Our latest batch includes Jen Kao‘s east-meets-west collection, Ally Hilfiger’s NAHM, Nicole Miller‘s Jimi Hendrix girls, and Libertine‘s many mixed prints. Enjoy all that and more on our dedicated fashion week page.
If Jimi Hendrix had been born a chick (and in this decade), she would probably have owned every single piece in Nicole Miller’s seventies-inspired AW/12 collection.
Set to a mishmash of thumping hip-hop and heavy metal tunes, the designer unleashed her inner ‘haute hippie rocker’ on the runway. Her ‘70s POV included fitted jackets with exaggerated shoulders, colorful silk blouses with bell sleeves, skinny velvet cigarette pants, slinky bellbottoms, suede mini shorts, floral bodycon dresses, and plush voluminous outerwear trimmed in metallic brocade, fringe, and fur.
We saw patchworked separates at Rebecca Taylor, rollerblade-chic at Nicole Miller and those classic draped dresses we love so much from Costello Tagliapietra. Check out their collections as well as our take on them on our Fashion Week page!
Nicole Miller titled her spring collection Fast Forward/Rewind, describing “the speed of wheels in motion” as her inspiration. The athletic-cool clothes brought new meaning to the term “street style,” with colorful checkerboard patterns and racerback tanks sharing runway space alongside–wait for it–a head-to-toe patchwork neon jumpsuit. While we recommend leaving that particular look to the professionals, there was still plenty of wearable fun in a collection that drew on vintage cycling and Rollerblading garb. The biggest standouts, in my opinion, were the separates embellished with tons of colorful seed beads, those arts-and-crafts decorations beloved by summer campers and DIYers everywhere. Shimmering across skirts and thin-strapped slipdresses, the beads added a little richness and heft (literally–by the thousands, those things weigh down a frock like none other) to the lineup. For those less daring, there was also a section of body-con black frocks with colorful panels that outlined and bisected the wearer’s form. Could bodyblocking be the new colorblocking?
It makes sense that fashion brands have glommed onto Tumblr. The microblogging platform’s highly visual nature is a perfect fit for fashion brands to showcase their identities in creative and subtle ways. Of course, some brands are much better at it than others. Here are the brands we think are using Tumblr best right now.
Nicole Miller is nothing if not resourceful. The iconic designer has an uncanny knack for reinventing her brand to keep fans coming back. Her recent iteration is a bit of a social media darling. Since launching her Twitter account in 2009, Miller has attracted nearly 133,000 followers, which trumps designers considerably younger and presumably more digital than she. (For example, Alexander Wang has around 3,500 followers, while Rebecca Minkoff has about 22,100).
Nicole Miller’s latest collection was as badass as we felt at the show wedged between Richie Rich and Gabrielle Union. Leather detailing, asymmetrical cuts, and a menswear influence all served as yet another departure from the line’s girly, form-fitting, party dress image.
Miller paired a sequin sheath with an angular leather vest, and a diagonal stripe skirt over boot cut silk pants. There were foiled metal skirts, leather leggings a la Alexander Wang, and Persian lamb coats.
While we love that Miller is amping up the edge, our favorite looks were those with less bulk–a black and blue printed silk dress and a red and gray printed blouson top with a metallic pencil skirt.
No matter what any bride says there is a universal truth about bridesmaids dresses: you’ll only wear the dress once. “You’ll wear it again, right?” the bride asks, perhaps to make themselves feel better about asking you to shell out hundreds of dollars for it. Nope, you won’t. You’ll never wear that floor length, one-shouldered aubergine satin dress with the weird unflattering ruffles ever again. Remember six-time bridesmaid Adrianna Giuliani whom we spoke to about the bridesmaid dress conundrum a while back? She simply left her bridesmaids dresses in the hotel closets at each wedding.
It seemed like a lost cause, just part of the deal of being a bridesmaid–suck it up and buy the ugly dress, right? Wrong. Enter Rent the Runway Weddings, an expansion of Rent the Runway, and a beacon of hope for future bridesmaids everywhere.
When I told my mom that I was heading to Nicole Miller before FNO, she said, “I can bring you your little sparkly Nicole Miller dress from eighth grade if you want to wear it.”
I kind of did, but I knew it would be perfectly passé at last evening’s show. Nicole Miller has evolved from being brand of party dresses to a label representing an army of edgy women. The evolution has been a rocky one, but with SS11 Nicole Miller finally settled into a groove that felt right.
A little bit fairy and little bit S&M, the collection had something for everyone when taken apart. Eniko opened in a white cropped motorcycle jacket over a long, sheer button down and a sheer white skirt with thigh-high slits. Most looks had open backs with harnesses of sorts holding the garment together–cool but a little forced. Siri came out in a white maxi dress with green streaks at the bottom and ruffle pleating on top, a look fit for any beach night. Also great was an asymmetrical black patterned dress over a long silk georgette skirt.
