Oscar de la Renta Catwalk Fashion Show New York SS2011

It was a typical Oscar de la Renta-show, full of pretty dresses, dramatic evening-gowns and impeccable make up. But somehow it all looked a bit too retro to me, the hair, the accessories, the setting, the mix, even the music.

I’m sure there are ladies who adore his style, but it has very little to do with fashion and new ideas.  This is Oscar. And Oscar is what you get : a dream of young girls going to their prom.

There were ladylike tweeds, windowpane plaids, and raffia embroidered linen garments.  For cocktail hour, there were a number of modern dresses, like a strapless dress in navy gazar embroidered with black organza or a white swansdown tutu. The evening gowns looked like promdresses, some with just one shoulderstrap, the other with a matching bolero, ruffled or with embroideries all over.

Catwalk Fashion Show LAMB New York SS2011

Singer, fashion designer and mother of two, Gwen Stefani, presented her new collection as the closing show of New York Fashion Week on Thursday. After several seasons of smaller presentations her brand LAMB (Love, Angel, Music, Baby) was back on the main stage.

Her designs for next summer were inspired by African tribal looks. ‘I’ve always wanted to do the tribal thing but it’s pretty hard to get right. I think we’ve got it’, Gwen said. She sent out colorful, printed clothes on the runway, that indeed felt like Africa, especially with the changing backdrop of colorful skies.

The African inspired mixed prints were alternated by checks and stripes. Though the prints were traditional, the fitting of the clothes and the accessories like hats and bags made it all seem very modern.

The collection was both feminine and tough; there where flirty dresses and ruffled shoulders, but also suits and manly pants combined with short tops. Every outfit very much breathed Gwen’s personal style and there wasn’t one look she wouldn’t wear herself.

All of No Doubt, her hubby and her two suns were there to support Gwen. Son Kingston was so proud he ran on stage at the end of the show to walk the catwalk with his mummy. O, what a heart-warming ending of a great New York Fashion Week.

Calvin Klein Catwalk Fashion Show New York SS2011

The Calvin Klein fashion show was like a parade of Dutch models. New girl Daphne Groeneveld opened the show, followed by Dutchies like Nimue Smit, Mirte Maas, Patricia van der Vliet and Lisanne de Jong. Another new Dutch girl named Iris Egbers was booked for this Calvin Klein show exclusively. So her career is off to a good start. The show was finally ended by Lara Stone, who is of course half Dutch. And with so many Dutch girls walking the Calvin Klein show we can be nothing but proud.

From the front row Katie Holmes and Julianne Moore watched Francisco Costa’s new, yet again very minimalistic collection. The designs looked clean and soft as they came by in shades of ivory, black and grey (there were exactly one red and two blue items).

According to Costa the collection was more about the body, the fabric and obvious interesting cuts.’The new field for me is softness, and making that very sharp and crisp, which is much more difficult. It was challenging, fun, much more fluid, elongated’, he said.

There were a lot of long dresses, which ended mid-calf. They were either very broad at the shoulders or shaped like a tank-top. Some dresses had a very sexy low V-line, others had subtle pleats added on the front or decorative folds.

The models wore simple ponytails and all looked very sophisticated in the CK designs. And although the clothes were very plain, Costa made them feel relevant and fresh for next summer.

Ralph Lauren Catwalk Fashion Show New York SS2011

After a few strong seasons Ralph Lauren played it safe and also ‘on trend’ with a western inspired collection. I say safe, because this is the subject he’s good at and he did it before and it made him famous.

‘Little house on the prairie’-dresses were mixed with leather cowgirl pants, poet-blouses, leather jackets with fringes, jackets with lace inserts and Navajo-patterns for bags and vestst. Accessories were alike: belts with big buckles, silver chokers, hats and scarves.

Although The West is a theme during this New York Fashion Week (Rodarte, Donna Karan), the Ralph Lauren-collection didn’t add anything new or inspiring to what we already saw. But hey, it will sell anyway – especially if you’re not into minimalism or arty-farty-styles.

Phillip Lim Catwalk Fashion Show New York SS2011

Maybe Phillip Lim likes to puzzle, regarding the puzzle-piece concept of his ss2011 collection: garments without a back, side or bottom all created one look. Sometimes a skirt looked like an apron, or a dress seemed a three piece item.

