Life and Style wRap: New York Fashion Week

Rappler.com

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NY's biggest fashion event is perhaps also the city's most kinetic

MANILA, Philippines – The Big Apple’s biggest fashion event did not disappoint as designers flaunted their latest collection. Here are the highlights of the week-long fashion affair:

NY fashion week wraps up with Ralph Lauren, Calvin Klein, Marc Jacobs

FINALE. Ralph Lauren at the Mercedes-Benz Spring 2014 collection. PHOTO: Emmanuel Dunand/AFP

New York Fashion Week ended Thursday, September 12, with Ralph Lauren exploring sexy schoolgirl chic, Calvin Klein offering up a study in geometry, and Marc Jacobs heading to a gothic beach wasteland.

Leaving the Big Apple, the spring-summer 2014 style cavalcade now moves over to London, Milan and Paris.

Jacobs offered a dramatic finale with a dark, Victorian spring look as thunder and lightning crashed outside, soaking fashionistas.

The only designer to enforce a merciless punctuality to his shows, Jacobs unveiled a theatrical set with a wasteland feel.

Models in pageboy bobs walked a runway littered with cigarette butts in oversized military jackets and long shorts.

The designer put floral prints on grungy oversized jackets and sweatshirts, gave Bermuda shorts an army look and unveiled dark dresses with oversized lace sleeves and high necks that wouldn’t have been out of place on a Victorian vamp.

Sixties flair

Earlier, Lauren added his own twist to one of the major trends of the season – the classic black-and-white combination – sending out a bevy of saucy schoolgirls in short skirts and dresses with a 1960s flair.

Klein’s new collection was a study in geometry with loose, box-cut jackets and tops – another key theme of the week – and skirts given a square shape with a side hem.

There was a bit of something for everyone at fashion week: masculinity was mashed with romanticism, while elegant looks took on a sporty feel. Not only will plastic be in fashion next spring, but it can be mixed with lace or tweed as well.

Donning all white is fine and as for hemlines, dresses can be short and flirty, knee-length or fall 1950s style to the calf.

“There are no more rules about length,” Nicole Fischelis, fashion director for Macy’s, told AFP.

“Nearly all the collections opened or closed with white, and it’s not boring – it has transparency, geometric effects, layering, 3D embroidery.”

Another theme seen across practically all shows is that fashionistas can finally breathe – gauzy transparency was everywhere.

Dresses were loose and square and – as seen at Calvin Klein – drop-waisted. Skirts were also fluid and full, and tops and trousers oversized and slouchy.

Saucy look

With actress Jessica Alba in the front row of a white runway lined by black seats in downtown Manhattan, the Ralph Lauren show opened with a short black dress with a white collar paired with knee socks.

The next dress added some leather and a black tie to the saucy schoolgirl look. Striped blazers, jaunty caps, and a studious pair of glasses on one model rounded off the look.

Fashion week has seen plenty of geometric prints, from stripes and polka dots to fashion queen Carolina Herrera’s use of kinetic art inspiration and layering to create vision-bending multidimensional motifs.

The 73-year-old Lauren used stripes and blocks, but also put a triangular print on a coat that he paired with a shiny skirt, crisp white shirt and floral print black-and-white tie.

Shiny sateen, neoprene, and scuba-inspired material have been used by everyone from Peter Som to Tommy Hilfiger, while Prabal Gurung laminated silk and lace and presented hand-painted “raincoat” jackets.

Another key trend was cut-out dresses and cropped tops, with bared midriffs seen all over the runways, from fashionprince Alexander Wang to American designer Jill Stuart.

While soft pastels were seen throughout the week, Lauren offered pops of bright color, with dresses in head-to-toe acid green, orange and fluorescent yellow.

Stars, ‘it’ girl

Several designers mixed masculine with feminine, a look favored by Victoria Beckham, whose flirty, asymmetrical tennis skirts and loose pants showed a new more relaxed side of the former Spice Girl.

Her two-year-old daughter Harper was unveiled as the new ‘it’ girl, drawing most of the attention in the front row as she bounced on her footballer father David Beckham’s knee.

Both “True Blood” hunk Alexander Skarsgard and actress Nicole Kidman took in Calvin Klein’s show, after a star-studdedweek which saw appearances by hip-hop star Kanye West and pop prince Justin Bieber.

And in one of the biggest surprises of the week, 43-year-old supermodel Naomi Campbell made a rare catwalk appearance for Belgian-born designer Diane Von Furstenberg.

Rock chicks and futuristic chic

FEMININITY. The Prabal Gurung fashion show. Photo: Peter Michael Dills/Getty Images/AFP

From Prabal Gurung’s futuristic Marilyn Monroe to Jill Stuart’s 1970s rock chick and sensual but modest Lacoste, designers unveiled a vast array of spring looks Saturday, September 7, in New York.

Singapore-born Gurung – whose creations have been worn by Kate Middleton, Michelle Obama and Oprah Winfrey – went to extremes to “preserve an elegant woman who is more and more rare.”

Gurung’s dresses and skirts fell mid-calf, some elegantly off-shoulder, in pastel pink, lavender, canary yellow, green, or bold prints. Lips were bright pink and tangerine while hair was slicked back.

Describing his collection as “femininity with a bite” the designer – who launched his eponymous brand in 2009 – said he pushed into the future using unusual fabric choices.

He used laminated silk and lace and mixed tweed with plastic. One “raincoat” was blended with tulle and silk while another was just clear black-painted plastic paired with green crop pants and a printed T-shirt.

Gurung told AFP his collection was “an ode to all the women I love and women in general.”

