It wasn’t the heat or threat of my colleagues being sucked into a tornado. No, that didn’t annoy me. It was the soggy drama taking place in the name of daring new fashion: namely, Prabal Gurung and Alexander Wang.
The Friday and Saturday shows of Fashion Week used to be a solid source of cool, a look-forward-to spree of messiness and mischief before the grown-ups demanded our attention. But lately, instead of being truly free-spirited, some of these designers have begun to seem as malevolently insistent as an Oompa Loompa chanting, “If you are wise, you’ll follow me.”
Well, beware of little orange men.
Mr. Wang ended with his white dresses being lit up like neon glow sticks, but the mood couldn’t be sustained. That’s a problem in general with the spring collections: very little is memorable beyond the immediate moment. Mr. Gurung filled his show with assertive tailoring in couture silks with drifting layers of chiffon and some T-tops printed with a bird’s wing.
That Mr. Gurung’s layered silhouette resembled Riccardo Tisci’s recent men’s wear show is only one reason these clothes, however well made, instantly slid down a memory hole. But another reason is that Mr. Gurung doesn’t seem to know what story he wants to tell. Slick and dressy? Dark and romantic? It changes each season. He needs to flush some of this goo out of his system, figure out what he wants to say and then, as boring as it may sound, repeat it again and again.
Mr. Wang doesn’t lack for a coherent framework for his brand: we know he will do something with an urban — rather than, say, bohemian — attitude. There will be some new interpretation of his biker shorts (for spring, a sleek Bermuda), or his signature hockey jerseys (now spliced with vents), and, of course, some footwear that would make a monk chatter.
But, despite the styling of Karl Templer, who knows how to sharpen a designer’s message, Mr. Wang’s fancifully sliced-up clothes seemed to hit a wall. They had focus in terms of minimalist shape and futuristic textures, but there was no moment of uplift. A glow-stick snap of radiance isn’t enough.
By contrast, Joseph Altuzarra was completely in command, offering an imaginative take on the striped cotton fabric you associate with OshKosh overalls or Casey Jones’s cap. Striped cottons, washed to a supple lightness, have turned up in a number of collections. Marcus Wainwright and David Neville used them in a breezy Rag & Bone collection that included aproned skirts, lace-edged T-tops, and some terrific shirtdresses. (Someone on Twitter remarked that Rag & Bone’s layers brought back memories of early Girbaud shows. So true, but who doesn’t love pocket-y summer things?)
Mr. Altuzarra addressed an interesting problem: how to give spring tailoring the polish women like in fall clothes without using precious fabrics or a conventional lightweight option like crepe. And: how to maintain an edge of modernity so as not to turn the look into a suit. Sticking to his trim silhouette, Mr. Altuzarra’s solution was to combine a men’s classic blue shirt with a washed off-white cotton skirt in an extravagant blue Deco print, and to use the Casey Jones stripes for a variety of coats and jackets.
The coats were appealing on their own, as were the shirts, some of them scattered with clusters of clear stones. With such simple yet inspired day clothes, like a striped sleeveless dress with low patch pockets and a cropped popover top in the same fabric, Mr. Altuzarra produced evening clothes that seemed a little hectic; they needed more thought.
A virtue of Boy by Band of Outsiders, the women’s label of Scott Sternberg, is that it doesn’t try to plead that it’s cool. It just is. There’s a sweet sincerity to the easy but well-done designs, especially the lotus-flower pajama prints, cotton sundresses and a charming strapless jumpsuit with a cutaway denim jacket.
Suno’s designers, Erin Beatty and Max Osterweis, continue to tinker with their original concept without straining it. Indeed, as their prints have grown in surprise and texture, they seem freer to add more sportswear, like sheer windbreakers and even a cool tracksuit in an etched floral pattern.
Has Victoria Beckham become a minimalist? Long, slim skirts and color blocking were a new a direction for her. It was not an interesting one. There were skating skirts and cute blouses with lattice yokes, but paneled slip dresses were too much of a thank-you-I-will helping of Narciso Rodriguez.
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