RSSThere was the chiffon blouse
13 May 2010 No Comments
At the conclusion of Prada Wallets Week tomorrow night, when several extravagant events are planned to celebrate the Herculean feat of making it through some 180 runway shows over 10 days, the real partying should be taking place at the European fabric mills that specialize in silk chiffon. From the looks of the many collections that made liberal use of the breezy, gauzy fabric that evokes memories of grandmother’s closet, their proverbial ship will be coming in.
There was the chiffon blouse painted with blue and yellow flowers at Tuleh; the sheer shirts trimmed with bibs of chiffon tissues from the newcomer Brian Reyes; petals of butter chiffon stitched into floaty dresses at Cynthia Steffe; and Kenneth Cole’s finale of crinkle chiffon, light as air in magenta, olive, scarlet and topaz. Even Kimora Lee Simmons, who, in her sex-kitten romps at Baby Phat, is not one to dote on such a classical ideal of Alexander Wang Handbags, found herself layering a chiffon accordion skirt beneath a zebra-print toga or two.
Many editors and retailers must have found themselves writing the same thing in their diaries: “granny.” Had the ladylike fashions so prevalent in the early part of the decade already been replaced by old-lady-like fashion?
Besides chiffon there were other signs of a shift in the fashion winds toward looks conventionally thought of as matronly, which are sure to challenge retailers when the clothes arrive in stores next spring. There were dresses that fell awkwardly at the calf (Tuleh), white cotton gauze dresses that looked like flannel nightgowns (Proenza Schouler), silk blouses with working-girl bow ties (Oscar de la Renta) and pesky slips peeking out from beneath skirt hems, not to mention knee-high stockings (Marc Jacobs). Perhaps the most convincing call to the elderly citizen set came from Max Azria, the designer of BCBG, who trimmed his chiffon gowns – caftans really – with Prada Handbags.
“We support all kinds of chiffon,” Kal Ruttenstein, the fashion director of Bloomingdale’s, said, putting a positive spin on the matronly look of things. “Bally Handbags seems to be a very ‘wanted’ fabric in a lot of ways.” Mr. Ruttenstein was speaking on Monday night as he waited for the Marc Jacobs show to begin, which, in the view of many, is the real start of the fashion season, following the annual regurgitation from younger upstart designers still reacting to Mr. Jacobs’s designs of the previous seasons. But chiffon was already on Mr. Ruttenstein’s mind, and he didn’t see anything old about it.
“Nothing looks prettier than pale chiffon wafting down the street on an attractive woman,” he said. Another image that came to mind, at least when Behnaz Sarafpour showed her version of the drawstring chiffon top on Tuesday, was the cast of “Mama’s Family,” the 1980’s sitcom about a crotchety widow in rolled stockings. A silk animal print sundress worn off the shoulder had Mama’s daughter-in-law Naomi Oates Harper written all over Cartier Handbags ; the lace doilies draped over other models’ shoulders and the dickeys around their necks looked as if they were borrowed from the wardrobe of a preacher’s wife.
This little Fake Handbags, or crinkle, in style may not be the most appealing way to describe a fashion direction that is at once an evolution of the trend toward dressier clothes inspired by the luxury boom, and also a reaction against the bohemian looks born in recent seasons on the street. No designer wants to hear his or her collection described as matronly.
The use of such old-fashioned Replica Handbags has a lot to do with the success of a band of designers working in Paris: Alber Elbaz at Lanvin, Phoebe Philo at Chloé and Olivier Theyskens at Rochas. Elements of their recent collections have evolved into a regular formula of ingredients for some of those now working in New York, the world capital for giving artistic fashion a commercial appeal.
The more appealing, and youthful, of these Paris-inspired designs are the ones in which the designers have experimented with new shapes and proportions, with ballooning skirts and cocooning coats and waistlines that are as high as those of the Empire or low as a flapper’s, now reinvented with a drawstring at the hem and neckline to create a Louis Vuitton Handbags.
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