He said he was inspired by actress Marilyn Monroe from Bert Stern’s “The Last Sitting” photoshoot – published in Vogue 6 weeks before she died – and wanted to recreate “that melancholic feel.”

Alexander Wang unveils masculine but flirty spring look

TINY CUT-OUT. Models present creations by Wang. PHOTO: Joshua Lott/AFP

Alexander Wang’s masculine but flirty spring collection, unveiled September 7, quite literally bore his mark: the fashion prince lasered his name as a motif on most of the pieces.

The 29-year-old, who was appointed creative director of Spain’s Balenciaga in 2012, used the tiny cut-out – you might have to squint to see it – on sleeves, bodices and entire dresses.

While the ubiquitous bare midriff cropped up, Wang took a new twist on the trend, with boxy tops, jackets, and slouchy jerseys opening in a triangle from below the chest.

He paired these with flirtatious skirts or loose-fitting shorts.

One top was transparent except for a single well-placed panel reading: “Parental advisory, explicit content.”

“It was this idea of censorship and playing with the duality of something quite masculine and quite restrained and understated but still being very graphic and flirtatious and perverse,” Wang told AFP after the show.

He said he used traditional menswear fabrics and tailoring, as well as “this kind of artificial synthetic, kind of liquid viscose, poly blend leather.” 

Carolina Herrera tricks the eye

PLAYING WITH PERCEPTION. Carolina Herrera (center) poses backstage. Photo: Michael Loccisano/Getty Images/AFP

Carolina Herrera on Monday, September 9, unveiled a collection for next spring that played with perception, using geometric motifs and silhouettes used to create multidimensional pieces.

The Venezuelan-born doyenne of New York Fashion Week, who has dressed US first ladies from Jackie Kennedy to Michelle Obama, said she drew inspiration from the kinetic art movement.

Herrera used layered patterns on a range of fabrics from organza to chiffon to create “clothes in motion”, with swirling lines – in black and white or green – or overlaid square shapes creating a feeling of movement.

Top model Karlie Kloss closed the show in an ivory, black, and shell pink gown with a silk organza overlay studded with kinetic diamond dots, creating a mesmerizing, almost three-dimensional effect.

“Patterns of black and white, and prints in crimson, sienna, and smoky umber contrast with soft tones like tea green, porcelain, and mauve to accentuate this play on perception,” Herrera said in her show notes.

Award-winning actress Uma Thurman told AFP the show was “exquisite, the best New York has to offer.”

The “Kill Bill” actress sat across from storied Vogue editor Anna Wintour, as ever with her trademark bob and dark sunglasses.

Curvy “Mad Men” siren Christina Hendricks was also in attendance, after being seen at Zac Posen’s show on Sunday night.

J.Crew serves up dressy beach attire for next spring

CANDY-COLORED LOOK. Tom Mora of the RTW label said he was inspired by old Time-Life images. PHOTO: Robert MacPherson/AFP

American label J.Crew, a favorite of Michelle Obama, on Tuesday, September 10, sent brightly-clad beachgoers to a 1900s Venetian resort as it unveiled its new collection for next spring.

Chief women’s wear designer Tom Mora gave casual wear an infusion of old-world sophistication for spring-summer 2014 at New York Fashion Week.

He layered a blue blazer with white piping over a floral jumpsuit, and paired a billowing white skirt – modestly falling to the calf – with a fitted black sweater.

Paint-spattered pants in military green met a smart white shirt with navy blue stripes on the sleeves, while a shimmering mint knee-length skirt contrasted with a large “Aloha” t-shirt.

“It’s easy to do beach-inspired, it has been done. I wanted something a little more complex,” Mora told AFP.

“I was thinking about the duality of beach culture,” from surfing in California to the “contrast of the Lido lifestyle on the Venetian coast at the turn of the century, where you have proper dress with lace eyelet, nautical stripes, tailored blazers.”

Neon pink and orange flowers gave a punch of color to a belted, calf-length dress with a plunging neckline.

A bright orange shift dress and luminous yellow jacket offered more flashy chic.

The high-end meets low-end fashion looks take a leaf out of the US First Lady’s style book.

Obama is famous for her knack for pairing cheap accessories with a couture ensemble to create her own signature brand of chic. When she wears pieces from J.Crew, they often sell out.

Michael Kors dreams of summer romance in chic new collection

FLIRTY LOOK. A model walks the runway at Kors' fashion show. Photo: Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images/AFP

American designer Michael Kors on Wednesday, September 11, unveiled a sensuous, flirty new look for spring, featuring slashed dresses and slit skirts.

Kors sent models down the catwalk to the sounds of Mama Cass’s “Dream a Little Dream of Me” on the second-to-last day of the spring-summer 2014 fashion frenzy in the Big Apple.

He opened the show with a belted white linen crepe jacket over a gauzy white dance skirt, juxtaposing the sporty with the romantic and sharply tailored pieces with something softer.

“Summer romance…a softer attitude,” Kors wrote in his show notes.

An oversized mohair cardigan was belted over a crocheted skirt, while a double breasted short-sleeved shirt was paired with barely-there shorts in military green.

Kors looked to the animal world for inspiration, perching white fox fur on the shoulders of a model wearing a white and blue striped boyfriend shirt and high-waisted denim shorts.

Dresses were knee-length and flouncy in nutmeg or grass shades – colors also used in prints on a bandeau and high-rise shorts, or a bikini dotted with white daisies.

He also used barley-colored python skin, either for a slit skirt paired with an indigo pullover or for a shirt. – with reports from Agence France-Presse/Rappler.com

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