Streetfashion New York Womenswear FW2011

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.

Izaac Mizrahi Catwalk Fashion Show New York FW2011

Is there a real difference between a fashionshow and a dogshow? Not much really,  a group of poodles parading around before an audience that keeps on commenting on everything they see. Isaac Mizrahi mixed these two shows and put poodles alongside his models on Thursday in a show he called “Cake.”

There were several varieties — French, standard, miniature, pink and blue, most of them matching the outfit of the model. According to the designer the dogs were borrowed from friends or were rescue animals. The models had big black poodle poufs attached to their head. The collection was about voluminous coats made of padded foam with big bows, in the pastel green and pink colors that matched the dogs that guided the models.

Proenza Schouler Catwalk Fashion Show New York FW2011

Jack McCollough and Lazaro Hernandez  of Proenza Schouler took their inspiration from a trip out West, to Santa Fe actually. Earthy desert colors, like orange, golden yellow and brown, dominated, and were worked into a graphic pattern. That pattern was created by the computer using Native American blankets. McCollough and Hernandez manipulated them into a strong urban-chic look.

The designers played their signatures with rich, highly engineered fabrics. The kaleidoscopic results looked unmistakably theirs. The slouchy cut of their pants, the undone way the back hem of a black suede camp shirt was shown untucked over a slim pencil skirt, or how a party dress with an asymmetric neckline was layered over a black tee.  The fabric innovation made things look quite new. Two great patent shearlings, pressed flat and cut with clean, sharp lines, required a double take. Chunky, viscose and leather knits worked a cozy street effect.  What was most impressive about this collection was that Hernandez and McCollough’s took traditionally homespun themes and made them look sophisticated and even edgy. When did crafted clothes looked so cool?

Jeremy Scott Catwalk fashion Show New York FW2011

Jeremy Scotts fall winter collection sure will result in some rip offs in cheap fashion-chains. A parody on American symbols and cartoons is always a nice subject on T-shirts. The collection looked campy, sexy and was as light as Barbie and bubblegum. But that’s just Scotts message: Fashion should be about having fun. There was a bombast of Nineties-inspired clothes: furry neon dresses in angora, plastic jackets, and pigtails. Bold colors like red, yellow and blue, shiny fabrics and provoking slogans like Enjoy God? and Milk Kills.But in these times those slogans look funny and a bit childish instead of shocking.

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.

Michael Kors Catwalk Fashion Show New York FW2011

It was a great Michael Kors Greatest Hits-show, with lots of topmodels wearing wonderful clothes with that typical Michael Kors casual accent.

You don’t have to tell Kors anything about a good fashionshow and -collection, especially after a remarkable 30 years in fashion.  Kors’ grit, grounded ethos and overarching optimism have been tested and retested, and have endured with great style. He has always gave women what they wanted. His anniversary provided an obvious occasion for reflection. Kors wanted to incorporate elements of each decade in his anniversary-collection:the sporty decadence from the Seventies, the athleticism of the Eighties, restraint from the Nineties and from the Aughties, a little exuberance. But above all he wanted this collection to show his core belief: making people look longer, leaner, leggy; showing off skin; comfort.

Even by Kors standards, this was the purest of collections, worked almost exclusively in a palette of neutrals and, tone-on-tone neutrals.  The prevailing line was lean and structured (a tricot tunic and trousers), languid (a jersey dress and pyjamas) and  racy (stretch jersey jumpsuits). For every clean charcoal flannel jacket and straight-leg trouser, there was a clingy cocktail dress or gown. He loves a tunic for Fall, but they shared the runway with bodysuits. The magic word here was sleek. Nearly every look in the show was monochrome, the better to create that long, uninterrupted line Kors favors. Eveningwear was sparkling and glamorous.

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?

First View New York FW2011: Strict Lace

Retro revenge with a leading role for lace. Who mentioned retro was passé and that it is time to look ahead? There is no future without history though.

This retro-style looks truly inspiring and stunning in a lovely mixture of fabrics. Sober suiting, chaste high-collared blouses in pretty patterns and prints and lots of super positioned lace. The silhouettes are stern yet graceful, severe yet curvaceous. Where Prada fancied the 50’s for previous winter, Vuitton touched the frivolous edges of the 20’s and 30’s for summer. Now both Jason Wu and Marc Jacobs confirm this perpetual fancy for retro, both framing their looks in lace.

Stylespot is a collaboration with Stijlinstituut Amsterdam

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