NYC SPRING IN FULL EFFECT

The spring ready-to-wear has launched, and style.com has full photos and some editorial comment on shows as they come up. Right now the big shows up from the past few days are Luella Bartley, Imitation of Christ, As Four, Luca Luca, Diane von Furstenburg and Tuleh. Here's my quick lowdown so far:

+ Tuleh: girly-girl socialite into ruffles who got lost in an Easter basket

+ Luca Luca: Tuleh's grown-up sister who would rather sip Bellinis somewhere on the Mediterranean coast than get lost in an Easter basket

+ As Four: "I Dream of Jeannie" goes to Las Vegas via a magic carpet and picks up Siegfried and Roy so they can all sleep in the communal bed in their silver loft in New York. They do not detour through an Easter basket.

+ Luella: Cool British girl goes backpacking, opens said backpack to find that she's packed her Chanel jacket, which has mated with her ratty, ironic 80s sweats. In despair, she dips her toes into Easter basket hell but gets out when she realizes it goes all Day Glo on her. She goes to some tropical paradise in Southeast Asia and blows through her trust fund on pareos and halter dresses and cabana boys.

+ DVF: Flapper girl jumps out of an Easter basket, which has turned into a time warp portal of sorts since she also brings bits and pieces of the 80s with her. She gets a part on Sex and the City as Carrie Bradshaw's long-lost sister and sashays off her guest appearance with a serious drinking problem and a few new boyfriends.

+ IOC: A bunch of early 50s Hollywood starlets sit around the set sipping grenadine and soda and call each other "darling." Eventually they get political and decry the Easter basket as a symbol of oppression, but for now they shove it in the closet.

So far what I've noticed:

+ Grecian-inspired fashion is still big, ranging from toga-like gowns at IOC or the sandals at Luella, which makes sense: it flatters a huge range of women's body types, which you really can't say for many cuts or silhouettes in fashion.

+ Like fall, it's a big skirt and dress season, so if you've ever wanted to load up on frocks, this is your year. What's more, the mini is still going strong (which is great for small girls, like myself.) There's still a bit of 80s with the bomber jackets here and there.

+ Instead of the little black dress, there are plenty of little white dresses. IOC has some darling ones in their girlish, innocently Hollywood-inspired show. Tara Subkof's designs get more and more wearable each season, so I'm only assuming that some mass production is on the way for the label.

Whenever I scour all the shows' photos, I'm always struck by the continuities versus the differences at first. As Four has echoes of Balenciaga and even a little Marc Jacobs, only with the rounded edges of their Arabian Nights references and metallic colors. Luca Luca's show has echoes of Carolina Herrera's Hitchcock-inspired fashions, only in a color template in the most sherbet hues of spring; there's also a hint of Narciso Rodriguez in the gowns with their cutaways, with an added rounded edge to Rodriguez's more angular touches.

Posted by Kat in Fashion Weeks
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