Streetfashion New York Womenswear FW2011 Day 6

What are you wearing during the coming fashionweeks? Your Prada-shoes, your latest Jil Sander-dress or that vintage Yves St. Laurent? Maybe we’ll spot you in Paris, Milan, New York or Amsterdam. During the fashionweeks we refresh our streetwear posts regularly. We don’t judge, we’re not the fashion-police, we just enjoy fashion and your own personal style. Next stop: New York Fashion Week.

Narciso Rodriguez Catwalk Fashion Show New York FW2011

The collection of Narciso Rodriguez was pure Rodriguez: smart, chic and architectural.
The lineup was rather refreshing. His focus was tight on all things geometric, structured and clean, and his clothes offered a great alternative to all the reworked and revamped sportswear seen thus far. Rodriguez’s show opener was a long black vest — a wide stripe of gray down the front, followed by a canvas dress, very graphic in its simple big block patterns. And so it went — almost every garment, whether coats, dresses or  pants, was precisely patchworked with bold squares, rectangles and trapezoids.
Rodriguez let loose with breezy silk dresses that added some edge to the collection. As for the palette, he kept things fairly minimal: neutrals, blacks and silvers, with the occasional shot of deep red and coral.

Rodarte Catwalk Fashion Show New York FW2011

Like a breath of fresh air brought in from a meadow, Kate and Laura Mulleavy’s autumn/winter 2011-12 collection for their label Rodarte was a moment of quiet grace in a maddening world.

This season, set in a clinically white gallery filled with neon light sculptures, the Rodarte archetype – with her windswept hair – continued her mystical journey in and around nature. This time, the sisters focused on the pastoral imagery of the Great American Plains. It made for one of their more serene and straightforward collections, and that means they can give their label commercial strength too.

The clothing had strong ties to the prairies and pioneers, with long sun-dresses in flaxen, muted gold and sky blue. Often these sheaths were worn with equally long coats. Other looks were familiar from last season, like the high-waisted pants and blouses of intersecting panels of fabric. The sisters evoked early American settlers with colonial pony-skin aprons and cinched waists over A-line skirts. Fabrics had a handmade look and feel, such as boucle wool, rough-hewn wools, floral and guipure laces and mohair knits. The season’s geometrics came in Amish quilt motifs, seen in the sweaters and  tops (patchworked from leathers and pony hair) as well as the tough, tribal-looking footwear with Native American beadwork. Dresses, with their slight bishop sleeves and prairie vibe, looked chic, while the floor-sweeping coats  featured the occasional cutout and crisscross straps for visual intrigue.

The draped silk goddess gowns looked simply beautiful and highlighted their theme literally. They all featured a sky and wheat field scene in various hues, depending on the time of the day.

Marc by Marc Jacobs Catwalk Fashion Show New York FW2011

There was a forties meets seventies feeling in the collection of Marc Jacobs’ second line, Marc by Marc Jacobs. What that translated into was a primmer, nerdier version of the Seventies, but with Jacobs’ vibe. This came across in the glassy, polished blouses and dresses that left practically everything to the imagination. This was not a sexy collection, nor was it sexless, it just maintained a more professional, adult mentality. The chunky knits, effortless dresses and sizable pants in muddy fall colours of orange and brown had a thrifted, serious quality to them. It somteimes reminded of Annie Hall. Also attractive was the Navajo-style ethnic prints on jackets and a long poncho.

This was a very commercial and dressed collection, but done in a casual way. Elegant dressing the easy way. Don’t we all want that?

Streetfashion New York Womenswear FW2011 Day 5

What are you wearing during the coming fashionweeks? Your Prada-shoes, your latest Jil Sander-dress or that vintage Yves St. Laurent? Maybe we’ll spot you in Paris, Milan, New York or Amsterdam. During the fashionweeks we refresh our streetwear posts regularly. We don’t judge, we’re not the fashion-police, we just enjoy fashion and your own personal style. Next stop: New York Fashion Week.

Streetfashion New York Womenswear FW2011 Day 4

What are you wearing during the coming fashionweeks? Your Prada-shoes, your latest Jil Sander-dress or that vintage Yves St. Laurent? Maybe we’ll spot you in Paris, Milan, New York or Amsterdam. During the fashionweeks we refresh our streetwear posts regularly. We don’t judge, we’re not the fashion-police, we just enjoy fashion and your own personal style. Next stop: New York Fashion Week.

