Favorite of the Day: Michael van der Ham

The collections from Monday, February 18th presented a challenge. It wasn't a disturbing challenge, more an issue of too much of a good thing. Numerous collections jockeyed for the position of favorite, and even as I write this, I find myself vacillating between them. But in the end, I had to make a decision, and it was the prints play of Michael van der Ham that finally drew me in.

The colors, when they appeared, were rich and moody. The prints always complemented and never outshone each other. 

The clothes left me questioning my devotion to stripes and solids.

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Favorite of the Day: Mary Katrantzou

The first two days of London fashion week were filled with middle of the road shows. They were rather inoffensive and surprisingly mainstream for a city known for its tendency to nurture those with outsized visions. Thankfully day three was filled with collections that moved back towards the city's foundations.

Mary Katrantzou stands out season after season as one of those shows with a satisfyingly original point of view. Her prints vividly recall landscapes. The shapes are anything but run of the mill. And no one is doing anything even vaguely similar. This season, everything took a dark turn. There was a moodiness that brought to mind the setting of bygone mysteries.

These prints had a story to tell.


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Favorite of the Day: Proenza Schouler

The Proenza Schouler show was about many things. Downtown cool. Well-drawn lines. Black and White.

But it also excluded many things, mainly the trends that at this point in the week are already turning stale. It's what they do best. Telling a different story. Heading in a new direction. Keeping everyone wondering "What's next?"


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Favorite of the Day: Vera Wang

With some of the bigger names, I can get bored. Yes the clothes are gorgeous. Yes it would be an honor to own any of the pieces shown. But there is a sameness that I can't get past. I like clothes that are pretty for the sake of being pretty, but I don't often love them.

But that isn't the case with Vera Wang. For the second season in a row, I find myself unable to look away from the collection. Although she played with multiple themes, my favorite was the not so basic blacks that were presented.

Different from last season. Different from the season before. Not always my favorite but rarely ever stale.


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Favorite of the Day: Ohne Titel

Almost exactly four years ago now, back when I thought a job in the industry was actually possible, back before I ran home licking the wounds that New York City and the economy had left all over me, I was interning for a small buying office and running around fashion week attending shows that my bosses and colleagues couldn't get to. It was Valentine's Day. I was wearing a black shift dress over a white shirt with black tights and my, at the time, fairly new equestrian-style boots. And lipstick. I never wear lipstick.

I walked around the space pre-show eating macarons being passed around on trays and drinking white wine even though it was 11 AM and I really should have known better. I watched girls teeter around in YSL tributes avoiding the sweets, tried not to chuckle at them, and waited for us to be told to take our seats. Through some luck, my boss had a front row seat, and I got to sit in it. The lights went down. The runway lights came back up. The music began.

It was the Ohne Titel show. Four years on, I looked at the runway pictures in the comfort of my room from a still semi-snowed in Boston. The clothing touched on many of the trends emerging from New York fashion week as it enters its final days. The colors. The types of patterns. The textures.

And though the clothes were lovely, I think that I liked them for another reason. 

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Favorite of the Day: Ostwald Helgason

I have a well-documented love for all things schoolgirl. Short, full skirts and collared shirts. Oxfords, penny loafers, and mary janes. At the Ostwald Helgason presentation, The Schoolgirl and her cousin The Tomboy were everywhere.

But the patterns were bold. The colors were vibrant. The blazers were gilded. And none of it was juvenile.

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Favorite of the Day: Cushnie et Ochs

I had trouble picking a favorite today not because of a lack of options but because I was worried about how to present it.

Something can get lost when all one has are two dimensional pictures of what are very live objects, objects that when seen on a moving body take on a whole different persona. Over the past few years, more and more designers have started to live stream their shows so one no longer has to rely on stills. Now there is movement.

Though the silhouettes were looser this time around, the Cushnie et Ochs show this season was as sensual as it always is. It was sexual without sliding into the vulgar and tasteless as so many others are prone to do.

But, in the end, it was all about how it moved.

 

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