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| Proenza Schouler |
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| Alexander Wang |
Fashion week comes, and what happens in our heads? New trends, already
seen trends, trends! We see color, and we see interesting shapes, part of new
brand statements for strong, confident women.
Reviews won’t ever focus on the specific craft traits that particular hand-work-based
designers showcase, because that is not their focus. But it’s you readers who
might not know entirely the marvelous things that go through, and behind the
scenes, during the creation of the most coveted looks of the season.
I wouldn’t have started this blog if I didn’t think craft is one of the
motors that moves and differentiates different fashion houses from one another.
Craft, since is synonymous of quality, also relates the pieces to special
techniques, and heritage – if not of the house’s atelier, then specific
artisans and trade organizations around the world.
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| Proenza Schouler |
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| Proenza Schouler |
On a good note, craftsmanship is not only connected of the Paris and
Milan maisons. American designers
have done nothing but taken craft to a whole new level of hip and modern style
by using handmade techniques to balance the overwhelming futurism of their
clothes.
Proenza Schouler is off to great things this year – and let’s just say
that the opening of their Madison Ave flagship is no casualty. For SS 2013 they
are talking collages. They turned lather into a light fabric, or what people
may call leather-lace. Their patch-worked garments of leather were contrastingly
crocheted together by Madagascar artisans. Dresses of diagonal patches of bold solid
colors mixed with pop-culture photographs printed on fabric were a great
statement about the bombarding-information moment we are going though. Lazaro
Hernandez and Jack McCollough’s perfect balance of technology and handcrafts in
their collection is only a bit of proof of the modernity of their vision.
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| Alexander Wang |
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| Alexander Wang |
Another hip craftsman in New York is
Alexander Wang. His collections are the epitome of cool in NYFW – alas the
world. But he not only knows how to dress a tomboy girl sexily in black and
white, he also makes it interesting to watch season through season. Wang
presented dresses cut organically horizontally, which were later on put
together with embroidery techniques that created a lace/pick-a-boo effect. “I wanted to start dissecting the pieces,” said the designer
to WWD. “So we played with the idea of suspension and tension through
embroidery techniques.”
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| Rodarte |
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| Rodarte |
Now let’s talk about
Rodarte. The Muleavy sister duo has such an imagination, that me in my old
designing days who never ever be able to come close to. From their unique
world, this time, they brought a warrior princesses to the 21st
century. Garments had extreme angular cuts in contrasting fabrics, but the
designers also presented fairly straightforward pieces of hand woven jacquards,
and crocheted squares attached like chain mail in tops and skirts. Rodarte’s
ambition in knitwear design has put this technique in the highlight of fashion
with never before imagined possibilities in texture and shapes, and style.
We are left with the masters
of cut, Narciso Rodriquez and Francisco Costa for Calvin Klein.
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| Narciso Rodriquez |
Narciso Rodriquez is
not as hip as a designer, maybe because he certainly doesn’t dress all American
socialites on red carpet events, but his bias-cut dresses, and the
ultra-sophisticated color palette landed him on a prime spot as a notable
designer and craftsman. This spring collection added a little bit of extra
handwork with wooden laminated sequences in all sorts of nature tones – another
smart way of talking prints.
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| Calvin Klein |
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| Calvin Klein |
Calvin Klein Collection’s tailored shapes have the power of looking sooo Calvin Klein and
minimalist, and yet so new and complex every season. This collection was primarily black, white and champagne,
with structured bust shapes – think 21st century pinups. Dresses
were then over-layered by organically woven wire cages that added liveliness to
the overall look.
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| Donna Karan |
As far as Donna Karan,
we know she is and has been involved with artisans for a very long time. And
her collections reflect so. Dusty
sea colors made her SS 2013 palette of hand died, embellished dresses in linens
and silks as soft as sea foam. I cannot forget WWD’s quote basically implying
how passé feathers on dresses can look when shredded raffia has so much
lightness and charm.
Do you think craft can
be ultra-modern as well?
Images Courtesy of WWD
