The
worrying omen that hovered on the runways at New York Fashion Week during the last few days - layers and layers of maxi or micro ruffles that, come next Spring/Summer, may swallow women -
has officially turned at the end of this event into a full-fledged trend.
Despite the linearity of her sheath dresses, ruffles and ruches appeared in more than one look at L'Wren Scott's.
Isaac Mizrahi’s ruffles were instead verging more towards the sculpted and therefore less towards the ridiculously feminine and sugary romantic.
Too often in the past Mizrahi’s shows lacked cohesion in their presentation and this one reconfirmed the trend as the Fred Astaire theme mixed with “I’m Singing in the Rain” atmospheres.
Yet the actual collection featured a few interesting pieces, such as perfectly cut shirts, jackets with ample shoulders and multiple lapels, wide menswear-ish trousers and skirts with swirls of fabric that formed floral motifs jutting out around the hips.
Most of the day looks were accessorised with cardboard hats and post-modernist Oxford shoes, while for the night Mizrahi wrapped his women in yards of fluffy tulle, embroidered sparkling beads on dresses and coats without forgetting to add an Amazon-like touch with Plexiglass armour-like arm pieces.
References to Elsa Schiaparelli returned also in this collection after the bag hats from the A/W 09 collection, but only in one piece, a long evening dress accessorised with a Lucite lobster perched on the model's shoulder (Schiap, forgive us).
There was understandably a much more controlled sense of style at Calvin Klein.
Francisco Costa focused on neutral shades, and put emphasis on rigid sleeves even in one shoulder dresses.
Well-defined sculpted lines prevailed in his white designs that also offered Costa the chance to play with volumes.
Minimal can often mean bland, but Costa balanced his minimalism experimenting with crinkled surfaces and textures and also including pieces in fragile mohair in an earthy palette and beige or dark grey dresses with swirling motifs of fabric that created 3D-like waves and gave more structure to the garment.
A perfect body is often required to wear such minimalist pieces, but for Threeasfour’s designs you may need a very thin body.
Despite the latest designs of the trio being linked with Yoko Ono, an artist I never found that interesting, Threeasfour came up with an interesting collection.
Yes, it was frightening for me thinking that they used her drawings and based their catwalk show on an old Yoko Ono performance (shiver...), but, as a whole, the collection wasn't bad.
Sheer inserts created cut out-like effects on trousers, leggings and tops; circular swirls wrapped around the model's bodies or around the sleeves of a jacket and kimonos were turned into futuristic garments.
Curvilinear shapes already appeared in the past in Threeasfour's designs, though this time they looked more elaborate.
One thing worried me about the show, though, and that's a few skeletal girls walking down the runway: leggings and tight dresses may require a physique du role, but I find women in danger of snapping in two rather unsettling, especially on the runway.
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