Second day of disillusion at New York Fashion Week

My disillusion with fashion continued during the second day of the New York Fashion Week.

I find it almost impossible to look at collections such as Charlotte Ronson’s with its cropped tops, see-through leggings, black lace tops and dirt splattered shorts, Shaun Kearney’s for Cynthia Steffe's ruffled tops, tiered skirts, cutesy denim dungarees and romantic flowery prints, or Erin Wasson x RVCA’s metallic sequins scattered on bland cropped tops and holey jumpers, and not think about the High Street retailers being ready to spit out more or less the same designs even earlier than the next seasons.

In a nutshell, the second day of New York Fashion Week seemed to be still low on great inspirations, themes, tailoring innovation and, above all, research.

Take Cushnie et Ochs, sooner or later the time will arrive for them to try and present something different from their body-con dresses and then I’m not sure what will happen.

For the Spring/Summer 2010 Carly Cushnie and Michelle Ochs endowed their sharply cut body-con dresses – in a palette of black, aqua, peach/orange and white – with sheer inserts and sexy slashes, the latter actually looking rather out of place in long evening gowns.

You wonder if they will somehow manage to leave behind, or at least limit, their obsession for second skin dresses in future, though it’s hard to imagine how easily they will be able to do it.

Another “victim” of the slash and slit mania was Cynthia Rowley that opted for cute looks with a disturbing feeling about them such as burnt or frayed edges, unfocused prints and horizontal slashes on grosgrain trousers and dresses.

There was barely anything new, though, when it came to the cut of most of the pieces in the collection which was rather disappointing.

Yigal Azrouël was instead mesmerised by asymmetrical motifs and cut outs, rather than by slashes, and he used them on swimsuits, skirts and mini-dresses.

Though his designs with appliquéd elements that seemed to reproduce bandage-like motifs on the body weren’t too bad, Azrouël’s most interesting pieces were the more casual ones such as long jersey dresses or bi-coloured trousers for men.

Jeffrey Costello and Robert Tagliapietra’s fluidly draped dresses were rather interesting mainly because there was a little bit of research behind them.

The prints used for the dresses were based on digital images shot by Costello himself and the colour combination was pleasant, though a couple of thick elastic belts on some outfits should have definitely been avoided.

There was much more variation at Gary Graham’s where the designer experimented with fragile romantic pieces with frayed appliquéd motifs.

Some pieces looked as if they had been stored in a trunk since the 1800s, and there were hints at deconstruction or at menswear, with tops and skirts asymmetrically wrapped around the body and oversized jackets. Though everything wasn't perfectly original, there were some interesting contrasts.

Juan Carlos Obando somehow slightly restored my faith in fashion thanks to his handmade outfits.

His "Imaginary Forces" collection surely didn't feature extremely perfect pieces, but his dust coated skirt suits were well constructed with rigid lines that gave a sculptural edge to the body.

It's undeniable, though, that the best pieces were the dresses that echoed in a darker and almost rusty palette his designs for the Spring/Summer 09 season and that featured swirling motifs of fabrics that, twist
ing endlessly over the body, sensually hugged it.

One thing you could say against Jason Wu is that he has become extremely sophisticated in practically no time.

Jealousy aside, it’s interesting to find somebody as young as Wu who seems to have quite a good knowledge of fabrics and of not being scared of showing it.

Wu balanced sporty looks with chic influences, coming up with coloured tweed jackets and trousers that were crossovers between Chanel and a tracksuit, practical yet elegant shorts and cardigans, tulip skirts, cocktail dresses (maybe too many in fact…), over the knee one shoulder dresses with sculpted motifs, and strapless dresses covered with soft feathers in pale pink that contrasted with lime green ribbon belts. To add a further touch of chic all the models wore black hats or stylish headdresses.

There was an uncanny amount of biker jackets, cyclist shorts and leggings, sequins and mini-dresses, the latter featuring digital print inserts à la Emilio Pucci on acid, used as decorative elements, at Nicole Miller.

Construction wasn’t bad but it wasn’t as exciting as it may have been and it felt the designer was essentially offering not much variation to her customers, but suggesting them to divide in two sort of types, "skin-tight dresses lovers" or "biker jackets and tank tops maniacs".

Preen’s collection could have done with a little bit of editing: there is only a limited amount of experiments you can carry out on lingerie lace, cords and ropes and ruffles and Justin Thornton and Thea Bregazzi carried them all in the first ten pieces that walked down the runway.

An extremely high amount of frilly ruffles invaded the upper body, the area around the shoulders and the edges of dresses and skirts, while ropes twisted around necks and along the models’ bodies.

Patchworks of lingerie lace, ruffles and pink neon lines (undoubtedly the most redundant looks) created a sort of 3D "Mondrian" mini-dress, though the most undesirable effects were achieved when ruffles, lace and ropes were reunited in the same dress.

It’s difficult for me to admit it, but, as much as I never found Rag & Bone extremely interesting, Marcus Wainwright and David Neville managed to nail down the menswear look in their womenswear collection (a thing not many designers have done in these first two days as they seems to have been more focused on dresses and mini-dresses) with tailored jackets and trousers or a practically functional layered look.

A final mention goes to British designer Ben Copperwheat who managed to bring back a little bit of exuberance to New York Fashion Week, injecting some much needed colours into his fun T-shirt dresses and suits in acid shades and bright prints.