blendnewyork…Fashion.Art.Style.Inspiration.Love

There was something decidedly less precious about Alexis Mabille’s girl this season. His show notes described a girl who’s in touch with her masculine side yet sticks to her womanly ways. That dose of sartorial testosterone seemed to be just the thing to temper Mabille’s saccharine leanings. Banker stripes merged surprisingly well with white lace as trim on sweet little shirtdresses, and even better when inset in the sleeves of a crisp button-down. One of Mabille’s twists was the shirt formed into a bustier, its sleeves knotted into a bow. One slip and it could have felt gimmicky, but he got it right, particularly on two evening looks near the end of the show. In fact, the best things skewed very XY, like another evening option of an hourglass-shaped waistcoat and sleek, toreador-style pants with the tiniest flourish of a Mabille bow at the calf. Inspired by the cinematography of the film The Garden of the Finzi-Continis, the show was staged in a picture-perfect greenhouse at the Jardin des Serres d’Auteuil. That gave Mabille full rein with the Laura Ashley florals in the middle of the show, which, when combined with tasseled fringe and lace, recalled a little girl’s ticky-tacky bedroom circa 1984. And in that vein, we can excuse it as a passing phase. (by Meenal Mistry style.com)

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Like Miuccia Prada, Akris’ Albert Kriemler got turned on by cars this season. Kriemler specifically referenced John Frankenheimer’s 1966 film Grand Prix, set in Monaco and other pit stops from motor racing’s golden age. Still, the two collections were as night and day as you’d expect; where Prada was cheeky, Akris was sleek. Kriemler devoted a large part of the collection to the photoprints that have become a house signature. A shot of the Hotel de l’Hermitage on racing day and another of spectators gathered on top of a large rectangular viewing structure were bold. More clever, if not necessarily more subtle, were the tiny speedometer print and a graphic horizontal stripe made from manipulating the image of a car. Speed was the organizing metaphor here: Shifts were aerodynamic and A-line, while jackets and pants with racing stripes looked inspired by uniforms. Sport has been a persistent trend this season, and this collection puts Kriemler and co. in the center of it. (by Nicole Phelps style.com)

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Peter Dundas gave the hippie-deluxe look he’s made his signature during his two years at Emilio Pucci the old heave-ho tonight. Call it a case of quitting while you’re ahead: Sales for Spring and orders for pre-fall are way, way up. But the designer has already moved on to new inspirations. For Fall he’s thinking along more refined yet altogether decadent lines. Before the show he rattled off a list of reference points: hunters; Tyrolea; winter palaces; Romy Schneider as Sissi; Victoire de Castellane, the designer of Dior’s haute joaillerie; and a Parisian figure known for flaunting her very belle poitrine. That’s right, a bare leg may have reigned supreme at this Florence house since Dundas’ arrival, but no longer. This season, the bust is it. He framed it with corseted hourglass dresses that had long sleeves and a little collar or a bow, and sometimes both, at the neckline—one part temptress, the other part decorous. These came in all manner of materials, from practically humble loden wool to positively sumptuous black velvet embellished with crystals arrayed in diamond patterns, as well as in the familiar Pucci prints. Well, make that not so familiar. To emphasize the rustic, raw part of the story, he reintepreted the prints in hand-painted renderings. As for all those sharp-shouldered, double-breasted Pucci blazers in the front row? There were still some rigorously tailored examples on today’s runway, but they were part of the capsule collection for men that Dundas was debuting alongside his womenswear. His female fashion fans, on the other hand, will have to do some updating before next season. His new jackets come with a little puff at the shoulders. A suede version with leather appliqués worn with matching knickers edged into costume territory, but it was a rare misstep in a terrific collection. The Hollywood set that’s gone gaga for Dundas will be looking for red carpets to wear his dresses on all year long.
(by Nicole Phelps – style.com)

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Check out BlendNewYork’s newest fashion at Princeton University’s charity benefitting Autism Speaks. This year our boutique will feature designers: Analili, Alternation Clothing, A.D.O. (Anjelika Dreams Organic) & Voom by Joy Han

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Having shown his new contemporary collection, Z Spoke, at home in New York, Zac Posen decided to present his signature line in Paris. Gutsy move. The competition here is nothing if not formidable; then again, Posen has never been a shy guy. Today, he not only chose a venue where Yves Saint Laurent famously used to show, but—further upping the ante from his Fall collection, which had a focus on daywear—he turned his attention almost exclusively to evening.