The overall impression of this collection was chic, modern and fresh with hints of clean sportswear. Chique layers, structured shapes, and a colormix of camel, baby-blue, taupe and beige. Lim also played with contrasting fabrics, sheer with opaque, lambskin with sequins. And we really liked the menswear tailoring.

Proenza Schouler Catwalk Fashion Show New York SS2011

With their spring collection McCollough and Hernandez seemed to be heading in a new direction. Their clothes seemed more lady-like or, as the designers referred to it themselves, ‘more polished or grown up in a way.’

In a beautiful and soft color palette of pale lavender, pastel yellow, salmon, pink and peach they sent out Chanel-like matted tweed jackets, hand-died and T-shirt dresses and tees and sheer, loose-fitting tank-dresses.

Like in their Resort collection the designers worked with the special Japanese Shibori tie-dye technique, which fit perfect in this collection.

Their embroideries, ruffled details, softer approach and lingerie-looks made the collection very feminine. A few colorful bags and some arty necklaces where the only accessories of the show, but that was just fine.

Anna Sui Catwalk Fashion Show New York SS2011

The Anna Sui fashion show was all about Little House on the Prairie. The backdrop of the show was that of a wheat field with a small house on it. The clothes felt boho-chic and farm-ish, but you couldn’t describe them in one word.

This probably was due to the fact that Anna took her inspiration from so many different sources. In her show notes she named musician Joni Mitchell, artist Thomas Eakins, singer Neil Young, painter Andrew Wyeth, album Ladies of the Canyon and painter Winslow Homer as her inspiration sources.

She also added Holly Hobbie a fictive little girl from which the inspiration was obvious. Holly Hobbie wore the same kind of dresses as the models in the show and was often pictured with wheat in her hands, just like the models.

All clothes looked easy going and had a lot of aspects to focus on. Busy prints (paisley, floral, geometrical), lace, ruffles, embroideries and lots of different soft shades (indigo, lace, slate, ash, blue, nudes).

The long dresses, bell bottoms, round sunglasses, feather necklaces and headpieces made of wheat gave the show it’s seventies vibe. But Anna added just the right amount of funk to it, to make the collection feel modern and new.

Narciso Rodriguez Catwalk Fashion Show New York SS2011

Narciso Rodriguez did minimalism way before the young American designers discovered it, the ones who showed their simple collections this week in New York. Rodriguez knows how to make a simple, pretty and easy dress – it made him famous.

The designer went back to his heydays in the nineties, looked at old pictures of celebs wearing his dresses and decided to leave out all the noise again and focus at strong tailoring and simple tea-dresses. Collarless coats were thrown over silk tank dresses, dresses were cut on the bias and colors were dark and blushy.

You see, minimalism can be very romantic and feminine too,

G-star Catwalk Fashion Show New York SS2011

Held at the Pier 94 exhibition space in Manhattan the G-star fashion show, attended by celebs like Kelly Rowland, Kelly Osbourne, Natasha Beddingfield, Jay Manual en Miss Jay Alexander (ANTM), started off with some very clean looks. The first twelve looks where a mix of light denim and white. The clothes felt modern due to the color, the many zippers and pockets and the 3D shapes.

The extra functional details on most of the coats (zippers, hoodies, pockets) were inspired by the desert denim theme of the show. G-star made the high collars and head scarves worn with caps on top (meant to keep the desert sand out) look tough and streetwise.

Halfway the show some sand-colored items were introduced; cargo pants, jackets and a long, sleeves, flared coat. They looked stunning with the light blue colored denim items and were roughened up by lots of belts.

One thing’s for sure: the G-star girls are going to look very tough next spring. Their denim trousers were often even wider than the ones the male models wore. Not a skinny in sight. Especially the dark denim pants shown towards the end of the show looked gigantic. Yet combined with a sleeveless top those pants still felt feminine.

We can’t wait to see the faces of G-star, Liv Tyler and chess champion Magnus Carlsen (who were in the audience), in some of these brand new designs.

Streetfashion New York Womenswear SS2011 Day 3

What are you wearing during the coming fashionweeks? Your Louboutin-heels, your latest Dries van Noten-jacket or that vintage Prada? 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.

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