed teenage girl along the way. (Are there eighties-obsessed teenage girls?) The soundtrack, “Pretty in Pink” by the Psychedelic Furs, was really the only song that would have worked with the models’ cotton candy-colored curly wigs and silver lipstick—it helped the clothes along, too. There was nothing surprising here, but that doesn’t mean it wasn’t fun. A black cotton bodysu