After opening with some smart tweed jackets with puffed shoulders and stand-up collars, the designer wasted no time getting to cocktail hour, and that’s when all the black lace, and feathers kicked in. The vibe: showgirl boudoir. Posen’s signature silhouette hasn’t changed; it’s still nipped and paneled at the waist, but cutouts are part of the sexy mix for Spring—and that meant there was a lot going on. The pieces that will make it into the closets of his party-set fans—and onto the red carpet—were the least fussy, like a vibrant red silk dress with a swirling, draped bodice, or a black ombré silk gown with a spray of feathers on each shoulder. Subtlety has never been Posen’s MO, nor are we suggesting it should be, but it wouldn’t have hurt if he’d picked up a few pointers on chic simplicity from Monsieur Saint Laurent.

(by Nicole Phelps – style.com)

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“Who’s Leonard Peltier?” a front-rower at the Vivienne Westwood Red Label show asked… The question was apropos of the assertion, printed at the bottom of the Westwood credit sheet, that the long-jailed American Indian activist is innocent. Elsewhere in the front row, as a clutch of Westwood’s old-school punk pals took their seats, editors flipped through brochures for the legal organization Reprieve, which works on behalf of prisoners at Guantánamo and on death row.

Clothing-wise, there were smart ideas here, like a sporty stripe of stretch leather running down the side of pencil skirts and lean suit trousers. There were curve-complementing pencil dresses with ruffled necklines, executed with pop in an orange and white check, and ageless, universally flattering draped silk dresses and tops. There were a plethora of great jackets and pants and the occasional outstanding accessory, like an oversize bag in Navajo-print felt and color-blocked patent-leather brogues and high-tops. Perhaps the large, heart-shaped necklaces Westwood designed for Reprieve, which accessorized nearly every look, were meant not only to raise funds for the organization but to send a message to the restlessly idle Westwood woman on the runway. Good God, girl, there’s plenty to do—so do something. (by Maya Singer – style.com)

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Catherine Malandrino’s Fall collection picked up where her Spring Nomads show left off. Named Khan and inspired by an image of the Earth as seen from above, it was a densely layered, richly textured melting pot of influences. The show was also long on the kind of crafty details that the French-born New Yorker has made the calling card of her designer-priced Malandrino label. Among all the fringing and embroideries, there were scads of leather either laser-cut into racy strips and feminine eyelet or stamped with graffiti hieroglyphs. At times, you could get the feeling that you were on a Sunday afternoon stroll through a tribal costume exhibit at the American Museum of Natural History. That’s a dangerously literal path for a designer to follow, but Malandrino was unabashed: She said she was thinking about our communal ancestors and our modern nomadic life. In any case, take the looks apart and there were plenty of timely, sellable pieces here. (by Nicole Phelps – style.com)

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“Everyone says to back off aesthetically,” said Phillip Lim, days before his show. “But that’s not what’s selling.” Clearly, that counseling script should be flipped, and “everyone” should instead be heeding Lim, he of the stellar sell-throughs. The designer said he had been thinking about recasting basics, and working on a kind of primitive collage concept inspired by a visit to the Picasso: Mosqueteros show at the Gagosian. But unlike Fall’s collection, with its bohemian rock-chick vibe, Spring wasn’t about an overarching theme or look: It was about giving them a reason to shop, and as such, there were many arguments here for a girl to unfreeze her AmEx.

NEW YORK, September 16, 2009 – By Meenal Mistry – Style.com

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Of course, it wouldn’t be a Pucci show without a passel of print dresses.
How can you not feel happy wearing his designs?

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Cristobal Balenciaga was born in the Basque country, hence the “Spanish” drama. The best: the skinny gray pants and Goya-inspired draped velvet and taffeta tops—superb.

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