Wednesday, September 16, 2009

NY Fashion Week Round-up #3

Just following Fashion Week online is a lot of work! I never realized it before. I mean, you go through roughly 500 slides on style.com everyday, and then you have to pick the ones that you like, and then you have to go through everything and find the looks that really stand up (I'm whining, but you know I love every minute of it). And then you have to deal with the monetary self-restraint issues of seeing pretty clothes all day. It's exhausting! By exhausting I mean totally amazing, of course. Anyways, here's round-up #3 from NY Fashion Week.

DKNY, Tracy Reese, Donna Karan: The color combination in this DKNY ensemble is insane. Insane. I mean, if you told me that you were going to put nude, red, pink, and grey together, I'd say you were crazy. But here, with the cuts of the relaxed separates, somehow it works. And those grey formal shorts are killing me. So are these two draped jersey dresses. The Tracy Reese dress is so rock and roll chic, and has so much attitude. I really like the way that there's obvious draping and ruching, but it's not bulky at all. The DKNY dress has a similar silhouette, with the one-shoulder and fitted waist, but a totally different vibe. The peachy-nude hue is very refined, and the wrap cut is almost Grecian. I really like that the one-shouldered, draped body-con dress can work for so many people and looks.


All J. Mendel: J. Mendel is just killing me. I bookmarked the entire show. That man can do draped chiffon like nobody's business. And I never see anybody wearing him on the red carpet. It makes me so sad. How can you not love these dresses? The first two scream Oscars. Take a basic sweetheart gown, make it in icy blue-grey, and add a ruffled over skirt, and you've got something chic and classic, but not at all boring. The toxic yellow hue of these last two dresses really reminds me of the saffron dress Michelle Williams wore to the Oscars a few years ago, and I think if you pulled it off, it could totally work on the red carpet. The simple silhouette of the yellow gown balances the vibrant shade nicely, and all that pleating would give it AMAZING movement (and how sexy is that dropped shoulder?). This last dress is so sick. The organic explosion of feathery flowers on the skirt adds a necessary femininity to the acid yellow, and the fitted waist keeps it flattering.


Karen Walker, Reem Acra, Diane von Furstenberg: The '60s are back! I love Karen Walker for doing that hippy dippy trippy Alice in Wonderland on crack print. The clean lines of that dress and the uppity-ness of that peplum skirt go so perfectly with that crazy print. I mean, how much fun would it be to wear that dress? Or this Reem Acra dress? The bleached ikat print, the simple lines, the crazy princess jewelry--it's fun and feminine, but not overly girly. I think the faded pastel color palette is going to be a big deal for this spring. The DVF show is always a winner. It's always fun, summery, and a little nomadic. This year all the girls had these crazy butterfly clips in their hair, which sounds like it shouldn't work, but clustered together like that they look like a crown instead of a 5 year old's favorite accessory. The draped, asymmetrical silhouette is going to be big. I really like it because it's quirky, it's a little unexpected, and yet it's really flattering because of the way it hugs the body.


Herve Leger by Max Azria, Herve Leger by Max Azria, Derek Lam: I was really pleasantly surprised with the Herve Leger show this year. I mean, little body-con bandage dresses are always fun, but they can get a little redundant. This season they mixed in some homier fabrics, like crochet work, denim, and strips of leather. The look is still strong and sexy, but now it's interesting too. The lines on that first dress are insanely flattering, and I'm loving the tribal/warrior-esque vibe, and the sheer panels on the one-shouldered dress are a really fresh take on that trend from last fall. As for Derek Lam, I loved, loved, loved the makeup (there were some crazy carnival colors going on there). There seemed to be a bit of a boardwalk theme, so it was a little retro-kooky-Americana. This dress would be insanely perfect if it was three, four inches longer. The cut is fantastic, body-conscious without being 'body-con' (if that makes any sense), and the aggressive floral print is so edgy-chic. The idea of taking a floral mini-dress and then toughening it up with an intense leather belt is totally genius.


Erin Fetherston, Erin Fetherston, Vivienne Tam: When is Erin Fetherston not amazing, really? Her shows always have a bit of a fairytale theme, but this year I think Cinderella took a little detour over to ancient Egypt. There were lots of heavy, gold-plated necklaces and heavy cat-eyes. This khaki dress is awesome because, one, it's khaki and pretty much no one has the balls to make a girly dress in khaki, and two, because the deep v-neck is just plunging enough to mediate the wide, tulip cut of the skirt. It's on-trend and it's geometric, but at the same time it's feminine. And I don't think I really have to explain the gown. I mean, hello? The neckline is insane, I love the navy, and the sheer panel at the skirt takes this from just another bejeweled mini-dress to a show-stopping red carpet gown. I die. The five year old in me wants to put on this butterfly covered Vivienne Tam dress and never take it off. I think there's some gut reflex in every girl that just wants to grab anything sparkly, and come on, it has butterflies all over it. Butterflies! And it doesn't look kitschy or cheesy at all. Done in black, it's hopelessly romantic, but completely grounded. And those shoes...wow.


Image Sources:
DKNY: style.com, Tracy Reese: style.com, Donna Karan: style.com, J. Mendel: style.com, Karen Walker: style.com, Reem Acra: style.com, DVF: style.com, Herve Leger: style.com, Derek Lam: style.com, Erin Fetherston: style.com, Vivienne Tam: style.com

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