Storm Irene: Anabela Belikova

Monday, January 4, 2010

VERA WANG PRE-FALL 2010.

VERA WANG

PRE-FALL 2010 COLLECTION

Vera Wang's ready-to-wear is synonymous with a sort of artsy dressiness, so her pre-fall collection of tailoring, structured outerwear, and body-hugging knits was something of a departure.

"I'm pushing myself out of my comfort zone," the designer said.

But Wang seems quite assured working with these new categories.

A boy blazer in charcoal wool twill with a double lapel in darker gray was coolly confident.

If her client isn't quite ready to work a suit (the jacket was paired here with a short, sculpted skirt), Wang included plenty of the layerable lean basketball T-shirts and leggings she's long been known for.

Black tinsel trim on hems and Mongolian lamb swatches on pockets or shoulders ensured that her parkas and anoraks looked signature, too.

And despite the fact that she was focused mostly on daywear (retailers are looking for versatility and low cost per wear), she showed one of her most stunning evening looks in a long time.

It was a tulle T-shirt dress with a swirl of multicolor paillettes, sequins, and beads on the front and simple black jersey on the back.

It'll be expensive, but it'll be worth it.

MODEL:

HANNE GABY ODIELE

MODEL:

KATE KOSUSHKINA

MODEL:

ANABELA BELIKOVA

Friday, September 25, 2009

Prada Spring 2010 RTW.

Lindsey Wixson

It's a measure of Miuccia Prada's reputation as one of fashion's great intellectuals that we can be thrown into a mild tizzy when she's being (relatively) light and straightforward.

Iselin Steiro

For Spring, there weren't any of the brooding, disconcerting undercurrents we expect from her; no hard-to-read subtextual brain teasing. Instead, Prada did "business to beach," a representation, she said, of "how life is today. High and low, palazzos, and the popular," and, she smiled, "I really liked it."

Jacquelyn Jablonski

Her girl was chic and together looking, with a teased, side-swept hairdo and shiny vermilion lips, making her way through a high-tech fantasy set on which projections of sumptuous Italianate interiors—checkered marble floors, pillars, chandeliers—alternated with fragments from touristy beach scenes.

Freja Beha Erichsen

The merging of modernity and classicism played in the fabric of the opening "business" section: precise, angular gray duchesse satin and nylon coats, jackets, vests, and Bermudas that had been scissored off to leave raw edges.

Patricia van der Vliet

Manipulated photographic prints showing palm trees, beach umbrellas, and lounging holidaymakers were then applied to jackets, short shorts, and panties—seemingly an evocation of the fifties and sixties, though actually, according to Prada, drawn from images of a man-made resort in Japan. "It took me ages to find the right one," she said.

Lisanne De Jong

In other words, there was plenty of the wearable Prada in there (ignoring the panties and the section of semi-sheer cloque baby-doll things), pieces to appease both the seekers of minimal daywear and the collectors of her decorative print-y things. In the finale, too, there were offerings of the embellishment overload that is also an essential part of Prada, including silver- and crystal-embroidered tops and showpieces made of strung-together chandelier components.

Anabela Belikova

No existential-political angst about the state of the world, then? Not at all—and that, Prada concluded, is just her point. "When things are bad, you have to come out from that. Optimism," she declared, "is a choice."