Strong Collections Round Out New York Fashion Week
None of the references were quite literal. Raul Lopez of Luar and Rachel Scott, whose four-year-old label is called Diotima, were both thinking of Carnival in the Caribbean, which has its roots in colonial oppression and how enslaved persons reacted with a defiant, joyous ritual of their own. The talented Colleen Allen, who started her brand two years ago, began with the idea of delicate slips and dressing gowns, garments typically worn at home, and then sought to subvert nostalgia. She finds “the trad-wife world, “ as she put it, a little scary. “So the idea was to take away the power and romance of it.”
Even Tory Burch seemed to be looking at feminine traditions at a slant. Before her show in Brooklyn on Monday, as the models were lining up in the backstage, she said she and her team were thinking of “the complexities of women and the different facets of style.” She pointed out “grandmotherly pumps,” and a sleek navy top embroidered with the monograms of her team members, and then a slim skirt of crushed viscose. “I wanted this to feel like she slept in her skirt,” Burch said. Don’t we all?
Yet, on the runway, the clothes looked less wholesome, less precious and indeed more complex. The saving grace was the smart fit, the fresh-looking proportion of Burch’s many hip-slung straight skirts and trousers worn with a knit polo top or a subtly embellished cardigan that did look cozy and slept in.
According to Lopez, the Dominican Republic was the first place in the western hemisphere to hold Carnival. That was in 1542. He’s lately been taking anthropology classes there. He said, “Through all the fracturing and the mess, people found some type of joy. We’re in this moment now. People think shit has changed and I’m, like, no, it’s just a different form. I wanted to lighten the mood, add color.” Lopez, who is at once intense and funny, nodded in the direction of a men’s suit that had laser-cut top layer in black over bright yellow. The precision of the laser cutting created the optical illusion of jumpy polka dots.
On the runway, however, Lopez couldn’t quite escape his feelings. The show opened somberly (I thought), partially in the dark, as the first models came out in all-black tailored outfits, sleek, glossy and tough, and were followed by skimpier styles with black feathers. Apparently, there was a practice in the D.R., and maybe in other parts of the Caribbean, where enslaved people would coat themselves in molasses — to look blacker. I wondered if that was a reference in the opening looks. This show offered rare emotion, even for the expressive Lopez. It’s not easy to ignore the trauma in the world by simply adding color and putting on a festive mask.
I appreciated how Lopez built up the tempo during the show, with a recording of a woman reading a searing poem about joy (its last line was “Justice is joy”) and some exceptional clothes. These included black trousers in a feathery bias stripe of red and yellow, ending in slashed ribbons of material at the hem, and worn with a black tank top, and a denim mini dress, its padded form approaching superhero status.
For Diotima, Scott used vivid colors like magenta and lime to convey a sense of rebellion, and she experimented for spring with form and volume, notably in a pair of full-skirted finale dresses stitched all over in torn ruffles. Another gesture were necklines and other parts of the body traced a piping made of horsehair piping and covered with chenille. She said of the detail, “It works with your body, not against your body.”
All in all, Scott’s collection looked simpler and more confident than her previous ones, with the fuzzy texture of plain skirts sufficing nicely as embellishment. Particularly strong were her version of waistcoats — cut deeply in front and over a mesh top — and a swingy frock coat or two.
Looking at Allen’s small but distinctive collection, I couldn’t help but think that her white silk jacket and harlequin pants would have looked better than most of the overstuffed clothes on the Emmys red carpet. The classic, feminine jacket had a small edging of feathered white chiffon on the inside of the cuffs and hem. Allen presented it partially unbuttoned, to further subvert its traditional form. To me, the attitude of the suit—those slim, cropped pants, the bits of chiffon—just looked contemporary.
For punch, Allen added a dramatic cocoon cloak in spicy tangerine silk. The underpinnings might be one of her white camisoles, with a pair of stretch shorts based loosely on a traditional lace girdle.
Some fairly strong and personal collections rounded out the New York shows, as the action now shifts to Europe. In the notes for his first runway presentation, on Monday, Henry Zankov mentioned some very impressive women indeed—among them, the artist Sophie Calle and the writers Annie Ernaux and Zadie Smith.
Yet the references were heartfelt and not a stretch, considering how quirky and engaging his clothes were. Among the best looks were a long, semi-sheer navy t-shirt with fuzzy yarn stripes, a knit polo top with a white, wide-leg cotton pants, and a loose cardigan jacket and long straight skirt lightly embellished with gold sequins. I loved the wide-striped dresses (in jersey, I think) that whipped through the room at the end. Zankov’s clothes have a skillful sense of play, and they don’t look like anyone else’s.
Coach held its show on one of the East River piers, the interior of the vast space transformed (by the set designer Stefan Beckman and the lighting designer Nick Gray) into a Manhattan neighborhood at the break of dawn. The buildings and streets were rendered on screens but the illusion worked. It’s an hour of the day dear to many New Yorkers, and the brand’s creative director, Stuart Vevers, wasn’t suggesting that the kids in his show were rolling home at dawn.
On the contrary, the mood of the collection was almost serious and practical, especially from a commercial point of view. It was a solid show from Vevers, with a cool, sleeveless maxi coat in white repurposed denim, layered t-shirt dresses with grainy photo prints of the New York and Seattle skylines, and many snug little jackets with wide, baggy trousers—a look that endures and endures.