Victoria Beckham’s idea for fall 2016 was to make the bustier appropriate for day She cut it in unexpected materials like Prince of Wales check with a bright waxed thread stitched through it and in thick, spongy houndstooth jacquards, both with cutouts sliced below the bustline. These fabrics aren’t necessarily designed to hug a woman’s curves, but she can also opt for the body-con ribbed knit pieces (solids and striped) that Beckham layered over each other to achieve a similarly curvy effect.
To balance that, she also experimented with volume, sending out bubble skirts and others that flared generously to below the knee over flat shoes. Outerwear was strong: Softly structured clutch coats with fringe detailing at the hem shared the runway with more sartorially, sharply tailored numbers in menswear checks.
While New York was trying to survive the cold, harsh weather in aggressively styled, street-influenced layers, it could not foresee that this also echoed in Dao-Yi Chow and Maxwell Osborne’s fall collection of Public School. That meant their compilations of oversize, athletic outerwear, sweeping tailoring and utility gear is relevant and resonating in the streets of today. It also meant the idea is not so new. Chow and Osborne weren’t static about it, though. They kept things fresh with a few bold fuchsia and rust combinations to jolt all the abundance of black, and worked in knit coats and big jeans with raw, fringed finishes that brought a worked-on hand to the lineup. The rugged shearlings looked cool and perfect for todays weather.
designers Carol Lim and Humberto Leon from Opening Ceremony chose a future-focused them for their fall 2016 collection. They took their cues from Syd Mead, the artist who designed the cityscape in Blade Runner and the digiscape of Tron. Lim and Leon projected themselves into a future where people still need matter-of-fact outerwear to keep them warm while they’re riding around on their hoverboards, and miniskirts and over-the-knee boots to wear on their virtual reality dates, and slouchy knits and boot-cut jeans for casual dinners out. The futurism was mostly reflected in the collection’s holographic fabrications, which ran from lacquered croc print to burnout metallic swirls to high-shine velvet jacquard. One of the coolest textiles here was a fine knit embedded with multicolor crystals. Also cool: the Opening Ceremony tees and palazzo pants in a lamé-like silver fabric.
Leon and Lim also paid homage to Syd Mead directly in a number of pieces, knitting his illustrations into sweaters and printing them onto sweatshirts.
Alexander Wangs’s fall show was a trip back to the age of experimental adolescence: ignore outdated taboos and instead seek what’s off limits was his message.
But taboos are hard to find these days. So-called bad taste is a megatrend right now, coursing through fashion up from the street and down from the runways. Wang’s collection, with its mash-up of prim tweed suits and tank dresses subverted by hefty hardware and skimpy hemlines; delicate, sheer tulle tops disrupted with brash censor bars bearing words like “strict” and “tender” across the breasts; and pretty lace insets shaped like marijuana leaves on dresses, was more cute than vulgar. The pink corduroys that riffed on classic prep by replacing polo ponies with strippers on a pole were particularly on-the-nose.
The accessories were good, too, including an expansion on Wang’s recently launched jewelry collection with chain-link rhodium earrings and leather-and-rhodium chokers.
Our own fashiondictionary Real Highlander There are only a few. Famous ones are Sonia Rykiel, Karl Lagerfeld, Giorgio Armani and Vivienne Westwood. They're around for at least 75 years and have designed over 750 different collections. The rumour goes they survive by sucking blood of male virgins to revitalize in between seasons.