Slide Show: Will You Wear It in Seattle? Spring 2012 Part I
Slideshow: What do the spring 2012 collections, currently being shown at New York Fashion Week, have in store for you? Leather continues to factor in in a big way, as with this dress from Derek Lam. Those leather tee-shirts, pants, and skirts you’re seeing out there? Good investments. I think my favorite leather pieces are really just leather pieces; the leather sleeves set into wool and cotton jackets for instance.
If, this summer, you were doing bright, vivid color in combination with tones that we don’t think of as colorful, good. Continue doing it this fall, knowing that it’s still going to look good next spring. This look is by Diane von Furstenberg, a line that’s always popular and wearable in the Northwest.
Lela Rose is another designer who thinks there is absolutely nothing to change about that bright yellow-with-taupe-and-pale-pink thing you’ve been doing.
Another thing I saw you doing this summer: Sheers. I’m not going to suggest you should continue the look into fall (speaking of impractical …) but make sure you save the sheer layers and the best under-sheer layers. There has been plenty of see-thru stuff on the runways so far, from both conceptual, very exclusive designers and those, like Gary Graham (a favorite at Alhambra) who can be counted on for everyday not-so-basics.
I loved Gary Graham’s sheers-wtih-prints, too.
Do you see yourself in this finale look from Mary Kate and Ashley Olsen’s The Row? Here’s what style.com reported about their inspiration for the all-white Spring 2012 collection:
"The Olsens said their twin inspirations were a Seattle exhibition of Nick Cave’s Soundsuits and the country of Tibet. ‘We wanted everything to float and breathe, or make a sound even,’ Mary-Kate explained afterward. Tibet came into the picture via the prayer beads slung across the torso of one model and the handmade open-knit sleeves of a sweater. As for Mr. Cave? In the stillness of the performance space, the shell buttons densely embellishing a long tank faintly jingled."
Didn’t run into the Olsens at SAM? The women were in town last April for a trunk show at Nordstrom. Here’s the Q and A I did with them while they were here.
I know there are a lot of Project Runway fans in Seattle. I haven’t paid a lot of attention to former PR’ster Christian Siriano, but his Spring showing suggests that maybe he’s outgrowing that (insert me rolling my eyes) ‘fierce’ thing. While the collection takes a lot from what Raf Simmons did for Jil Sander last spring, it’s a notable continuation of that hugely popular tee-shirt-with-full-length-skirt look, and the aforementioned color blocking theory. I wouldn’t have previously imagined Christian Siriano at, say, Mario’s, but with this collection, I can see it.
I’m seeing a lot of engineered draping, a cool juxtaposition of free-flowing prettiness and strapped-in architecture. Here’s a pretty putty-colored example from Jeremy Laing.
Similarly, a look from Kimberly Ovitz, whose collection was really strappy. Ovitz cited highly innovative post-earthquake emergency housing in Japan as a major influence.
Though I’m no athlete, I love the infiltration of sport in fashion. Here, a riff on track pants from Rag and Bone. You’ll see this at Nordstrom and Barneys, I’m sure of it.
Alexander Wang, a personal favorite, has pretty much made a career out of taking sporty elements and transforming them into highly coveted street wear. I’d run a couple of miles for this pull-over.
I’ve followed VPL since discovering it at Impulse (now Totokaelo years ago). The line isn’t carried there anymore, or in Seattle at all as far as I know, but I love the colors, prints, and sport-meets-street look.
Richard Chai’s Love line felt super fresh and worth noting for Spring. A lot of play on proportion, layers, and prints. Note those stripes, because a lot of other designers did.
Another look from Richard Chai Love; this one shows the cut-outs that were in a lot of runway shows so far. A little peak of collarbone there, some shoulder here.
