It’s the best of the rest! We’ve got reviews and galleries from: Wayne‘s masterful minimalist “birds of prey” collection, Patrik Ervell’s sleek and sexy collection, Nomia’s O’Keefe inspired grown-up looks, Jeremy Laing‘s lighter than air dresses and our exclusive backstage diary with Simon Spurr (plus a look at his city-meets-country collection). And that wraps up NYFW. BAI GUYS. See you in February.
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After watching Simon Spurr prepare for his Spring 2012 show, we already knew what to expect: expertly tailored menswear mixed with subtle hints of country charm (think English riding boots and denim). Of course, the recent CFDA Menswear Designer of the Year nom offered many classic, slim cut, three piece suits, but there were plenty of striped patterns as well.
“The graphic prints were inspired by a guy named Norman Wilkinson who came out with the first version of camouflage for the British navy, called Dazzle Ships in 1920,” Spurr told us backstage. He incorporated the striped, zig-zag patterns into many pieces, including suits, knits, and a blazer or two.
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Now that New York fashion week is over, we can bet the Bespoken boys are fast asleep, kind of like Cole Mohr in their Spring/Summer 2012 look book. Read more »
New York Fashion Week has come to an end. And while what we really want to do is shut off our computers and tune out on Bravo, there are a few collections (sadly only a few) that we still can’t stop thinking about. So, here are our ten favorites, in no particular order.
Also, London Fashion Week started today, so stay tuned for more reviews!
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Anna Wintour has a history of popping up during New York Fashion Week with Vogue‘s next cover girl. And this past week the Vogue Editor in Chief certainly kept us guessing by holding court with both unlikely, and all-too likely cover subjects.
See who Anna was spotted with this week, and why we think each one could be the next cover.
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Before Jeremy Laing’s show began on Sunday, I was talking to a fashion editor friend about arrhythmias. We were relating stories of hearts misbehaving, our internal electrical systems misfiring. And then the lights went down and Jeremy Laing brought our hearts, those imperfect/perfect systems, to the runway.
This is a heavenly collection made real by the former Alexander McQueen apprentice. His looks were stable, determined, but ethereal. These were dresses, skirts and shorts from an unearthly place. “We used a range of sand-washed textured georgette and crinkled chiffon. I wanted lightness, transparency and a ghostly feel,” says the designer.
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Nomia designer Yara Flynn has always been popular with the avant garde art-y/fashion-y set, so it was fitting that her spring 2012 presentation involved mixed media. A video of models on beach in Montauk opened the show, Georgia O’Keefe’s haunting voice provided the soundtrack.
A real live runway show followed the short film to show off Flynn’s collection inspired by O’Keefe’s travels to New Mexico. Her signature cutouts on dresses and reinforced knees on pants were still there, but there was a heightened maturity and grace to this collection.
“I obviously didn’t go to New Mexico to shoot a video,” Flynn said. “And I didn’t want it to be too literal, so we went to the dunes in Montauk. My brand is associated with downtown and I wanted to take it somewhere purer.”
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In the world of menswear, like in the rest of the fashion industry, certain niche designers always draw a distinguished crowd; Patrik Ervell is one of them. And for good reason. His look is always cohesive, sleek, and never safe. To wit: this year, to the surprise of everyone, he displayed several women’s looks that offered the same simple, striking aesthetic, which he’s captured with his dagger-sharp suits for men.
Ervell notes that this collection was the culmination of his ten years in New York City, a place where “the powers of commerce and finance” mix with “the grit and toughness of the street.” To his credit, I wouldn’t fuck around with the person Ervell visualizes wearing these clothes. There’s nothing mean about them, but they’re hard-edged, crisp and cool.
