Sunday was a day for remembering and looking ahead as New York Fashion Week continued in Manhattan.
Early in the day, one of fashion’s own (albeit a sharp-tongued one) was remembered at Joan Rivers’ funeral. Among the guests: designers Carolina Herrera and Michael Kors, and E! network Fashion Police co-hosts Giuliana Rancic and Kelly Osbourne.
Among the highlights:
Victoria Beckham
There were lots of stripes, muted colours and sleek looks as Victoria Beckham presented her spring/summer collection, which she says is a redefinition of her line.
Beckham had her show in a cathedral-like hall off of Wall Street — an apropos setting for her clothes, which looked like they were designed for a stockbroker looking for something that was glamorous, sexy — but still workplace appropriate.
In general, she would do well with Beckham’s collection, which, save for a few pink floral outfits including a shirt dress, had a bit of a conservative tone. In a palette that mostly ranged from tan to taupe and black, with accents of white or an occasional maroon, there were sleek solid coats of varying lengths, boxy dresses, and pantsuits. But of course, being Beckham’s line, they were not exactly “traditional” there was a long coatdress with a red belt, a white accent stripe at the bottom and an asymmetrical design that made for a clever, one-breasted panel. One black dress had cut-out, exposed shoulders, and other coats and dresses had cutouts that showed off sharp shoulder blades and minuscule waists. There were also sweater dresses and long layered skirts.
Notables in the audience: husband David Beckham and Anna Wintour.
In describing her line, Beckham said the launch of her new retail space in London had made her redefine her clothes with “the idea of creating an eclectic uniform in the form of an exact, yet wearable wardrobe that embodies the evolution of the collection.”
DKNY
The DNA of DKNY has always been about New York. But Donna Karan paid homage to the city’s different cultures and neighbourhoods through an explosion of bright patterns of reds, blues and yellows and a heavy dose of textures from mesh to viscose wool for her spring 2015 runway show on Sunday.
In an interview after her show, Karan said that her spring collection is about “the streets of New York. The people of New York. The art of New York. The energy of New York. The modernity of New York.”
“It’s really the collective,” Karan said. “Thinking of high energy, what is tomorrow and celebrating the people ... from all different cultures and walks of life. And giving them a freedom to have fun.”
The result? The DKNY runway collection, which is more casual and less expensive than her signature line, featured oversized wool sweaters in red and ink blue geometric patterns paired with pleated striped skirts, and red and blue nylon T-shirt dresses. There was also a black and white capsule of striped strapless tops paired with full skirts in black mesh. Some gold looks shimmered down the runway too, like gold-plated nylon quilted cropped bomber jackets paired with a black viscose stretch short tube skirt or a gold-plated nylon quilted full skirt.
The show opened with a one-minute film featuring young New Yorkers talking about why they like the city.
Actress Victoria Justice, best known for starring in the Nickelodeon TV series “Victorious” and a devotee of the brand, was in the audience.
“I love DKNY so much. I am such a huge fan,” said Justice, who says she believes this is her third DKNY show. “It’s just like classic New York street chic and it’s edgy and it’s totally my vibe.”
Justice acknowledges there’s lots of pressure to look your best during Fashion Week, but she’s having fun too.
“At the end of the day it’s just about feeling good in the clothes and having fun and doing different things with your hair and make-up and taking risks and just being a girl and loving every second of it,” she added.
Opening Ceremony play spoofs the fashion world
A little bit raunchy, a little bit sad and a little bit fashion show, the design house Opening Ceremony spoofed itself and the fashion industry Sunday night in a one-act play directed by Spike Jonze and written by Jonze and Jonah Hill.
During New York Fashion Week in February, the two college buddies who started Opening Ceremony in 2002, Humberto Leon and Carol Lim, treated their guests to a massive white wall that oozed chocolate.
This time, their new collection of clothes — and the models who wore them — were a backdrop to Elle Fanning as a bubbly new model, a foul-mouthed Catherine Keener as Lim and John Cameron Mitchell as a tightly wound, stressed-out Leon dealing with all the little details of putting on a show for a fashion week.
The play, called 100 Percent Lost Cotton, had been a bit of a mystery for weeks. Details dribbled out on Twitter from a performance earlier Sunday.
“I just was happy to work with Spike on a play,” Hill said.
Opening Ceremony used risers behind the stage of the Metropolitan Opera for its guests. The opera house’s tiers of lush red seating and grand chandeliers served as a beautiful tableau.
The story had Fanning befriending an older, more jaded model at a casting as Leon and stylist Brian, played by Bobby Cannavale, ready the spring collection — the company’s real one — for presentation.
Karlie Kloss makes an appearance as herself and Dree Hemingway manages to be poignant as the struggling 20-something model with unfulfilled aspirations who thought she was in tight with Brian from a drunken night he can’t recall.
Keener is hysterical as the money-conscious Lim who tells it like she sees it.
The clothes themselves came in bright orange, pink and black, featuring perforated neoprene in tops, skirts and trousers and lines in prints.
Opening Ceremony also showed off a smart bracelet collaboration it has with the chip maker Intel.
Called the MICA, for “my intelligent communication accessory,” the cuff bracelet in at least two styles will feature a touch-screen worn on the inside of the wrist. It will be able to take in notifications, including texts, calendar reminders and social media updates, when it goes on sale at the holidays at Opening Ceremony stores and Barney’s.
The estimated cost? Likely $300 (Dh1,100) or more.
Wide judo pants, bright reds and blues for Edun
The Africa-facing brand Edun, founded by Bono and his wife, Ali Hewson, printed dots on wide cropped pants in blue and red along with line patterns on bright white looks for the spring collection at New York Fashion Week.
Designer Danielle Sherman said backstage after Sunday’s show that the collection was Nigeria-inspired. She included large silver pendants in the Tuareg style created by artisan Moussa Albaka to help represent “balance and unity,” which also was expressed in the juxtaposition of perfect digitally-created circles mixed with irregular ones in prints.
The brand produced about 92 per cent of its previous collection of resort wear in Africa. It was the highest percentage of Edun manufacturing from its plants in Madagascar and Kenya since the company was created in 2005.
Sherman carried the circle motif into large belt buckles for many looks. The dot trims popped in flame red against loose black pants and jackets.
Black leather trimmed a white and grey crop top worn with matching judo-inspired pants.
Shoes, including flats, were created to match the clothes, dots included, in another of the brand’s collaborations with Manolo Blahnik.
Among the celebrity guests on Edun’s front row were Rihanna, dressed elegantly in white, and Laurie Anderson, the widow of Lou Reed.
