After a weekend of BIG, IMPORTANT shows (Opening Ceremony served up race cars, Rihanna and gift bag Cronuts) what we’ll be wearing this spring is becoming clearer in the fashion crystal ball (if there was such a thing, it would be made by Swarovski.) But before we get to the cold, hard facts a gentle segue from our last NYFW blog post.
On Friday zebras danced across stripes at Suno, but by the weekend the camera zoomed in to macro zebra prints at DVF (and the wild safari of Celebrity Wrangling brought Allison Williams, Jessica Alba and Bella Thorne to appreciate them front row).
And nature’s black and white op art veered cunningly into lace at Alexandre Hercovitch’s wearably inventive show. I was taken with Herchovitch’s models’ hair—a faux wavy bob which had both vintage flapper and fierce nineties appeal at once.
Some models jammed theirs in a bun post show but Russian Yulia Lobova, below, preserved the strand sculpture and told me, “I think my boyfriend will like it.” If the hair is reminiscent of thirties tennis stars that’s because those early vixens of female emancipation are a theme this fashion week. (Read about the man who helped shape that shape, Jean Patou, in our October Visionary column). It must be seen from all sides to appreciate:
Reworked tennis shorts and shirts at Louise Goldin (Kanye West liked them from the front row):
Visors at DKNY (where Rita Ora’s skipping, head tossing surprise runway debut made her admirers even more besotted):
More pintucked skirts and thirties drop waist tennis-y swing were seen at Victoria Beckham:
Appreciated courtside by David and Harper:
Tennis sweaters at Band of Outsiders:
Lacoste, who, like Patou, were on this from the beginning, could afford to be really playful with the genre, as the label’s increasingly strong-serving designer Felipe Oliveira Babtista showed to cunning effect:
A suede steel blue polo seems as necessary a basic as a white t-shirt:
Other definitive looks that almost all the collections touched on in some way were the stand away from the body t-shirt blouse. If Hervé Léger is breaking bandage form to do this you know it’s happening:
Summer jumpsuits:
And the crop top as a layering piece and body divider rather than a skin revealer:
Although this wasn’t my favorite from this well formed, elegant collection, this look multitasks as tassels and utility details such as large pannier pockets are also details popping up on spring 2014 runways. And that early nineties area, if you will, flowed inventively at Jeremy Laing on a dress with a print by artist Julia Dault:
His collection was a dreamy take on those nascent hip-hop street-inflected style years before thuglife became quite so thuggish. The early nineties now have, in retrospect, a charming innocence, which Laing played with nostalgically in creamsicle colours:
And the show’s perfectly in sync Southern Shores sound track introduced me to the Toronto musical duo, whose romantic electronic escapism also fueled this post.
