Fashion Week is over. Finally! Is it me or does it feel like every other week is fashion week somewhere someplace? Right? And New York goes on forever… so much so the rhythm gets lost in the groove. This season was no different. It gets there in the end, makes us tired before we get to London, but the gems are worth the lethargy. For SS16 Designers are pulling pack the drama and the fanfare. What I saw of New York, I mostly liked. Not love.
I missed the usual celebratory affair of Michael Kors, I wasn’t feeling the flying ribbons and Spanish flair but it was aight. I really liked Zac Posen, he almost always annoys me with his collection of puffy dresses and ball gowns strictly meant for the red carpet but he took it down several notches for SS16. Wang was Wang, he is street, deeply influenced by Sports and Hip-Hop culture, he’s found a perfect synergy between the two and its his thing. Repetitious, but it keeps him in business.
Francisco Costa just got the memo that sneakers with dresses are a thing, radical move considering the brand’s DNA, but it was still in the same boring tones and vanilla look. This is a brand stifled by its past and it’s a shame. Tommy Hilfiger finds a moment and camps it the hell up- SS16 is all about Jamaica, in colour and style. He works a trend to death but credits where its due, Tommy Hilfiger knows his crowd; playful, young and hip. I have a soft spot for Marc Jacobs so I cannot be trusted to find fault with his collections, even when I am having a most WTF moment he manages to pull a rabbit out of his hat. Same goes for Victoria Beckham, I love her and I respected her, and much of what saw from both designers for SS16 I really liked, but I am also big enough to be honest, there was something missing for me, I don’t know what it was, but something was not all the way there. I love the surfer influence of VB although I am not sure what a woman with breasts are supposed to do with those deep V gowns, I am fan of loose silhouettes and its good to see her kick back and get whimsical on us. The picnic check patterns was also a favourite look on mine, still with her signature dresses but it gave room to being more playful. Marc Jacobs is all very crazy pulp fiction mad, he pulls no punches and goes HAM for a collection; his genius comes in the styling it can either leave you scratching your head or cheering right away. This was a rickety old lady look on the red carpet but taken apart the looks were a lot to really like. He throws a curve when fashion needs it.
The New DKNY…I don’t know what to make of it yet, and that bothers me on the one hand- we don’t know what is coming, it wasn’t a unique debut from the duo and what they put out there I’ve seen it all before, but I am not about to write them off just yet. I missed the commercial coolness and the street chic of the old DKNY with a New York signature, but this was a marriage between both brands in the house. I adored the flashes of navy but I am not mad for the weird hemline. I suppose we will have to wait and see what they have planned for the brand. One thing is for sure, its a more contemporary market, where Donna Karan meets DKNY and its a space where money can be made so, it could work.
DVF, I was very disappointed. It feels like the house doesn’t try any more the collections are filled with the biggest of names and freshest of faces, which disguises the true essence of the collection. The critics loved it, but it felt like a yawn compared to Oscar de la Renta, another icon. Peter Copping still plays the same hand but I can see his identity as well. What Oscar did, now Peter has done, is give us a desirable collection that enthuses the customer base. I cannot afford anything from Oscar de la Renta, but by George I really want something, everything, every time I see an Oscar show and I am pleased to see that it hasn’t changed.
When it comes to fashion, I love to see something I can immediately wear and Altuzarra gave me just that, it was very uncomplicated, laid-back, its not a brand I have always given any attention to but what I saw- lace midi dresses, separates, I liked a lot. Lam was another favourite and another brand I have often overlooked but he gave a superbly cool girl vibe for SS16 that a lot of us would like to pull off. Cue the high street versions. I am in love with Suno’s left field, the brand is always a little to the left of normal, smack dabbed in the middle of weird but its the Suno beat, it never tries too hard, but its always so sensible with an individual sense of style. Delpozo is a brand that awakens the NYFW runway, and gives it that extra something. Since its debut much has been said of its couture cut for ready to wear pieces, its far from commercial, but it has a mass aspirational appeal. Its soft and rounded in structure and aesthetic, the clothes are so beautiful they are dreamy from full skirts to exquisitely cut dresses, its all so breathtaking.
All in all, the week worked, when it found its rhythm, but here’s the thing, for a good few seasons NYFW has become very formulaic with the rare cause for pause inserted by a few brands with gumption. Something about New York always leaves me dissatisfied, even with its plenty offerings. But the other thing is, regardless I still think New York is the most important city on the calendar because it is the heart of commercialism, the busiest of the month and the most influential when it comes to the high street.