Horror is terribly en vogue as proved by Luca Guadagnino's remake of Dario Argento's "Suspiria". Yet the Rodarte sisters have been on a dark glamour bend since they launched their label.
Their latest collection showcased on Sunday during New York Fashion Week marked their return to the Big Apple and their passion for the horror theme.
The show took indeed place at the New York City Marble Cemetery on the Lower East Side, while rain was (very aptly) pouring down.
Graveyards have always played a fascination with fashion designers: Italian writer Giacomo Leopardi portrayed Death and Fashion as sisters in the 1800s, and the symbiosis continued in the fictitious photo shoot in a graveyard in William Klein's Qui êtes-vous, Polly Maggoo? (1966), an idea replicated in C(arine) R(oitfeld) Fashion Book in 2012.
The latest fashion house to join the graveyard trend was Gucci with Creative Director Alessandro Michele choosing to stage the house's Resort collection at the Alyscamps Roman necropolis.
Rodarte's show opened with ruffled black and red leather designs: in the past the sisters moved from Japanese horror films for some of their collections, but in this case the red ensemble donned by a veiled model evoked the ghosts of the young girl / assassin dwarf in the 1973 thriller-horror film "Don't Look Now" directed by Nicolas Roeg (a continuous reference in fashion that, as you may remember, was indirectly evoked also in Comme des Garçons' S/S 15 designs) and in particular the disquieting doll of the Japanese poster for this iconic Venetian horror classic.
Blood red shades returned at the very end of the show in two evening tulle dresses, but in between there were more corpse brides covered in layers of brightly coloured or pastel lace or sprouting explosions of tulle from the sleeves.
The effect called to mind that of a veiled corpse lying in a coffin and echoed Edgar Allan Poe's words "the death of a beautiful woman is, unquestionably, the most poetical topic in the world".
The death spell was luckily broken by the fact that most looks were accessorised with metallic jewels shaped like birds, stars and flowers, by the models' hair decorated with piles of fresh flowers and by the arty make up inspired by the "Picasso 1932" exhibit that closed two days ago at London's Tate Modern (by Nars makeup artist James Kaliardos).
The collection also had a sort of Disney Princess palette (think yellow and Belle; lilac and Rapunzel and so on) with a Gothic twist, in a nutshell it also verged on chilhood, romantic moods and a certain degree of naiveté.
While critics welcomed back sisters Kate and Laura Mulleavy to New York Fashion Week after a two-year hiatus to Paris, the collection didn't show indeed a new achieved maturity.
The Mulleavys are indeed very much into fairy-tale dresses that quite often give you the impression they create them with the same modus operandi of a child, that is with scraps of tulle, a glue gun and lots of enthusiasm, but not much technique.
There was something in this collection, though, that may lead the Mulleavys towards a different direction in future – three simple Chanel-evoking striped crocheted dresses, two of them characterised by a '50s silhouette (but please throw out the cringing bonnet).
They were not new or dramatic as the embroidered dresses and capes with hoods, but at least they were more wearable and functional.
Could crocheting save the sisters from their disquieting horror moods? Hopefully, but, in the meantime, if you fancy the crocheted look for the next Spring/Summer season, well, learn how to do it maybe moving from the vintage designs you may find by leafing through old magazines, like this gold dress from July 1960.
Rispondi