A.L.C. brings us a calming balance for Spring 2012. Evocative of a summer sky, Andrea Lieberman pairs jet black leather with crisp pastel separates. Urban ease meets this weekend’s full moon in white, midnight, and blue -- contrasting dark with light, relaxed with structured.
Post by Amanda LaMela
Last season, we were introduced to the edgy intensity that is Mordekai by Ken Borochov – a powerful collection of scepters, crowns, and ammunition necklaces.
This season, titled Half Breed, combines Borochov’s regal approach with sharp modern pieces and wistfully ethereal styling. Feathers and tribal adornments are mixed with python slap bracelets and neon chokers for a look that cannot be typecasted by traditional standards. Instead, Half-Breed is the successful conception of Borochov’s fashion-mutt, the stimulating hybrid of stately, indigenous, and contemporary.
Post by Amanda LaMela
A branded Winnebago parked in front of Highline Stages welcomed guests into last night’s after-hour celebration for Lands’ End Canvas. Maintaining the motto of “Authentic Inspiration – Modern Interpretation,” the brand’s party launched Spring 2012 with artwork from the School of Visual Arts and a concert by The Wandas. As cocktails were being served throughout a terrain of styled mannequin sets and quirky lifestyle scenes, fierce ping-pong competitions were occurring just left of the photo-booth step-and-repeat.
Attracting the right combination of impulsive prepster and nonchalant urbanite, this Wednesday evening event created just the right buzz.
Post by Amanda LaMela
I have a confession. I glanced at my phone in the office today and saw a message from MAO PR containing a video for the CHRISHABANA Spring 2012 Collection. I immediately thought, “Fantastic. I’m exhausted and I don’t really feel like writing this afternoon. I’ll just throw this video into a post and that will be my content update for today.”
Once I picked myself up off the floor and recovered from my mild brain aneurysm, I decided that this isn’t the type of thing you can just upload and say, “Oh, hey. These are accessories.”
Chris Habana is a New York-based designer who describes his identity as being shaped by both a childhood fascination for science-fiction and the 90s gay counter-culture of his early adulthood. His namesake collection debuted in 2004, created widespread buzz, and has since lived up to its edgy reputation.
His signature inverted cross flashes throughout the riotous concept video in an apocalyptic, yet tounge-in-cheek compilation, perhaps to poke fun at this year’s countless Armageddon prophecies.
But another look may reveal a Vicary-esque ‘Subliminal Seduction’ experiment, compelling us all to hurl ourselves into OAK NYC and purchase the entire collection.
Uh oh. Hide the credit card. I think it might be working...
When I was 10, I performed a competitive dance routine to “Groove is in the Heart” by Deee-lite. I wore a electric blue unitard with bell-bottoms in an assaultingly bright geometric pattern. Thirteen years later, I find myself flipping through a lookbook for Geoffrey Mac, the costume-turned-RTW designer who’s collaborated with the likes of Lady Miss Kier herself, as well as Scissor Sisters and Gaga.
With powerful palettes and ultramodern stylings, my nylon/spandex blend circa-1998 could not compete with Mac’s debut collection of bold fabric combinations and eclectic sensations.
But it sure as hell tried.
Post by Amanda LaMela
Minutes before our interview, cameras were devouring Katya Leonovich’s genuine joy and girlish modesty – a refreshing sight, as she stood before her collection this morning at Lincoln Center. Born in Moscow, Katya began her design career in Rome, continued in Paris, and has lived in New York for the past three years.
“It is new American inspiration,” Leonovich elaborated on her original works of football paintings that framed the model presentation. Displaying chiffon in these replicated prints alongside pieced blue denim, Katya exhibited her personal and professional transformation. “I combined the classic silhouettes from Italy with Parisian playfulness,” she explained. “But American football was so new and interesting to me – their costumes were something I had never before seen in Europe,” she explained.
The collection had an underlying theme of movement, with wind-blown hairstyles and sport-inspired backs, as well as draped and angular hemlines. And this ‘movement’ surpassed fabric and stylings, as guests milled through the Box, whispering adoring buzz-words like, “refreshing,” “energizing,” and “innovative.”
I have never eavesdropped on a coach’s winning locker room speech, but it seems like an appropriate time to use a resonating cliché... This win was for the fans.
Post by Amanda LaMela
We weren’t sure what to expect last evening as we returned to Lincoln Center for Falguni and Shane Peacock SS12. The show opened with an immediate and refreshing dose of color, artfully applied to inventive prints and mixed media pieces. It was at this point that we turned to each other and said, “Shit…this is amazing.”
The collection’s tone laid firmly at the intersection of art nouveau and rococo, with a tinge of imperialist bravado. A number of looks featured military-inspired adornments; however, not in the “marching band” motif we’ve witnessed on other runways in seasons past. Intermittently, cords, medals and sashes adorned suggestive, bodycon jersey dresses, as well as more unctuous, elegant chiffon and satin garments.
The style and combination of prints in Falguni and Shane Peacock’s collection was evocative of Mary Katrantzou’s trompe-l’oeil aesthetic; it was reassuring to see a fresh design duo embark on this experimental undertaking.
Finally, singer-songwriter, Porcelain Black, took an irreverently energizing lap down the runway, bringing what had become one of DL’s favorite SS12 collections to a close.
“…The Renwick Ruins, an abandoned smallpox hospital still standing on Roosevelt Island, NYC. Something that once was, a haunted romanticism, evoking memories of its past…”
Gauzy cretonne, dusty chandeliers, and a phantasmal energy set a pleasantly disturbing vibe for Sally LaPointe’s SS12 runway. The air inside LaPointe’s usual West Chelsea venue, thick with artificial smog, rendered the typical pre-show fervor murky and indiscernible.
The designer’s familiar, monolithic silhouettes populated this evening’s showing, however this time with a less organic and more deliberate concept behind them.
The showing embodied a certain sense of finality – that an event had just taken place here, somebody once occupied this space, or at one time these objects served a different purpose. Now, the viewer cannot obtain closure from its current state, there is no resolution and no reassurance. LaPointe’s sepulchral forms occupy a space with their own more subtle brand of preterition; they loom like specters, ghostly forms with a palpable presence.
FFANY Shoe Show – Day 1: Eat Wear Your Veggies.
Vegetable tones, earthy prints, and feather embellishments dictate the vibrant direction for Spring 2012. Sunwashed stripes, natural color-blocking, and floral canvases have finally reached new heights in towering wedges and stack-block heels.
The recently-launched Cece L’amour offered a range of vivid color in tall, hearty shapes. These subway-grate-friendly silhouettes also appeal to the minimalists, as brands like Charles Jourdan take a more modern approach with molded constructions.
Two more days of the FFANY Shoe Show still ahead – and we’ve got some big shoes to fill.
Post by Amanda LaMela
District L is Amanda LaMela & Nicolas Sera-Leyva
