Fashion Photography – “Behind every good man is a good woman,” the saying goes. After the last day or so of the New York fall shows, American designers might want to amend that: Behind every good collection is Phoebe Philo.
http://carlacummingsphotography.com
Six months ago in her debut show for the French house Céline, Ms. Philo, a British designer, showed easy, jaunty sportswear. Confronted with the utter logic of doing something beautiful that also jibed with a new climate of modesty, American designers began stripping away a decade’s worth of postmodern significance to reach a plain A-line skirt.
On Wednesday, Phillip Lim, an engine of affordable fashion, seemed to imbibe the spirit of Bonnie Cashin and Jenny Cavalieri, the “Love Story” heroine. The adept collection included ponchos and toggle coats, white cotton shirts based on a cape, and fuzzy wool checked shorts and cute suspendered skirts with leather binding.
A year after Reed Krakoff, the president and creative director of Coach, announced plans for a label of his own, his first collection featured oversize crew neck sweaters, long flap-pocket wrap skirts and a sleeveless coat in loden wool, and wide-leg trousers in moleskin or leather.
It was a decent start for Mr. Krakoff — the dry Beuysian textures, the nonaggressive lines were appealing — but you couldn’t help but see similarities to Ms. Philo’s way of dressing, especially those wide trousers. And beyond clean lines and reinterpreting outerwear classics, like the peacoat, you couldn’t identify a specific design imperative.
A separate problem is the heaviness of some of Mr. Krakoff’s coats, which he made central to the collection. In bulk and color (gray, loden, army-blanket green), they looked sludgy. Women in mild or warm parts of the country typically don’t think of coats as outerwear but as a finish to an outfit. In that respect, Mr. Krakoff’s focus seemed too narrowly trained on his audience of fashion editors and buyers. Read more »
