New York Fashion Week Report 4; Rodarte, Victoria by Victoria Beckham and Brood

New York Fashion Week Report 4; Rodarte, Victoria by Victoria Beckham and Brood

Hello world,

This is my last report on New York Fashion Week, and this time I thought I’d focus on the smaller brands showing on the various catwalks. There’s the diffusion line by Victoria Beckham showing for the first time at New York Fashion Week; young label Brood, only in its fourth season and already growing; and Rodarte from the Mulleavy sisters, which always proves to be an editorial favourite.

Lets have a look at them below;

Brood

Serkan Sarier’s Brood is on the rise. Only showing its fourth season at NYFW, this label is growing in leaps and bounds, giving us a cross between a catwalk and a presentation for Sarier’s autumn/winter collection. The influence no doubt comes from British artists Lynn Chadwick and Glenn Brown, as Sarier explains, but while both artists might be so different, Sarier believes they are trying to express the same thing. The paint print is undoubtedly Brown, while the gold dresses at the finale of his presentation are typical Chadwick.

The dresses are elaborate and delicate, with layers of fabric folding neatly over one another and the entire ensemble is very fussy, but in a good way. The print is also striking and well executed, stark against the black or White background of the dresses.

My favourite piece of the collection has to be the evening gown in a beautiful chinoiserie blue floral pattern that is both light to wear and bold in it’s colour choice. I look forward to seeing what Sarier comes up with next.

Victoria, by Victoria Beckham

For a diffusion line from a still-young label, this doesn’t feel like the cheaper version, neither is it compromising on quality. That’s the brilliance of Beckham’s newest collection under her growing brand. They are covetable in their own right without needing to rely on their famous name.

But that’s not all what the Victoria, by Victoria Beckham collection is all about. Beckham has taken her classically structured dresses a younger and flurried spin with quirky prints, dropped waists and girlish prints. There’s enough in there for a slightly older generation, with rich autumn colours such as ochre and chestnut melded with her classic black pieces.

Beckham does here what she does best. She will never be an Alexander McQueen, Hussein Chamalayan or Marc Jacobs breaking the style and fashion boundaries year after year. But she is consistent in her style.

And that is the beauty of such simply structured dresses. Mrs Beckham let’s her expert craftsmanship do the talking and the fashion critics are slowly silenced, one at a time.

Rodarte

The Mulleavy sisters are at it again. They’ve gone and made an absolutely covetable collection, perfect for fashion editors and fashion lovers alike.
This was definitely a more toned down collection than their Van Gogh inspired spring/summer 2012 collection.

This season saw the Australian outback as the inspiration with the collection taking on a more ready-to-wear approach than ever before. These items can easily be worn on the street, with their floor-sweeper prairie coats, chunky knits and high waist trousers that wouldn’t look out of place on a ranch.

The whole collection could very easily fit into Baz Luhrmann’s Australia, and I wonder if that had been their intention. The final evening gowns are typical Rodarte though, with aboriginal hand-print patterns that scream quirkiness and cool.

So what did you think of these three collections and which were your favourite?

Until then,

Franzi

xoxo

New York Fashion Week Report 3; Ralph Lauren, L’Wren Scott and Marc Jacobs

New York Fashion Week Report 3; Ralph Lauren, L’Wren Scott and Marc Jacobs

Hello world,

This collection of three classic New Yorker designers encapsulate the fantasy aspect of fashion and also strangely tie into one another. While Ralph Lauren continued to dominate the Great Gatsby trend, taking it a notch further by going back to the Edwardian era with bowler hats and Sherlock inspired tweed suits; L’Wren Scott channelled the inner forties with her drop waists, luxurious silks and dashings of coloured fur. It was Marc Jacobs though who really took the crown for period fashion, harking back Marie Antionette and the Georgian period with full skirts and a dollop of punk.

Check them out below;

Ralph Lauren

Continuing his inspiration for the Great Gatsby trend with aplomb, Ralph Lauren has focused more on the daytime wear of the country gentry with his tweed suits, hunting trousers and mismatched print knitwear. The feeling this time is more on the masculine aspect of dressing, with smart suits, evening and smoking jackets and elaborate headwear such as bowler and top hats.

While last season focused on the feminine of the roaring twenties, this season he has turned his attention to the masculine, creating an old-world feel for the androgeny look.

It is Lauren’s array of jackets and coats, from the classic smoking jacket, to the formal dinner jacket and even the morning coat makes and appearance in modern fabrics such as stiff leather, luxurious velvet, sequins and fur lapels. They epitomise the elegance and wealth of the era better than anything and I for one for them.

His dresses might be smart and elegant, this season they are not the primary focus and for Ralph Lauren that is surprisingly refreshing.

L’Wren Scott

Anyone would suspect that we had another trend on our hands with Ralph Lauren and now L’Wren Scott, but that would be too simplistic. The reality is while Lauren might have looked to the roaring twenties while incorporating very Edwardian pieces, L’Wren Scott looked forwards, focusing on the forties with their austerity and blocks of colour. But austerity wasn’t the name of the game here. Her fabrics were rich and luxurious, expensive silks, coloured furs and rich velvet that oozed wealth and not the war-time rationing the era might have been more accustomed to.

Her pencil skirts were beautifully cut, the dress hen length hovered just past the knee and her trousers were high waisted with a clean straight leg cut. Her colours too were richer than might be expected; rich reds, oranges and even splashings of bright yellow, making for a very warm autumnal palette.

It is her capes without a doubt that are her piece de la resistance, for me. Heavy brocade on the outside and purple crushed feathers on the inside made the perfect luxurious example of excess. The Occupy Fashion protesters might not like her excess, but I love it.

Marc Jacobs

His ticket would always undoubtedly be the hottest in town for fashion week, and this year he did not disappoint. Ever the consummate showman, Marc Jacobs truly gave us his very own fantasy land. The set, designed by his artist friend, Rachel Feinstein has a ‘Marie Antionette in ruins’ feel, as Feinstein so eloquently explained and this was even more so obvious with the makeshift fountain in the middle of the catwalk that the models had to traverse around.

The Georgian period had its influence in more subtle ways on Jacobs’ clothes; all that gave the theme away were oversized fur hats, padded hips on skirts and dresses to imitate the classic pannier hoop skirts of the Georgian period. This was all over-layed with a distinctive punk feel, with grungy hair, mismatched scarves and an attitude that spoke of laissez faire.

His attention to detail also makes his stand out among the many others designers showing at Fashion Week, for his shoes are chunky elaborate, his bag comes in beautifully bold colours and his oversized scarves are perfect for the winter months.

This might not be an easy to wear ready-to-wear collection, but buy God is it elaborate.

So what did you think of these three? What were your favourite pieces from the collections?

Until then,

Franzi

xoxo

New York Fashion Week Report 2; Marc by Marc Jacobs and Proenza Schouler

New York Fashion Week Report 2; Marc by Marc Jacobs and Proenza Schouler

Hello world, I hope everyone’s been having a fun fashion week in New York. Since I can’t be there to enjoy it myself, I suppose I’ll have to live vicariously through the many fashion blogs and style.com to keep me in the loop. Added to that now is the time …

LFW Day 2; The Good, the Bad and the Down Right Weird

LFW Day 2; The Good, the Bad and the Down Right Weird

Hello world, Fashion’s finest were out in force on Saturday, throwing on their finest in an attempt to catch the attention of their peers, the photographers and the bloggers like me. These are some of the best, worst and down right weirdly dressed people at fashion week today. Let me …