Culture Flash
New designers come to fashion week for the same reason starlets come to Hollywood: the possibility of becoming the Next Big Thing.
“Every year we have new names peppered with the heavyweights,” said Fern Mallis, executive director of Seventh on Sixth, which runs the shows. “It’s the nature of the business that people are always falling out and falling in.”
What is noticeable about this season’s lineup, however, is its diversity. The mix of hip-hop labels, a strong Latin contingent, and French and Asian designers has made fashion week a melting pot of ideas about American sportswear.
Brazilian Fause Haten, 30, has such a loyal following in his country that a cadre of all-Brazilian models, including superstar Gisele, walked his catwalk for free on Monday.
Pearl-embroidered pants, rose-print boots, gold-denim jeans and light-as-air crepe dresses were as sexy as a beach scene in Rio, and dewy makeup and tousled hair made Haten’s models look as if they had just gotten up from a romp in the sand.
“Fause is truly one of those designers you can count on having a view of his own,” said John Schulman, director of merchandising at Giorgio Beverly Hills. “His stuff is different from everything else that is being shown.”
Indio native David Rodriguez, 31, a former design assistant to Richard Tyler who has also worked at Chanel, presented ladylike wool separates with a Mexican aesthetic. Tyler’s hand could be seen in Rodriguez’s glittery velvet evening-wear separates and gold spider web lace pants.
“Being at Richard Tyler influenced the way I cut. He’s the best tailor in the United States,” Rodriguez said after the show. “And being at Chanel influenced the way I market.”
L.A. designer Jenisa Washington, 30, had a sparkling debut with her line of ladylike leather in black and white. Halter tops were wrapped at the neck with long strips of leather and done up in bows. Pants had wider legs, unlike the skin-tight rocker style leather pants now in magazines. Washington updated the poncho and the pashmina--in leather--and put models in fabulous leather cloche hats.
Catherine Malandrino, former head designer for Diane von Furstenberg, produced a whimsical collection of chunky knits, embroidered chiffon blouses, gilded trench coats and Indian silk beaded dresses.
Malandrino outfitted trendoids with last year’s must-have furry cowboy hats, and if anyone could prompt a return to wearing leg warmers, which made an appearance at the show, she could. Her goal, she said, is “to find a happy medium between the past and the future.”
