New York Fashion Week and the bad, the good and the hopeful |

There are people in the fashion industry that could easily put to shame Iago’s doubleness.

I have indeed witnessed media people telling me they hate a specific designer, finding themselves by chance in front of the designer in question three minutes after revealing their dislike to me and suddenly starting to praise their latest collection as if it were the best thing that had happened in fashion after Dior’s New Look.

This sad tendency to, well, simply faking it, often dictated by a Darwinian instinct to survive in the downturn and preserve one’s highly paid job, is mirrored in the reports that are coming to us from the current New York Fashion Week.

It’s strange how the American fashion media seem to have joined forces and decided to write only more or less nice things about what they have seen on the New York runways.

It sounds like a good stratagem to convince people to go out and buy the new collections once they will be available, but do they really think customers are so silly to believe them?

Claiming a collection is actually redundant or plainly boring would maybe cost you next season’s invitation to that specific catwalk show (if there will be a fashion week come next season, that is…), but at least it would save your integrity (admitting you still had one) and even help that specific designer to improve.

If you read the previous posts about NYFW, you may think I’m repeating myself, but apart from a very few designers, the majority of those ones who showcased their collections so far have showed a lack of credible inspirations, research and cohesion.

Ohne Titel showed Egyptian inspirations can lead to intriguingly modern collections, yet Diane von Furstenberg turned Egypt into a sort of “Indiana Jones turns into a hippy, then goes to club” theme, coming up with animal printed adventurer suits matched with neon coloured bangles.

If you take aside the neutral colour palette, crocheted details and use of denim, nothing changed at Hervé Léger by Max Azria were the pièces de résistance were, obviously, the skin-tight dresses.

The list of unsatisfying collections could go on forever including all those designers who think the definition “a touch of femininity” means floral prints, ribbons randomly placed here and there, powdery lace shirts and soft cutesy shorts. My personal list of collections that stinks also includes Victoria Beckham’s.

I admit she is actually a genius: she has done nothing else but remixing all the bits and pieces she likes about her designer wardrobe, and cleverly put them all together in her own designs, this is why these hybrid creatures are simply perfect Franktenstein monsters. This is also why it’s impossible for me to rant about her column dresses and peplum dresses and blah blah dresses (does she know women also wear trousers?) in a positive way.

The last couple of days reinforced two statements: tailored sportswear is a trend; young designers do it better.

Alexander Wang obviously proved the former, but it’s Yohji Yamamoto that showed in his Y3 collection for Adidas you can take sportswear inspirations further and in particular start from something as popular and often not very inspiring as soccer, and turn it into a very important element for a rather original collection.

There were plenty of nationalistic T-shirts and shoes, plus jackets in techno fabrics in the Y3 collection, but the standouts were the black tailored suits that called to mind the elegance of early referee uniforms, deconstructed soft jersey tops and skirts, and laser cut vests and dresses that reproduced in their design the goal net.

The best effects were actually achieved by pairing a long goal net-like skirt with a cropped jacket, but also the tiered dresses-cum-jumpsuit were rather interesting.

A very apt "soccer finale" with Zinedine Zidane closed the show, and, though that was a clever marketing ploy, it looked more like the cherry on the cake.

If only Thom Browne had stuck to sportswear, maybe things would have been much better.

After successfully managing to convince men to adopt his cropped skinny pants - the sort of look that would give a massive heart attack to traditional tailors – now Browne is presenting them with a new idea, extremely wide (almost palazzo pants) trousers or cropped pants with shirt cuffs.

Prints of palms and swordfish and cases
covered in shells lacquered in thick black, gray or white paint seemed to evoke atmospheres à la "The Old Man and The Sea", while polka-dot
prints scattered on a halter-top jumpsuit,
white holey trench coats and space headgear were crossovers between Courrèges, Cardin and the realm of the uncannily bizarre.

Menswear offers maybe the chance to experiment even more than womenswear, but there were points in the catwalk show where you wished Browne had left behind huge circular sequins scattered on suits and trench coats or the nets wrapped around the models' head to focus on more functional clothes.

Among the best catwalk shows that took place during NYFW there was definitely the one from the San Francisco’s Academy of Art University students.

Kara Sennett may have gone for a body-con look, but I found the choice of colours rather beautiful, and also bearing a sort of arty connection since it was inspired by British painter David Hockney; Brittney Major created quite cute plaid dresses and trench coats; Richelle Valenzuela designed ethereal dresses with circular organza motifs that created interesting movement as the models walked down the runway (though they reminded a lot of Christopher Kane's S/S 09 collection…); Amanda Cleary's pieces had a sort of architectural and sculpted touch about them and Jie Pan's designs were rather geometrical.

My favourite designers out of this group were Thai designer Sawanya Jomthepmala who designed quite beautiful tailored trousers and jackets with futuristic origami elements, and Bulgarian Marina Nikolaeva Popska. The latter showcased some well-executed knitwear pieces characterised by interesting shapes and quite beautiful colour combinations, think Missoni on acid and you may get an idea.

The Academy of Art University Students showed that, though there may be not much hope to find exciting collections by the more established or mainstream designers, the new generations may offer something freshers and much more interesting.

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