Oscar de la Renta..Marchesa Fall 2011

Being a fan of both collections, more Oscar than Marchesa, this season I must have taken a stupid pill as I fail to see the beauty in either collection and I feel cheated by their presentations.
Okay, so Oscar looks very rich and very luxe and that’s the way it is supposed to look. He has dedicated his career to that woman and now her daughter and he has done it more successfully than most. Th

is collection, while I find it to be appealing, is up to his normal standards of excellence. It seems to be more hodgepodge and “what she couldn’t wear she carried” meaning that even if there was a more restrained presence the collection seemed so busy that one didn’t know what to look at first. There seemed to be a missing element which could have been the raffine rather than the over the top.
Marchesa is a case in point where there is too much chat about the inspiration and too much spin on the why when there should have been fabulously beautiful gowns. The designing duo have made a name for themselves doing tasteful and occasionally over the top confections but this season either their esthetic has changed or I am clouded by the technology that it must have taken to create this season’s collection. Yes, they are entrance making, yes they are spectacles to behold, but I fear that is all for the wrong reason. In my opinion, these clothes are more costume than anything else and beg for attention in a too obvious way.

RALPH RUCCI.... Fall 2011

One comes to expect excellence after so many near perfect collections and this fall 2011 is no exception. This season Mr. Rucci not only breathes some color into his normal somber wearable palette, but very successfully brings a more playful and even maybe youthful element into the brand’s vocabulary.
Mr. Rucci is nothing if not consistent with his vision not to mention his consistent method

of flawless construction and purity of silhouette. He proposed the question as to why his clothes are usually associated with “older’ women to which I can only reply a few possibilities. Most evidently, the collection bears a financial aspect to which only women of a certain age may be able to afford, the taste level of each collection is stratospherically above the taste level of most 20 or 30 somethings (celebrities certainly not withstanding) and that Mr. Rucci does not bend to the trend of the moment nor chase said trend.
This season, the clothes are sumptuous; slick as usual, extravagant, exquisitely constructed clothes. Mr. Rucci also told us that his is not fashion but style, a statement i would like to elaborate on. In order to wear clothes like his, one needs to be self-assured with no need of ‘bragging” and most certainly a woman who knows what she looks best in and how to wear it. He might be considered correct if one looks at it only from the point of view…the latest and the greatest. He most certainly is incorrect if you view fashion as an art form and that fashion can be more than the look of the day. The clothes harken back to a time when there was great pride in the finished garment and greater pride in selling to a retail clientele rather than loaning a dress to some starlet of the moment celebrity. Ralph Rucci upholds taste and style and fashion in a business that seems to want to forget that fashion is a craft and an art.

"Our lady of Sleeves" ....Carolina Herrera

It’s been many, many years since she was referred to as “our lady of the sleeves” and she has definitely transformed herself into a major player from that time. What I find a bit disturbing, among the designer cult, is the constant change in focus as to who is the customer. Ms. Herrera started out in the league of Blass and Oscar and Pauline and Geoffrey and then somewhere in the past 15 years, the collection took a 180 and was aimed at the so called new crop of society ladies who happened to be in their mid 20’s rather than their mid 40’s and older. For a while, the clothes found a look and I am assuming an audience and this season all bets are off.
Fall 2011, while still retaining its slick and urbane character, the collection has taken a decidedly plain and unadorned look which is not helping the bones of the collection. The clothes look a bit “triste” which might be a polite way of saying tired and dowdy. There are some memorable pieces but I found that for the most part, this season is highly forgettable. No drama like last fall with the high reaching feathers and hats, fall should be a time of excitement and a time where the clothes will beckon the ladies and call them to the fitting rooms.

Marc Jacobs...Fall 2011

I am always hesitant to review a Marc Jacobs collection as I always feel I am in the minority with my assessment. This season, however, I find this particular collection oddly appealing. I believe that some of the reason comes from how the show was styled. The season appears to be much cleaner, less bells and whistles, which may have allowed me to look at the clothes and not all the superfluous stu

ff that surrounds them as a rule.
Having seen so many MJ collections, I suddenly had this epiphany that he only designs clothes for the season…he has no specific look and yet most of the clothes are emblematic of Mr. Jacobs. Hard for me to wrap my head around the idea that he doesn’t associate himself to one look or silhouette or line and yet the clothes are recognizable. The polka dots, the fitted shapes and the overall clean lines appeal to my sense of fashion regardless of the “look” of each particular outfit.
Mr. Jacobs is nothing if not the provocateur, whether it is his eponymous line or Louis Vuitton. He is one of the bad boys of fashion who grew up right in front of us and became synonymous with fashion on an international scale.
For no other reason than to keeps this business exciting and fresh, I hope that he never alters his M.O. and just goes on his merry way of shaking up everyone and everything that we seem to know about the rules of fashion.

DONNA KARAN ..Fall 2011...Sheeeeee's Baaaack!

It’s back to being a full-fledged collection again and it’s about time that Ms. Karan abandoned the all dressy format that she has been literally clinging to for several seasons. Back are the coats, back are dresses that do not require a specific occasion, back are PANTYHOSE and back are pearls.
The clothes remain softly draped, but not overly done and the silhouette is slim and not totally unforgiving. The palette is soft, yet not boring, the coats are stunningly sharp, yet not over wrought and the accessories stunningly simple, but not dowdy.
Ms. Karan is a great designer and really should allow herself to present “MORE COMMERCIAL” collections such as this one which would only bolster her standing in the retail designer hierarchy. After all, if these clothes don’t make cash registers ring, then it doesn’t really matter what your inspiration or fashion theory might be.

VICTORIA BECKHAM FALL 2011

I have been a hesitant fan of the collection since its birth but I am finding that Ms. Beckham has remained true to her vision and produces a beautifully made and presented collection for women of a certain taste level. The clothes are not tricky; they are what they appear to be, albeit with a bit more élan than the usual fashion fare.
These are dresses, for the most part, that require no inspir

ation but do require a design discipline that is very refreshing in today’s world of fashion. The discipline is in its apparent simplicity which requires great craftsmanship in order to be successfully rendered. The edges are sharp, even though they have been softened this season, the line is clean, even if the lengths have been elongated this season and the color range is limited, yet not boring.
It is possible that the newer silhouettes have been influence by Ms. Beckham’s forthcoming child birth, but they are not out of control and hardly of the maternity genre of ready to wear. Hopefully, this collection will remain on the limited side as there are so many possibilities for error if the collection increases in size.

JASON WU FALL 2011

HAIL THE CONQUERER!! Mr. Wu has shown the world that he is no fly by night, one hit wonder. This fall collection clearly puts him in world class position for a place in the 21st century fashion hall of fame. He deftly worked his theme with grace, with art, with craftsmanship and with a decidedly sure hand. He took lace and he dissected it in every way and when he trimmed a hoodie with it …and d

id it successfully, then we know he is at the top of his game.
One could say that there was a YSL undercurrent and that the collection was a bit prim, but I say bring it on. Many of the younger generation of designers are discovering what made great collection even greater by delving back to when clothes were not solely based on their youth factor or their trend factor. Good clothes should withstand the immediacy of a season and Mr. Wu has found that chic, slick and urbane clothes are the remedy to too many collections that try to be uber hip and uber young and thusly yield a few too many “me too” collections.