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As if you needed any more evidence that the digital world is taking over the fashion industry one click at a time, it seems even Hollywood’s A-list is on board. On the eve of NYFW’s close, I joined the perpetually chic Zoe Saldana and her fiancé Keith Britton in an airy penthouse atop midtown’s London Hotel to fête MyFDB.com. The power couple founded their style-centric web venture less than two years ago; short for “My Fashion Database,” the site was developed to offer an IMDB-like experience for the style crowd, offering fashion professionals a place to upload and share their resumés. MyFDB also functions as an image gallery, complete with both magazine covers and print campaigns, as well as a style news feed (MyFDBlog–ha!). Just this month, the site relaunched on a brand-new platform and added e-commerce to the mix–meaning that now, while you’re checking out that Lanvin ad on your computer screen, you can instantly click to buy the sparkling cuff Karen Elson’s sporting. Enticing!
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Nicola Formichetti has been on a roll lately. He just opened his pop-up shop, Nicola’s, on Walker Street in Tribeca to great fanfare (and a bangin’ party), selling everything from stuffed pandas to Gaga memorabilia to, now, Uniqlo. Today, Nicola’s became host to Formichetti’s new collaboration line with the Japanese mega-brand (for whom he’s the fashion director), a sportswear line called The Innovation Project that uses Uniqlo’s highly developed fabrics to make basic, easily wearable clothing.
It’s quite a departure from Formichetti’s usual robots-in-bondage type stuff; cranberry puffy nylon winter parkas, lime green HeatTech fleece pullovers and snowy white windbreakers don’t exactly scream the kind of stuff he’s been doing for Thierry Mugler. The attention to detail does, however, like the zippers which can pull apart Hulk-style to make shedding layers easier on athletes. The price point is fitting for the pop-up as well; prices don’t rise above $200, even for the parkas.
I got the chance to chat with Formichetti about his partnership with Uniqlo, his store, and what he has planned for the future (hint: he’s working on his own brand!).
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Having earned an Ecco Domani Fashion Fund award and been named a CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund finalist, Vietnam-born Wayne Lee has been an editorial favorite for several years now. I found it telling that although her evening show nearly overlapped with Proenza Schouler’s, Barneys Fashion Director Amanda Brooks, Marie Claire’s Zanna Roberts Rassi, and a number of other masthead toppers turned up to see Wayne’s collection.
On the runway, it was a thoroughly black and white affair. The designer sent out a number of snowy looks to start things off, from silk tuxedo dresses to wispy leather vests to incredibly soft-looking lambskin bike shorts. I particularly loved a round-shouldered cape blazer in ivory viscose twill, dubbed a “falcon cape” in the run of show. Turns out Wayne had been inspired by the lightness and grace of birds of prey, and she beautifully captured the slope and quiet power of wings in those vest dresses and cutaway tanks. After several looks featuring a lovely blue-and-white “rope snake” print that seemed almost nautical, it was over to the other end of the color spectrum. Out came a slew of noir looks, some of which were simply dark counterparts of the pieces we’d seen earlier in the show. A cool black bomber jacket caught my eye, if only because it was one of the only non-draped pieces on the runway, and the side-slung “apron belts” on many a model added a dash of masculine-feminine quirk. Every look was heavily layered, but with fabrics this delicate and light, the final product appeared effortless. And it was clear to me that the individual pieces within each ensemble–say, a silk slipdress or an asymmetrical top–would look just as sharp worn on its own. By the time Wayne sent out her closing looks, which featured an optical-illusion pattern in black and white, I was sold. For a collection so limited in tones, these clothes were anything but ordinary. And while this monochromatic territory may have been mined by many designers before, Wayne’s more contemporary price points mean we may actually have a chance at calling these clothes our own.
**All images: Courtesy Wayne
Two rising stars made their New York Fashion Week debuts this week. Thirteen-year old actress Elle Fanning, who is basically our favorite fashion person right now, and singer/rapper Nicki Minaj, who boggles our minds, were two of NYFW’s most ubiquitous front row guests. Unfortunately, their paths never crossed, so we had to use photoshop to see what their outfits would look like next to each other. Without a doubt, both ladies have become known for their noteworthy, if extremely opposite senses of style. So, click through for a side-by-side comparison of the looks they worked during this past fashion-filled week.
Who do you think made more of an impression?
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