What to Wear
If you’re currently in the Northern hemisphere, you’re probably still miserably wrapped up in your Regina boots but Fashion Week is upon us again with designers showing Fall already. Which means it's time for you to hit the shops and scoop up the men’s and women’s Spring 2005 clothes.
Here’s our guide on what you should bother to buy of the trends for Spring from New York, Paris, London, Milan and LA Fashion Weeks. (We'll bring you the scoop on next week's showings soon.)
EMBROIDERY
Embroidery is everywhere. Basso & Brooke, at Fashion Fringe in London, showed a plunging bodiced embroidered chartreuse dress which reminds us a bit of the Galliano for Dior green dress Nicole Kidman wore to the Oscars some 7 years ago. The item to scoop up is Cynthia Rowley's stand-out jacquard breeches.
AFRICAN
Anything remotely (and even fakely) from the continent of Africa is big. [Editor's Note: And here to stay. Gaultier just showed a tribal beaded dress this week at the Paris Couture shows.] A growing awareness of cultural crossovers such as Fela Kuti is trickling down from bars (think Cain) to clothing. In NY, Keanan Duffty mixed in tiger prints and dreds to his usual Brit punk. Cavalli in Milan showed shifts beaded with African mask motifs. Leopard stripes made their way on Theodora Richards at Buddhist Punk. Scoop up the pieces from designers doing jewelry such as Nicole Romano's horn and bone pendants. Or for more permanence, we love the safari- themed plates at Hermes.
PLUNGING NECKLINES ON HALTER DRESSES
A dip dyed grass dress in Rowley’s show also marked the trend of plunging necklines. At Mara Hoffman, the same trend could be seen as well as the halter dresses with open backs which we think will be big as the weather gets warmer. Akris showed chiffon halter dresses in sage green. Nicole Romano showed the same neckline and halter shape on a chiffon layered mini number. A striped rainbow floor length chiffon number from Charles Anastase is our pick if you want to own a sure-fire show-stopper.
FEATHERS AND CRYSTALS
A fourth trend which could be seen at Hoffman on her draped Cuban-esque, old Havana flamenco style dresses, is feathers, with one of her dresses showing a line of feathery and leafy decoration down the back. Feathers could also be seen in Nanette Lepore’s Spring collections in print. Hoffman also showed crystals on the shoulders, as did Fortuna by Ruffian at the Swarovski show with their capelet which is the collectors choice IF you can get it.
WANNA BE A COWBOY, BABY
Cavalli showed ruffles, fringe, with cowboy accents. At Anna Sui, it was the full Wild West on Naomi Campbell with embroidery, fringe, hats, boots, the whole Little House on the Prairie.
POUFY SKIRTS
Think 80s bubble numbers on Linda Evangelista. Sorry kids, it’s b-a-c-k. Most evident in Paris: a white mini number at Charles Anastase. The one to buy is Alistair Carr's azure tulle number from his London showing.
SHIRT DRESSES
Could be seen in aqua at Carolina Herrera, and just about every other show. As they never go out of style, we like the candy-coloured numbers shown on Pucci's runway...
AND GREEN
Is the colour of Spring. We saw chartreuse and sage everywhere...In NY at Costello Tagliapietra and in L.A. at Sue Wong, who showed beaded and fringed dresses in emerald green. At their Milan show, the bizarre mismatched boho clothes of Marni was made even weirder by chartreuse. The worthwhile buy is Marie Marie's top-that-converts-to-a-dress which is near-genius.
WHEAT & VERY LIGHT YELLOW
A second runner up in colour theme was wheat with cream coloured clothes dominating Rowley and Narciso Rodriguez. Beige was the colour in Milan at Marni, Dolce, Cavalli. We'd go for Dolce and Gabbana, because the standout items were beige and red snakeskin woven into tweed, velvet and lace - very unusual.
BEST IN SHOW
Hundreds of shows, five cities. Nicholas Morley’s was the best. Buddhist Punk is the label. Patti Hansen, Nur Khan, Gina Gershon, Leo, Elizabeth Jagger, Patti Hansen, Veruschka, and Theodora Richards walked his runway. Steven Tyler is a fan and attended. Morley, originally an Australian hair stylist, has dressed the Rolling Stones and AC/DC.
DESIGNERS TO WATCH
This year’s breakouts are
- Evie Kilcline by Kate Robinson who’s quiet collection of satin draped dresses and suits reminds us of Narciso Rodriguez’s first designs.
- Louis Verdad’s corset tops and dresses.
- Pollini with Rifat Ozbek at the helm can be found at Henri Bendel, where boots with button studs and his “take my photo” cloud-swirled dresses and tops flew out the door.
- René Caovilla who opened his first ever shop in Milan.
- Alexandre Herchcovitch is the new Marc Jacobs. Mostly insanely bright printed clothes in fairly unwearable styles – BUT madly creative, utterly collectible and you’ll get thumbs up for bravery.
Next Up:
New Spots in Food and Nightlife (& Those Opening Soon...)
