New York Fashion Week spring 2014: Tadashi Shoji
Much of L.A. based designer Tadashi Shoji’s $50-million empire is devoted to cocktail dresses and evening gowns for real -- albeit glamorous -- people, garments that range in price from about $200 to $500. His collection is sold in stores such as Saks Fifth Avenue and Nordstrom as well as his own boutiques in South Coast Plaza and Las Vegas.
But his name has been linked with movie stars and rock stars (Octavia Spencer, Mo‘Nique and Florence Welch, for starters). For last year’s Golden Globes, he dressed Spencer in a pale-orchid, gathered-front gown. At the Oscars, where Spencer took home the supporting actress award, she wore his ivory crystal beaded gown.
On Thursday, Shoji showed his 38 looks from his spring 2014 collection, which was inspired by the idea of “Sweet Liberation,” defined in press notes as “the desire to assert confidence combined with the beauty of sweet femininity.”
PHOTOS: Tadashi Shoji spring 2014
“We need more sweetness and fun in this world,” the Associated press reported him as saying before the show.
To that end, Shoji showed fringy, flapper hemlines; peplums; tiered skirts; and white lace shifts. There were evening gowns with overskirts and a neoprene strapless dress with a full skirt and a tulle cropped top. Frosted jade, lavender and ivory were mixed with light pearl, lemon and pale pink
Women, the AP quoted Shoji as saying, “know they can be taken seriously even if they wear pretty clothes.”
Among the celebrity guests taking it in were Amber Riley, Alyssa Milano and Bella Thorne.
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