MARC Jacobs is getting his freak on again. This time the inspiration seems to be the kind of strange tschotschkes you might pick up at an airport in the East — a souvenir doll keychain perhaps? As Madonna and Lady Gaga looked on, Jacobs sent out a parade of androids with tight top knots and chalky faces dressed in odd ruffled foil or dresses trimmed in pearls, Harlequin patterns, and a kind of Asian thong sandal. It was laderunner meets Queen Elizabeth I passing through Korea — all to a techno-anime-circus beat. How you get there we’re not sure.
The scary part was that it seemed to actually take on a strange beauty as the show went on and the ruffles migrated to shrunken Hong Kong businessmen’s suits and the Harlequin patterns and pearls became breezy summer dresses. Still, it was pretty out there — and we’re a little bit afraid to follow.
Donna Karan showed the surest hand. Referencing her favorite New Age elementals — sky, water, wind, earth and fire — Karan managed to do her tried-and-true pencil-skirted 1940s silhouette in suits and goddess dresses for night, while still pushing her signature forward. The fabrics and colors had an organic earthy quality while still breathing luxury, and the subtle evoking of lingerie in the details packed a punch of womanliness in full spring bloom.
Zac Posen made a complete U-turn from last season’s steam punk and went totally MTM — that’s Mary Tyler Moore. His ’70s mod color-block dresses were something plucky Mary would have rocked the newsroom with, while the jersey dresses with giant blooms may have appealed more to Rhoda. Fresh, yes, and quirky, too.
Tracy Reese took her inspiration from impressionist painter Pierre Bonnard, and where the hues were an obvious ode to a world rendered in watercolor, the styles of the dresses made for a difficult-tofollow plotline. Reese usually sends out a cohesive message, but her dress styles bounced from a passementeriefringed Moroccan tunic-style dress in saffron to a black sequined minislip and a ruched bubble dress in periwinkle with a sash of black tulle. A dress for everyone in the collection — which may be the point.
In a galaxy far, far away, Jill Stuart was thinking of a certain style icon who is not really on the radar at the moment: “If I had to dress Cher today, these are clothes I would dress her in — angel meets rocker.” The graphic ’80s black-and-white jackets over a cutout body stocking, sometimes finished with a belt-size skirt, seemed to be more reminiscent of her direct style descendant Lady Gaga. And her chain-mail dresses ironically bore a strong resemblance to the silver dress Katy Perry wore to the VMAs on Sunday. VMA clothes they certainly were.