Mellow, beachy colors of ocean blue, marigold yellow and hibiscus pinko dominated the runways Monday at New York Fashion Week.
You were expecting black?
Designers tried to lighten a dour national mood for their spring collections with a sunny evolution of the popular fall colours of aubergine, mustard and midnight patrician. For spring, they're relying on igniter lilac, marigold and teal.
Carolina Herrera added a dash of persimmon (reddish orange) mixed with graphic black and white, pairing a soft, gossamer look with something more crisp.
"When the economy is not that good, we need to achieve, to do something even more than special," Herrera told The Associated Press. "Women wHO buy your clothes experience to be attracted with something so special that they need to have it."
When the "green" bm came into vogue, the color came along with it. Perhaps the front of flow, ocean blueish signals the next front in that movement.
Monday's windy collections were a reprieve from a celebrity-packed, frenzied weekend, just more excitement was to come. Marc Jacobs was to present his bellwether collection later Monday, part of ashcan School days of New York Fashion Week shows that run through Friday.
CAROLINA HERRERA
At Carolina Herrera, the air and the runway were filled with feelings of civility, edification and luxury.
The brand favored by A-lister Renee Zellweger, who was in the audience, systematically plays the chic, well-heeled woman world Health Organization has little interest in trends. Yet the lovely dresses with organza overlays or delicate ruffles fully played into the occasional elegance that has been a potent theme during the kickoff half of new season's style previews.
The palette of hibiscus pink, marigold yellow, teal dark and persimmon mixed with graphic black and andrew Dickson White also falls in stock with what's been popular with other designers in a assemblage that alternated between crisp simplicity and ethereal femininity.
"The color and feminine inside information were identical much her style," ascertained InStyle fashion director Cindy Weber Cleary. "In a season that could turn out slippery, her feminine sensibility looked fresh and beautiful."
However, the handful of all-over beaded gowns seemed a little out of step with what's occurrence in the rest of the earth and, more specifically, an industry focussed on a tight economy.
PETER SOM
Peter Som's spring runway was a closet full of dress for the young and beautiful place. The appeal was an even mix of tropical colors and neutral earth tones, resortwear and cocktail dresses.
Som mixed textures - an organza shirt with tweed doll, and a shiny linen taffeta dress - which gave the overall impression of smartness clothes without stuffiness. Corset-style tops with fuller, flirty bottoms likewise provided some playfulness.
In an interview ahead of the show, Som described the look as his signature tune of "quirkily romantic medical dressing and relaxed elegance" - and moving it to the desert. Many of the best looks, however, must ingest come from Som's oasis: beautiful hues of ocean blue, including lagoon, turquoise and azure.
On the more casual side were rompers, which ar a bona fide trend for the season, that Som put into habiliment proportions with slim-cut top-notch and fuller but not voluminous shorts.
TRACY REESE
Tracy Reese's garden blossomed early. The best outfits of her spring ingathering were done in florals, especially a pale oleander-rose print ill-used for a one-shoulder strip dress covered with appliqued flowers that served as the runway finale.
Other great looks presented Sunday to an audience that included Sanaa Lathan and Brandy were a chrysanthemum lantern skirt with a soft drape matched with a nectarine-colored plain stitch T-shirt with ruffled detonating device sleeves and strapless garden-print top with a double peplum that was worn with honey oil eyelet trousers.
Furthering the good girl-bad girl theme that has been popular in the early going of Fashion Week, Reese offered an ideal leather-and-lace ensemble: a taupe-colored buttery leather jacket with appliques and a spike tiered skirt.
LELA ROSE
Lela Rose borrowed draping techniques from the headdresses of the African Mende tribe for dresses that blurred the line between funky planetary styles and cocktail dress for uptown girls.
One of the most interesting things to emerge from her runway show Sunday at Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week was a print Rose called "heat represent" and looked like a satellite picture on Google Maps. It was an attractive navy and red ink print just also seemed like a social comment about the world getting smaller.
Dip-dyed fabrics and ikat prints added to an exotic find, but there also were several of the one-shoulder and twisted-fabric dresses that fit right into the trends of the other runways at Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week.
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