Leggings? You need a professional
In a season devoid of color, when pared down, simple shapes are the norm and a return to the 1980s brought a steady march of leggings and layering, the mix has never been more important. No place was this more apparent than at L.A. Fashion Week, which ended Thursday, where styling had the power to make or break a collection.
Bebe had the best in the business -- Arianne Phillips, the Oscar-nominated costume designer for “Walk the Line” and Madonna’s stylist. She teamed with designer David Cardona to give the Brisbane, Calif.-based brand known for skimpy separates a whole new identity.
Working in black and gray with punches of traffic-light red and Concord grape, Cardona traveled to fashion’s dark side with clothes that were sophisticated and covered up. He was one of several designers to make strong showings here by leaving embellishment behind and focusing instead on clean lines. Collections from bebe, David Meister, Juan Carlos Obando, Louis Verdad and Kara Saun earlier in the week did not necessarily push fashion forward, but at least they were in step with what’s already going on, and not in a West Coast vacuum.
Several collections shouldn’t have been on the runway at all, and still others were killed by poor styling. At Iron, Leejay Mintz’s silk jersey tops and dresses in Easter egg swirls would have looked fresh layered over tank tops, T-shirts or leggings. The same was true of Joy Han’s Voom collection, where fashionista and English garden floral prints were worked into kimono and baby doll dresses that screamed spring, not fall, when worn against bare legs.
Closing out the week at bebe, Cardona played with volume and proportion, beginning with a black cashmere coat with a ballooning hem balanced atop skinny leggings and continuing with a snug little black fur jacket worn over a duchesse satin tulip skirt and sultry red tights. Cardona’s flair for tailoring was on display on a black bolero jacket that seemed to have been pieced together from oversized petals of fabric, and on a sublime black crepe dress with pinched cap sleeves.
For evening, a sheer black chiffon blouse with a diamond-shaped silk modesty panel and cropped sharkskin pants made for a chic riff on tuxedo dressing. There were plenty of super-short strapless dresses with bubble hems too, worn over footless tights for the show. But for hot young things like Mischa Barton, who was sitting in the front row and is the new face of bebe, those dresses would look just as well with bare legs and sling backs. And for the big night, a divine crepe gown was the color of a red carpet, with two straps cutting diagonally across one shoulder, and soft pleats falling to the floor.
Phillips gave the show a sleek, sexy look with gleaming patent leather gloves, wide belts, clutch bags and peep toe shoes. And though it was bebe, the mall favorite, those ropes of sparklers weren’t crystals. They were diamonds from Neil Lane’s stunning Meteor collection.
Meister, whose dress business is headquartered in Industry, tapped Harper’s Bazaar editor Brana Wolf to style his show and up his fashion quotient. The collection was beautifully presented, clean and spare. Meister hit on several of the same themes as Cardona did at bebe, playing with volume on a balloon sleeve jacket and a black jacquard smock top, both worn atop leggings and slick patent leather ankle-strap shoes. A nude stretch georgette blouse with front ties, worn with a high-waist pencil skirt and this season’s favorite patent leather belt, was sexy secretary, and a black-and-white plaid suit with a rounded jacket and short, full skirt looked remarkably similar to one on the Balenciaga runway just two weeks ago. Though truth be told, Meister’s was more wearable.
Obando just keeps getting better and better. While he touched on the same dark, futuristic themes as other designers this week, his collection was the most inventive. Obando has earned a reputation for saucy little cocktail dresses, but this season he put his efforts into separates. Leggings were again the foundation, to which Obando added tunic tops, one in black satin with a low, ruffled back, another in a plush black velvet, fastened with a wide ribbon belt with dressmaker snaps for jewels.
A navy crewneck sweater was embellished with buttons arranged in the shape of a robot and worn atop silver cigarette pants, while a sharp bolero with an angular collar and fold-over lapel topped shorts, layered over footless tights. Obando’s twisted silver goatskin sandals continued to shine, gleaming out from under a charcoal gray silk jersey gown with one long sleeve.
Jennifer Nicholson’s collection had its moments -- a pirate print chiffon wrap dress, a black wool and velvet schoolgirl coat with a cape collar, a crinkly black doll dress with puffed sleeves that looked very Wednesday Addams. But it wasn’t enough to make up for the show’s cruel hourlong buildup, courtesy of dad Jack Nicholson, who was winding his way to Culver City from the Lakers game. (Couldn’t he have left a few minutes earlier?)
After a two-year hiatus from fashion week, Corey Lynn Calter got it all right, cherry-picking references from all kinds of places like that other great mix master, Anna Sui. With a little bit of Victorian lace here, a Japanese botanical print there and even a hint of inspiration from Ukrainian folk costumes, she updated the ever-popular bohemian look.
Calter played with proportion, showing a brown cashmere cocoon coat with quirky green Wellies and a shrunken, puff-sleeved bed jacket in gray plaid over a long-sleeve T-shirt and rose-print full skirt. And she layered with aplomb -- a chocolate brown lace dress over a short sleeve tee, over a long-sleeve tee and cutoff tights, a chiffon blouse under a crinkled wool strapless dress with cutoff tights. And then there were those fun folksy touches -- a smocked dress worn under a brown velveteen vest trimmed in fur, and a black silk doll dress, appliqued with bits of peaches-and-cream lace.
Anthony Franco is a costume-turned-fashion designer who has been working on OutKast’s upcoming Prohibition-era musical, “Idlewild.” So you would think he’d understand showmanship. There wasn’t anything wrong with his debut collection, which included a sparkly brown-and-gold polo dress and a silvery sequin mermaid gown with a built-in satin corset belt. And the leather iPod holster he’s designed in collaboration with L.A.-based company Red Monkey was gangsta cool. But there wasn’t enough wow here to sustain 51 looks.
It’s always a pleasure to see Christopher Enuke’s eclectic Oligo Tissew collection. This season, his canvas was clean, dark denim, to which he added inventive knits. Loose-weave cardigans in sunflower yellow, pea green and watermelon pink came with swing backs, ruffled sides or side buttons, and were worn over skinny jeans.
Pullover sweaters with designs reminiscent of Joan Miro’s work topped long knit skirts. A butterscotch leather jacket with an oversized collar and whip stitching was California cool, as was a taxicab-yellow bomber jacket.
But not nearly as cool as Enuke himself, taking his runway bow in swashbuckling boots, jodhpurs, a tartan shawl and marled black sweater, with baby daughter Sondiata in his arms.
Now that’s styling.
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Scholarship offer
L.A. Fashion Week’s title sponsor, Mercedes-Benz, has announced a new scholarship program that will provide one aspiring fashion designer a $20,000, one-year scholarship to attend L.A.’s Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising. An auction of Fender guitars decorated by Gwen Stefani, Slash, fashion designer Kevan Hall, skater Tony Hawk and others will help support the program. Information is available at www.fidm.edu/designlaawards.com.