Thom Browne Catwalk Fashion Show New York FW2011

Thom Browne’s first proper show of his women’s collection was a special kind of spectacle. He transformed the New York Public Library into a church with a convent’s worth of models dressed like nuns. Finally Browne found a way to mix his Catholic upbringing and his fascination for uniforms. His nuns marched in covered up except for the gigantic fake eyelashes peeking out from beneath their habits. One by one the girls were liberated from their cloaks by a pair of altar boys, only to reveal clothes that were the real cross to bear.

Underneath there were elements of Browne’s menswear vocabulary: checks, extreme proportions, difficult layering, and an absolute upending of red-white-and-blue tradition. Browne encased each woman in ultra-stiff, tailored layers done in exaggerated proportions with a preppy, varsity theme. There were shrunken suits in mismatched plaids,  blazers with giant peplums and layered maxi coats with shirttail hems, some of which will be wearable once the look is dismantled.

There was absolutely no sex in this collection, restriction was everywhere: the models walked without moving their arms, turtlenecks were pulled up over their mouths, and molded bubble skirts and tops looked about as comfortable as a straight jacket. That seemed precisely the point. One of the finale looks actually included a skirt made out of a cage of red and blue ribbon.

Donna Karan Catwalk Fashion Show New York FW2011

Donna Karan loves to work with contradictions. Masculine-feminine, natural and urban, soft and rough, satin and fur. She continued last season’s pale palette, now  pearl gray and taupe instead of ivory-beige.

As for the clothes, except two pairs of high-waisted draped jersey pants, Karan showed dresses, skirtsuits, and coats, along with a few filmy blouses with draped necklines that sometimes doubled as head scarves. Every look, without exception, had a nipped waist. Karan was at her best in terms of cut, decorating the clothes not with extra stuff but with elegant drapes and folds. One dress was tucked on a soft diagonal and wrapped in front; another fell into a gently  cowl. The jacket of a slim suit had sleeves that tapered from wide, puffed shoulders. Another big hit of this collection were the shearlings and coats.

Often the looks were accessorized with flowing chiffon headscarves worn with a mysterious air of the runway variety, exquisite pearl necklaces and long gloves with deep, dramatic fur cuffs.

Marc Jacobs Catwalk Fashion Show New York FW2011

It was all about polka dots and  looking polished at Marc Jacobs. Again, but now two decades later Marc Jacobs decided to use his favorite print again. It was a big step from his YSL/Seventies inspired spring-collection, but the designer couldn’t care less. He told WWD he’d thought about all things he’d done in the past and what he’d loved. He ran through all of his collections and presented his description of classic. From the trompe l’oeil to the polka dots to the glam collection that had the rubber, and the sweats that he’d done, all those crazy American classics. He just wanted to have fun.

We’re familiar with his mood-swings now, so it’s goodbye to gentle fluidity and hello to an austere line that was sliver thin and had a couture-like precision but also a girlish charm. The dots came small, medium and large; matt and shiny; flat and 3D and in an various fabrics: prints and embroideries, rubber and pailettes, fur and fake fur. Often Jacobs started with a white shirt as a first layer under  a boxy sweatshirt or curvy jacket over slim, sexy skirts. He also showed  sweaters, a men’s coat,  sailor pants and romantic lace dresses detailed with  jabots.

As for accessories, spotted socks, mini-berets and a range of slush-busting snow boots completed the collection. Plus handbags in vibrant car-paint.

Thakoon Catwalk Fashion Show New York FW2011

When designer Thakoon Panichgul was doing research for his new  collection, he observed similarities between the costumes of Versailles and the clothes worn by the Masai.

Well, right. But somehow the designer managed to make a connection and it worked. The first look told it all:  a puff jacket with detachable panniers à la Marie Antoinette, but cut from a red and blue plaid ripped from a photo of African Masai-warriors. And Thakoon kept it going from beginning to end. Most of the patterns and prints, including arty batiks and stripes, were inspired by East Africa while the silhouettes mainly hinged on the courtly side — pouf peplums, ruffles and folds. It was ambitious. But the designer maintained control of this marriage of mixed motifs and the most striking thing was that despite the theme it looked so connected to the streets.

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