Vera Wang brings Modigliani, Giacometti to NY runway

Designer to the stars Vera Wang shored up
her artistic clout Tuesday by sending models down the New York runway in
towering platforms and elongated cuts inspired by Modigliani and
Giacometti.

Wang, best known for designing wedding gowns for the rich and famous,
presented a collection steeped in the lean, sculptural image of the European
artists, whose modernist masterpieces fetch record prices.
“I wanted to find my own new proportion and my own new silhouette,” Wang
told AFP backstage on day six of New York Fashion Week as the city stood
shrouded in thick gray skies and heavy rain.

The show opened with a Schubert piano impromptu as models strode the
catwalk in black and white cut out suits — almost apron style — adorned
with
straps and buckles on the hip.
The strap and buckle accessory was dominant, stretching between shoulders
and sitting on hips. She presented shorts, hemmed with lace, paired with
sharp
blazers and knee-high boots, floaty barely-there chiffon print dresses and
pleated skirts slit to the thigh.

“The precision, the elegance and the control of fencing and the
beauty of
fencing, see the way those plastrons are cut and how it shapes the arm hole
and the body,” Wang explained.

#VeraWang Fall
2016 Collection

A photo
posted by Vera Wang (@verawanggang) on Feb 16, 2016 at 8:43am
PST

The models were kitted out in high platform shoes with giant soles,
which
Wang called sock shoes. “You put them on, they’re almost like a sock and
it’s
half platform, half heel,” she said.
Wang also made ample use of fur — multi-colored raccoon coats, gray mink
and chartreuse racoon vests — and for evening nude tulle camisole gowns
with
long rectangular panels of metallic sequins.

Baby doll

Peter Copping, the British creative director of Oscar de la Renta,
presented his third seasonal show for the label since its founder passed
away
in 2014, offering a studied tribute in timeless elegance.

He sent out a typically lady-like collection with copious amounts of
Spanish-style lace in stone, black and wine, and with fine attention to
detail
such as lace cuffs on ribbed jerseys.
The clothes featured baby doll fur collars and giant bows at the neck on
plunging ball gowns. Pushing boundaries slightly, Copping included a leather
bubble skirt, red leather dress and a gold lame pant suit.

Tomboy Burch

Uptown, billionaire and newly engaged Tory Burch showcased a bright,
preppy
collection inspired by her childhood love of horseback riding — and a scene
from a French movie about marital fidelity.

The show opened with a vibrant jockey pattern used in patchwork
effect.
There were colorful woollen coats, crisp white shirts livened up with
jockey-print satin sleeves, and a diamond-patterned sequin and satin dress.
Delicate blue and white paisley looked like Chinese porcelain, and lame
silk in a tunic and a peplum dress shimmered in the light.

A photo posted by Tory Burch (@toryburch) on Feb 16, 2016 at 2:45pm
PST

The entrepreneur who has forged an empire said she was inspired by
the cafe
scene in 1972 film “L’amour l’apres-midi” by French director Eric Rohmer and
her childhood love of horseback riding — a refined take on sportswear
classics.
“I’ve been designing sport now with our sport collection, and I’ve wanted
to do that maybe seven years, and we launched six months ago, and it’s
really
informed the main collection too,” she told AFP.
“The tomboy in me really loves it,” she said. “I think it’s how I want to
dress,” she added.

Fashion Week has seen designers start to shift focus as social media
means
customers no longer want to wait six months between first seeing catwalk
presentations and being able to buy the clothes in a store.
Burch said select pieces from her latest collection — such as the track
pants and track suit — would be available to buy immediately as a test run.
“I think the customer is in charge at the moment, so we’re trying to do
things, but not too quickly,” she told AFP. “We want to test it and see.”

‘The Godfather’

In Chelsea, sisters Kate and Laura Mulleavy mined iconic movie “The
Godfather” for their Rodarte fall/winter collection — a meditation in lace
with ruffles and tulle that marked 10 years in the business.

Actresses Kirsten Dunst and Jennifer Jason Leigh were among those to
congratulate the designers backstage.
“There’s a lot of art nouveau references, like film art posters that were
done in the 60s,” Kate Mulleavy told AFP. (AFP)