Designer Steele dresses to live up to the success

Lawrence Steele has finally come to terms with the pressure of having once been dubbed a designer on the brink of success. That weight was laid on his shoulders more than five years ago in an article in the New Yorker. Around that same time, Steele designed the dress that Jennifer Aniston wore when she married Brad Pitt.

That kind of publicity pushes a designer into the spotlight, but at the same time, it burdens him with outsize expectations. For several years afterward, Steele seemed to be struggling to claim a prize that had all but been promised to him: All he had to do was create a collection that would wow the world of fashion editors, stylists and celebrity wranglers. To do that, Steele wandered off into an aesthetic sensibility that wasn’t really his.

If one recalls correctly -- and this is the sort of thing that the mind tries to blot out -- there was a brief infatuation with gold lame harem pants.

There was also a bit of dabbling in baby doll dresses, which should never occur unless one is launching a collection for toddlers.

But after being absent from the runway for several seasons, Steele returned this week with a collection that recalled much of the promise that had been celebrated years ago. He offered a perfect black cocktail dress: sleeveless, with a simple V-neckline and a draped back that dipped low into a coquettish bow. There was a taupe slip of an evening gown with a blouson bodice, and a butter-yellow party dress dotted with rosettes.

In redefining his sense of sophistication and grace, Steele resurrected his claim on a promising future.