fashion.
New York Fashion Week has come to an end and all the editors and models have already jetted off to London. I had the chance to attend the EMERGE event where Vogue’s Contributing Editor Andre Leon Talley received an award for his great influence on the fashion industry. It was presented by his long time friend and president of the CFDA, Diane Von Furstenberg. The event was hosted by Diana Ross’ daughter Tracee Ellis Ross. Also in attendance were America’s Next Top Model alums J.Alexander and Toccara jones, with some Real Housewives of New York spread into the front row with their husbands.
Tracee’s body was in exceptional shape, curves in all the right places and sporting a beautiful dark red hair colour. Princess DVF, as I like to call Ms Von Furstenberg, was stunning with light blond tousled curls and told a funny story about her and Andre in paris, where he wore more fur than her. The guest of honor, Mr Talley was in his signature floor length caftan, black and silk, he paired it with black elbow patent leather gloves. I wanted the whole look. It was properly the only look on the runway I wanted to snatch.
Right after Mr Talley was presented with his award and gave a graceful acceptance speech the fashion show started where six emerging (no pun intended) designers showed their collections. There was obvious talent in these designers, great tailoring skills and colour choices, but there wasn’t much innovation. There wasn’t anything I was absolutely wowed by or hadn’t seen before. No interesting shapes, interesting paring of fabrics or accessories.
The first designer Elie Kuame Couture’s stand out piece for me was a silk dress that went from tangerine to light yellow. But there wasn’t much cohesion throughout the ten looks shown. The second designer Michael Alan Stein stuck to a theme with his headbands. There was a jumpsuit in army green that was cut very well, also many dresses in greys that had slight cutouts at the shoulders or the back. The last dress with the sheer back and sleeves with the rest of the body in black cotton was as innovative as it got, to say the least.
When the next designer GOCA’s first look came down the runway I got a little excited; a victorian-esque collar with a pleated tank and skirt set. Then it was followed by these garish velvet looks with tops with dolman sleeves. There was talent definitely in this collection but no imagination or refined chicness.
The next collection was FunkinBeautiful (don’t get me started on that name) by Terri Stevens a season 5, Project Runway alum. The first look reminded me of CHANEL. A tweed blazer, pleated skirt with lace peaking out the bottom was nice. Had I seen it before? Yes. The models wore these great headpieces; small miniature top hats. But seemed a bit overworked. There was a nice cable knit oversized sweater that was very wearable and sellable. There was also a giant scarf and the knitted black dress with the ribbon detail woven into it was very nice. After viewing this collection I was pleased but not impressed. At the end Terri came down the runway dancing, dipping it low and all.
The next was Evoli, which was simple, clean lines. There was a great grey wool coat and many of the coats were nicely done with good structure and tailoring. The blue mini blue dress with a diagonal cut at the back was nice as well. But I wondered if the puckerings on the sleeves were intentional and if they were, that ruined it.
Barbara Bates was the last to show and it was an all fur everything. That Russian bride look with the fur hat and scarf to match was luxurious. A nice two tone jumpsuit in earth tones, and the ruffled leather dress was nice. But there were some looks that needed to be re-worked and that needed to be pulled back. There was a try hard attitude about them, such as coats with leather tassels and a floor length suede coat with over the knee boots and leather shorts – eh… just a little too hooker for me and not in a good way.
I’m always eager to view new young talent. And I think these designers are talented, but safe.
fashion.
New York Fashion Week has come to an end and all the editors and models have already jetted off to London. I had the chance to attend the EMERGE event where Vogue’s Contributing Editor Andre Leon Talley received an award for his great influence on the fashion industry. It was presented by his long time friend and president of the CFDA, Diane Von Furstenberg. The event was hosted by Diana Ross’ daughter Tracee Ellis Ross. Also in attendance were America’s Next Top Model alums J.Alexander and Toccara jones, with some Real Housewives of New York spread into the front row with their husbands.
