TRENDY REBEL
New York: Justin Timberlake and Trace Ayala's William Rast collection offered a youthful perspective on most of Fashion Week's trends seen so far. This season’s fringe was combined with the power shoulders of the last two seasons to give a tribal feel to a sporty grey sweatshirt. Leather and twill seemed to be the materials of choice, sometimes used
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ARTFUL ECLECTIC
New York: This season, art and nature were the major themes that Anna Sui incorporated into her always vintage-inspired, bohemian-glam line. A mix of historic art styles and movements largely influenced the collection’s prints, patterns, and sweater motifs. An intarsia knit pullover depicted a mountain landscape, exemplifying the workmanship-oriented, true-to-material ideals of the Arts and Crafts movement of
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COZY MINIMALISM
New York: As last year’s Ecco Domani winner for new talent, Brooklyn-based designer Matthew Ames has continued to develop his signature minimalist style. The simplicity of his forms felt almost poetic this season, as a new lightness inflected the pieces. Chalky pales, lemony yellows and a dusty mauve gave the garments an optimistic feeling, stepping away from the sterility
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CLASSIC REMIX
New York: Korean designer Bumsuk Choi has done a great job at re-working classic styles into contemporary must-haves. For F/W 10, the fusion of active and traditional influences made for a captivating collection that captured the style sought by the modern urban man. A flannel double-breasted shorts suit with a slightly elongated proportion was layered over knit pants, while
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STRAIGHTFORWARD CHIC
New York: Phillip Lim has consistently struck the seemingly impossible balance of creating desirable clothes that are at once timeless and trend-setting for a relatively affordable price. This season was no exception with slouchy sweaters, covetable coats and light-as-air asymmetric dresses. The palette was simple and rich – cream, shades of grey, camel and black — and silhouettes were
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INCONSPICUOUS DRAMA
New York: Very seldom does a celebrity line get any respect from the fashion industry, but Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen’s label, The Row, has quietly beat the odds for three years now. The secret to the line’s success may be that it is fashionably inconspicuous, offering clothes and accessories that the designers might actually wear themselves. The FW2010 show
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CUTTING CLASS
New York: Jack McCollough and Lazaro Hernandez seemed to have been inspired by rebellious high schoolers for their latest collection. While the design duo's label has always appealed to the PYTs, these looks seemed to skew even younger with ultra-high hemlines, frenetic prints and references to prep school days. Letterman jackets were cropped to the natural waist and had
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GRUNGE LUXE
New York: After a season of sporty, lightweight volume, Richard Chai turned the corner towards a sophisticated version of grunge for F/W 10. Even though many of the pieces shown on the runway were in fact basics any man could use in his wardrobe (plaid flannel shirts, a leather jacket, black boots, and a chambray shirt), it was
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ALPINE AWOL
New York: Michael Kors surprised everyone with an easy-going collection full of rich neutrals and uniform influences for F/W 10. With the look of a soldier who goes AWOL to a high-end ski resort, the designer presented easy-fitting flannel pants, burnished aviator coats and utilitarian turtleneck sweaters with matching infinity scarves. The earthy colors like olive, tobacco and khaki
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URBAN COWGIRL
New York: Fall found Derek Lam taking a minimalist approach to his usually colorful Boho-tinged aesthetic, reducing the palette to a select few neutrals and dusty earth tones and molding his laidback styles into sleek, architectural forms. Titled “Myth of the West” and inspired by Robert Altman’s McCabe & Mrs. Miller, the collection was two parts Rough Riders to
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UNINTENTIONAL CHIC
New York: Perhaps influenced by sister store J. Crew’s recent successful collaborations, Madewell designers participated in FW2010 fashion week by having it-girl Alexa Chung design and debut a special fall collection. Chung is a well-suited collaborator for Madewell because she has the same taste as the store’s target customer — her sought-after style is part tomboy, part lady-like Brit,
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BLACK SHEEP
New York: With a decidedly dark and downtown fall collection, it looked like fashion darling Thakoon Panichgul was undergoing a rebellious phase. The romantic floral dresses that have made Michelle Obama and Anna Wintour fans were kept to a minimum and in their place were slouchy sweatpants, rugged union suits and fur jackets a-plenty. Inspired by the image of
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SHADOWS + FIRE
New York: Consummate minimalist Narciso Rodriguez kept to his signature aesthetic for his F/W 10 collection. The clean lines and simple shapes that his followers have come to expect were all there, but this season Rodriguez called out curvilinear forms and shadows as his inspirations. Asymmetrically pieced blouses and curving seams on dresses and coats created the undulating
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PERFECTLY SUITED
New York: Vera Wang charted new territory this season with a collection based on tailoring. Pant- and shortsuits and slim blazers demonstrated Wang’s ever-expanding offerings for ready-to-wear, extending beyond the delicate dresses for which she is known. But the suiting pieces were anything but traditional and structured. Wang brought a sense of airiness with lightweight materials, and a crossover
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MARC + MILITARY
New York: Straightforward and in-tune with current tastes, the latest Marc by Marc Jacobs show featured practical yet attractive clothing that women will want to live in. Heavy woven cottons, utility pockets, cross-body bags, and easy-to-move-in dresses were the key components of what appeared to be a “Marc does army-navy” collection. Compared to last season’s unrestrained
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