Newbies ruled yesterday at Olympus Fashion Week, when Behnaz Sararpouf, Esteban Cortezar and others staged shows at the Bryant Park Tents.
In young designer Peter Som’s program, he wrote that for “Fall 2004, off-center elegance is dead-on.”
Som was dead-on in his evaluation of the season’s eccentric takes on old-school classics, like tweed in fun colors, filmy tie-neck lamé blouses, movie-star evening dresses in shockingly bright colors, and fur, fur everywhere.
He was also dead-on with his collection, which brought together all the big trends and presented them in a way that was quirky but graceful.
Sure, he may have borrowed a trick or two from Miuccia Prada as far as his styling went, but when was that ever a bad thing?
I loved his evening clothes, especially the dress with swishy organza leaves layered on it like the scales on a fish.
The same use of organza was also on view in Jeffrey Chow’s boffo show, where iridescent silk circles were piled on his ladylike party dresses.
Other hits on Chow’s runway were the high-waisted coats, sassy fur capelets and cute floaty blouses with pie-crust collars. These clothes looked special.
Boy fashion wonder Zac Posen’s social antics take up so much space in the gossip pages that it’s sometimes easy to forget how good a designer he really is.
And then you see him pull off a great collection like he did last night and you remember: This kid rocks.
This might be my favorite Zac collection ever, as not only did it have his trademark glamour girl gowns, but also a ton of great dresses and skirts that a non-supermodel could imagine herself wearing during the day.
In addition to the new kids on the block, several familiar names showed fine new collections.
There were wardrobe malfunctions aplenty at Calvin Klein. For the first dozen or so looks, models were exposing their breasts left and right thanks to some seriously low necklines and see-through fabrics.
Sure, the blush and ivory blouses and coats that were so revealing were great looking. But I maintain that there are better ways to demonstrate sex appeal without showing skin.
For instance, with whisper-light silk evening gowns such as the ones that closed the Klein show.
Carmen Marc Valvo’s tribute to old-school Hollywood glamour on and off the screen featured Hepburn pants and cashmere sweaters and some of the most stunning silk charmeuse evening gowns of the week.
Ralph Rucci’s show received the week’s first standing ovation, deservedly. His architecturally cut wool coats and dresses were sublime, and his work with exotic skins was exceptional.