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A more finely tuned, but no less creative Posen strutted out his most wearable looks yet for aspiring girl Fridays, secret agents, ice skating queens and future flight attendants for Virgin Galactic. Everything was leggy, from the polished pantsuits with wide-legged trousers to the kicky skirts and asymmetrically draped mini-dresses.
"1940s reconstruction," the designer summarized after the show. "I wanted to show all of our construction on the outside."
Posen's inside-out concept ranged from dresses that appeared like deconstructed pattern pieces cut from various fabrics and then stitched together, to a blouse that on first glance looked like a printed trompe l'oeil vest, but was actually made of wide grosgrain ribbons carefully folded over and sewn into a diamond pattern. Other deconstructed elements included corset boning placed on the exterior or raw edge seams.
But this was not the deconstruction of, say, Commes Des Garcons, with extra sleeves or radical asymmetry. Ironically, it was more a way to draw attention to the careful construction of each garment.
"I'm playing with clean fabrications and upping the luxury level," he said.
While there were no full-length evening gowns this time around, Posen still found ways to play with volume in ways that were wearable but no less attention-grabbing. Ruffles exploded from underneath a structured jacket, skirts had swing and furs were chubby. An anthracite tech satin jacket kept its shape like a thinly pounded metal sculpture.
Like a number of designers this season, Posen did not shy away from ample amounts of fur. Here, it was fox in vibrant colors like magenta or a blue and copper chevron pattern. But the use of fur that most caught the eye of editors was the tuft that covered a pair of Manolo Blahnik designed heels, a very chic fur bootie.
Posen also collaborated with two artists this season - Rosson Crow, who did some excellent painterly floral prints in vibrant pinks and reds and Yazbukey, Paris-based sisters Yaz and Emel, who designed brooches that looked like the polished cross-sections of exotic minerals.
The classically trained "hip-hop violinist" from Israel, Miri Ben-Ari, performed live music, adding a jolt of high octane energy to the show. The Grammy award-winning musician played an original composition layered over rappers like Jay-Z. Performing her own musical deconstruction, Ben-Ari was a fitting postmodern musical parallel to Posen. |
