The Leftovers: New York Fashion Week SS12

Fall has been composed of ups and downs. 70 degree temperatures followed by snow showers followed by cold, rainy downpours. When it was perfect out, those mid to high 50s days with the light streaming through the colorful leaves at just the right angle, you remembered why you lived here in New England. But on those other days, the time warp days when everything felt out of place, you tended to wish for something else.

It was in all of this tumult that I finally found the time and space, both literal and mental, to write about the Spring/Summer 2012 collections. Almost two months removed from the last of the Paris shows, I collected my bookmarks and my thoughts and tried to distill them into something coherent.

For New York, that task was simple. After only a handful of shows, the tone of the New York season was set. This would be a season of neons and sherberts. Of a sporting life. Of flowers, flowers, and more flowers. Of peplums. Of the shortest of shorts. Of the enduring power of colorblocking. As always, the creativity emerged when designers took note of those pervasive trends without being swept away by them.

I doubt that we’ll ever be done with colorblocking. The trend has been around for a fashion eternity. So long in fact that I feel uncomfortable continuing to call it a trend. It is simply a way of life.

At Jenni Kayne

At TSE

At Mandy Coon

At Ruffian

At J. Mendel

But New York’s overarching color story was an eye searing one, full of blazing pinks and shocking blues. Some played with those electric shades in unexpected ways, rendering them in fabrics that draped and flowed and dampened the hard edge that can accompany such colors. Others toned the hues down the slightest bit, stepping back from the cliff and finding a home somewhere between pastel and neon.

At Cushie et Ochs

At Vena Cava

At Costello Tagliapietra

At Kevork Kiledjian

At Doo.Ri

At Wes Gordon

At Milly

Starting with such an audacious foundation can often give designers a chance to pull back in other areas. This season that pulling back often had a hint of le sportif to it and could be found in all types of ways from clean, strong silhouettes in non-traditional fabrics to more on the nose references.

At Kevork Kiledjian

At Reed Krakoff

At Victoria Beckham

At VPL

At Alexander Wang

Florals and I have a long, torturous history that has already been documented here, so it was with some hesitancy that I approached the abundance of blooms making their way down various runways and standing nonchalantly in a multitude of presentations. But that breadth fostered a great amount of depth and flowers appeared in every form from the classic to the acid-fueled.

At Oscar de la Renta

At ADAM

At Richard Chai Love

At Altuzarra

At Tracy Reese

At Peter Som

At Julian Louie

At Cynthia Rowley

At Vera Wang

Alongside the florals lived the peplums. But unlike the flowers, the feeling of unease that welled up whenever I saw one did not subside as the week progressed. I find them to be unflattering on almost everyone. Silly and unnecessary. But even with those feelings, there were some that made me pause for a moment.

At Vera Wang

At Marchesa

At A Détacher

At Marc by Marc Jacobs

At Jason Wu

Shorts that barely warranted the name popped up in nearly every collection as well. Feminine and paired with bows and flowers. Laid back and complemented by the stripes that I love so much.  They revealed that I and this New England fall have a lot in common. Here again was an item that only complemented a rarefied few, yet I could not get enough.

At A.L.C.

At Steven Alan

At United Bamboo

At Proenza Schouler

At Jason Wu

And when the shows moved on from New York, I waited for them to appear in London, Milan, and Paris.


Photos via

Favorite of the Day: Louis Vuitton

I spend most of fashion month going back and forth. Avoiding and then embracing and then avoiding the prevailing trends. In the rush of it all, I love things that I later realize I hate. I overlook complete collections only to rediscover their beauty months later.

I've never been one to embrace sudden changes. But in this case, I think it's evidence that I'm pulling back the layers and really looking at the clothes. For this reason, and many others, I both loathe and love the end of fashion month. But I'm getting away from the issue at hand.

Marc Jacobs' has a tendency to change as well. To move from one pole to another with an ease that is rarely seen in the industry. Though there is a good amount of spectacle at every Louis Vuitton show, it never overshadows the clothes.

From the S&M shop of last season, he did an about face and landed in the realm of the feminine, the light, the airy and the sweet.


Photos via

Favorite of the Day: Alexander McQueen

I always spend the last few days of Paris fashion week unable to make a decision. About what I'm really doing here with this blog. About whether or not I should take a break before starting the round ups. About which collection is my favorite.

The last two days of shows feature some of the world's biggest luxury brands, and they rarely disappoint. Most years I'm left with little to say and a lot of bookmarked slides to sift through. Such was the case for the shows presented on October 4th, but after wavering between three options, I finally settled down.

When Alexander McQueen died in February of 2010, there were a lot of questions about whether the line could continue without him. The singularity of his vision was obvious to anyone who followed his work. But every season since his passing, Sarah Burton has artfully continued upon the path that he forged.

It was all craftsmanship and ingenuity and beauty.


Photos via

Favorite of the Day: Yves Saint Laurent

Ever since Tom Ford, who some consider to be the alpha and the omega of women's design, left the helm of Yves Saint Laurent, things have felt uneasy. This season, like many before it, there were rumblings about the stability of Stefano Pilati's job. During the lead up to Paris fashion week, Twitter exploded with claims that he was to be replaced by Raf Simons of Jil Sander. As an outsider, I've never understood why all of these questions continue to hang around his head.

It would be easy to let the barely concealed whispers affect one's work, but Pilati seems to be above that. Or at least he seems capable of pushing it aside in order to complete the task at hand.

On October 3rd, the trends of the season fell away and shown was a collection of sharp shapes, strong tailoring and rich colors. A collection that quieted the whispers for the time being.


Photos via

Favorite of the Day: Givenchy

As Spring/Summer 2012 winds down, I can't help but search for the trends of the season in every show. Not only those trends that reappear every year as the cold weather leaves us but also the ephemeral ones that will be everywhere and then suddenly nowhere. At Givenchy, both the pastels of spring and the peplums of 2012 featured rather prominently.

The peplums were origami-like. The pastels were stripped of their fussiness. And with that, it felt different than everything else seen during the past month.


Photos via