Celebrated society columnist and industry insider Ben Widdicombe captures the culture of fashion at the shows and all over town.
Pamela and Deniz are our Fashion PR experts and fixtures on the NYFW beat. They're bringing all the runway action to you with reports from inside the tents at the week's hottest shows.
Cheri, Nordstrom's National Beauty Director, takes you behind the scenes to reveal the season's biggest beauty trends and makeup artists' tricks of the trade.
September 10, 2010
Our New
York Fashion Week Team has arrived, and we’re sharing the
excitement at the Lincoln Center and all over New York City. We’ve got access
to bring you the best this season, and we’ll have new posts everyday of Fashion
Week—so you won’t miss a thing. Meet our guest bloggers and follow the action at our new blog.
March 2, 2010
While the fashion flock has headed across the pond for the runways of Milan and Paris, we’re recapping the major fashion themes we just saw in New York—and there is lots to love. Designers delivered collections full of fantastic American sportswear pumped up with great trends and a fresh attitude that will make for exciting shopping come fall. The biggest news was the neutral color palette. Here's a summary of what’s to come for fall.
Neutral color palette:
Marc Jacobs
Rich camels, cool greys, classic navies, calm ivories and strong blacks rule the runway. With a palette this neutral, true design became the star of the shows resulting in stronger silhouettes, amazing textural fabrics, the return of the pantsuit, a cavalcade of outerwear and much more.
Pantsuits:
Michael Kors
These aren’t plain, pinstriped boardroom productions. Pantsuits are sexy for fall. The news is in the cut of the jacket or the pant silhouette. Watch for soft draping to counter strict tailoring. Modern jackets have asymmetrical and wrap styles with seamed or folded details. Boxy, waist-length jackets paired with pleated pants. Unexpected pant shapes include jodhpurs and harem pants.
Dimensional texture:
Thakoon
Fall fabrics were out in full 3-D force on NY runways. Watch for rich, textured fabrics such as matelasse, brocade, velvet, nubby tweeds and other menswear fabs, fuzzy shearlings, extreme cable knits, loopy, fringe-y yarns, and sturdy double-faced wool. Dimension also played out in the details of faux-fur sleeves, hoods or hems.
Decorative shine:
Yigal Azrouel
Designers kept things interesting by adding a layer of shine to an otherwise neutral color palette. Embedded stones, crystals studs, encrusted glitter, tone-on-tone and even matte sequins added a touch of bling to nearly every collection. Elements of shine were often placed strategically on shoulders, sleeves or lapels.
Wide leg trousers:
Peter Som
After seasons of second-skin leggings, designers loosened up and offered a modern alternative—the wide-leg trouser. Higher waists elongate the silhouette. Lean and fitted through the hip and thigh and cut from beautiful, drapey fabrics make for a sexy, ‘70s vibe. The bootcut pant has the slightest flare of the hem for a less extreme silhouette as seen at Alexander Wang, Phillip Lim and Vera Wang.
Sweater dressing:
Sweater dressing never looked so good in looped yards, hook rug fringe as well as in pieced and patched textural combinations. There were tribal-inspired patterns, over-sized shapes, geometric blocked patterns along with classic luxurious knits to layer to your heart's desire.
Strong outerwear season:
3.1 Phillip Lim
You’ll need a veritable wardrobe of coats for fall. With so many great options you can’t pick just one. Sleeveless coats. Razor cut, crumpled cashmere (from Michael Kors. Gotta have it!) Capes and ponchos, luxe hooded anoraks and more. Replace last season’s motorcycle jacket with an amazing shearling for fall.
Longer hemlines emerge:
Jason Wu
It should come as no surprise—after seasons of micro-minis—that longer hemlines should emerge. There were fluid maxi lengths in interesting prints at Peter Som. Transitional asymmetric hemlines that paved the way from short to long at Phillip Lim and BCBG, delicate fabrics played against masculine menswear at Jason Wu and knife pleats added movement to menswear patterned soft silk at Rag n Bone. While the longer hemlines made headlines, short skirts haven’t disappeared entirely.
Layers, layers, layers:
Rag & Bone
Fall took on a nomadic turn through the layering that was present in nearly every collection. Softly draped suiting was layered with knits. Slinky jersey tops paired with deconstructed cargo pants. Urban travelers piled updated plaids on top of plaids. Sweaters were layered over dresses and leggings. Leg warmers added an extra layer—just so. Shearling jackets wrapped over filmy dresses. Speaking for myself, I'll need a bit of practice to get all this layering right come fall.
And that's that. NYFW Fall 2010 in a nutshell. We've loved covering all the action for you, and call us crazy, but we're already looking forward to spring!
February 22, 2010
The backdrop for her runway was an expression of texture created through sculptural, white layers. Vera always has the most interesting backdrops.
The show notes really tell her collection's story:
"Film Noir as a contemporary metaphor for youth, romance and sophistication tinged ever so slightly with a sense of mystery. A new and deliberate emphasis on day and tailoring tempered with sleek silhouettes, sporty underpinnings and feminine elements. Dresses reflect careful draping, unusual mixtures of dressy and day fabrics and for obvious night, gossamer layers of embellishment constructed on sheer stocking sheaths of stretch tulle. Giant dramatic fistfuls of distressed pearls create a sense of extravagance and disheveled glamor."
I loved the collection. Favorite pieces: pants with slit bootlegs floating snugly over shoes, paper-bag pants with athletic stripes—like dressy track pants—gloves in textured black leather and a scalloped organza skirt. A Nehru collar cut-away jacket with hook-and-eye closure was one of the best jackets on the runway.
February 22, 2010
Strolling across the runway to get my seat at the Phillip Lim show, I saw that it was covered in a marble pattern in a palette of ivory, camel, gray and black. The same marble pattern was also used as the back drop.
The same palette from the marble strolled down the runway for look #1 in the form of an exploded-check mohair skirt.
Look #2 had the same exploded check in a cape coat over suede flared jeans. This flared pant leg looked truly modern as opposed to the ultra skinny pants we've all been wearing for seasons now.
There were seventies moments throughout the collection in strong pieces that every Phillip fan is sure to love. Extreme asymmetric hem dresses, a black waxed motorcycle jacket, shearling bomber jacket, a Windsor-blue tuxedo blouse, steel blue tuxedo jacket and of course, those flared jeans.
Here are Phillip's thoughts behind the collection taken from his show notes:
"Somewhere in the air between disco and punk lives a woman boiling with youthful revolt but distinguished by unexpectedly classic style. Her clothes are meticulous, but her way is easy. She says goodbye to dreamy glitter and too much skin, a confident enigma with nothing left to prove.
Her look is modern, polished, streamlined. Her obsession with baroque flourishes surprises many and amuses her to no end. She has this punk rebellion, so she will cut her dress. But it seems cut by the wind, for this was where magic happened, somewhere in the air between inherent and apparent."
The last look is an example of one of the "cut" dresses mentioned in the notes.
February 22, 2010
The lovely fairy-tale themed, dress-focused collection began with a feminine, peasant style frock. Several soft, silky seventies-inspired dress silhouettes followed—looking fresh in shades of navy and burgundy punctuated with the occasional bright fuchsia or orange look.
Her French heritage played out in sweet foulard prints, rich velvet and shiny satin. Scrunched-down suede boots and shearling wrap jackets provided the attitude that kept Sophie's dresses from being overly sweet.
The focused, 34-look collection gave me a clear picture of Sophie's soft, but minimalist—truly award winning—sensibility.
