Rodarte, Collina Strada and Others

Photo-illustration: by The Cut; Photo: Getty Images, courtesy of Fform

We don’t have San Simeon or Xanadu in New York, but we do have the Williamsburgh Savings Bank, a Beaux-Arts shrine to wealth at the foot of the Williamsburg Bridge. That’s where Kate and Laura Mulleavy staged their Rodarte show Friday, fall’s first big-name ready-to-wear show. Beneath the dome, and with plenty of dim, dreary lighting for ambiance, the Mulleavys set up a series of food-laden banquet tables, except for the cakes and other details all covered in silver and glistening paint, a clear nod to Tinseltown. The sisters, of course, are from Southern California.

The glittering setting, and horror in general, makes me think of the banquet scenes in it lack, David Fincher’s 2020 film about the making Kane people, when Gary Oldham, as screenwriter Herman J. Mankiewicz, throws a huge, moocher party at Hearst Castle. What struck me most as the models paraded in black gowns and silver-rimmed glamor coats was that the Mulleavys were totally aware of the spark that a great black-and-white film can produce, either straight-up Jean Harlows’ blonde hair, for example or through reflection. It is the kind of intelligence that in turn generates intrigue and mystery, the feeling that not everything is as good and beautiful as it seems on the surface.

Roll you.

The Mulleavys say the collection started last April when they asked their mother, an artist, to draw her ideas about fairies, which later evolved into gothic fairy tales. Hence the predominance of black, Morticia Addams’ long, dripping sleeves, heavy makeup, and odd but satisfying allusions to high-end 19th-century jewelry, especially chimney caps, fringed hats, and lace coats. Most of the outfits, the best of them, are in a 1930s setting, even a touch of the 1920s flapper (beaded fringe) and a parallel era in sexual liberation, the 1960s (two hand-beaded suits complete with a tunic in mint green and purple). Authentic faery images emerge as blown-out prints on flowing silk gowns. It’s so dreamy, not to mention distinctive.

Roll you.
Photo: Getty Images

Compared to Rodarte’s other recent collections based on ballets, this one in a quirky mushroom print (again, by Mother) is perhaps harder to swallow. But personally I like Mulleavys the most when they find wormholes and plunge. This kind of total immersion is relatively rare in fashion. The movie stills and splashes of light are a bonus.

Hillary Taymour named her newest Collina Strada collection, Please Don’t Eat My Friends. Given the cannibalistic nature of fashion, which friend is she referring to, exactly? I’ve seen two versions of the tight-fitting black jacket and low-cut pants that Sarah Burton showed in October on the Alexander McQueen runway, itself a rehash of McQueen’s late ’90s bum style. On Friday night, Prabal Gurung made a similar appearance, dressed in gold trim. What are fashion friends for?

Hill Road.
Photo: Getty Images

Taymour actually means wild and domestic animals. As we sat in a former bank building in Williamsburg, the previous afternoon, Taymours’ make-up artist glued reptile ears, muzzles, beaks, and fins to the models’ heads. Van’s sneakers are painted with furry claws and nails. At least one model has a tail.

Hill Road.
Photo: Getty Images

Talk about embracing the trend. Designers are obsessed with animals these days. Think giant wooden beasts at last month’s Chanel couture, heads up at Schiaparelli. As a result, Taymour’s concept seems tame. Even so, the collection itself has remained strong, notably the ultracool plaid cargo pants with a flap skirt at the waist; free size and open size knit tops and mini dresses (as if they were taken from a can of Silly String); and a dead stock velvet dress.

Prior to his performance, Gurung said his mother had pushed him for years to go on a silent retreat, which he finally did for ten days in late 2022. It was challenging, he said, adding that the experience kept balance. his life. It also made her feel that she had to stay on her own path in fashion, which is a mix of busy embellishments and classic tailoring as well as eastern and western cultures. In the face of long lines of dress-up clients, she more or less keeps that balance with dresses in graphic prints that evoke butterfly wing sections, sharp tailoring with sexy cuts (a beautiful white satin coat dress with a train), and a heavy dose of traditional eastern color. , such as turmeric and vermilion.

Prabal Gurung.
Photo: Getty Images

Increasingly, a bold juxtaposition of styles or colors is considered good design. In fact, that’s exactly what designers Jil Sanders, Luke and Lucie Meier tried to do last season, blending glamorous charm with workwear and other form elements. But that approach has really worked.

Prabal Gurung.
Photo: Getty Images

For me, the true meaning of mystery in clothing does not come from references or eccentric clashes of textures or embellishments, but from the way clothes are cut. From pattern making. You don’t really understand, as designer Paul Helbers says, referring to why seemingly simple dresses have a certain shape and jackets fall a certain way. Helbers, who has worked for Martin Margiela and with Marc Jacobs at Louis Vuitton, is the quiet genius behind Fforme, which he founded with Laura Vazquez, who spent years at Jil Sander, and investor Nina Khosla.

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Photo: Courtesy of Form

Fforme is now in its third season, and its designs have already caught the attention of a number of leading retailers, including 180 Store in Tribeca and Tomorrowland in Japan. For a fashion purist or nerd, as Helbers lightly puts it, the outfit definitely fills a void for the kind of minimalist design Sander once championed. But, frankly, that description doesn’t do it justice. Each force in a relatively small, focused line does something unique to the body. Helbers, half jokingly, calls some of his styles soft Greek, which means they have abstract shapes that make them fall softly on the body. For example, a black top has built-in panels that cover the front subtly. The cropped black tweed jacket has a series of darts along the inside back hem, creating a bit of volume, and a martingale to finish the effect. The maid uses the same arrow technique for the elastic waistband of the brown leather pants. Forty arrows create shape and, in a way, detail.

Form.
Photo: Courtesy of Form

Maid brings the same skill and consideration to Fforme’s first down jackets: In high-quality recycled nylon, they’re rounded at the cuffs, hems, and shoulders for an elegant, subtle 3-D effect.

I can be a geek and talk about welted stitches and 18-gauge silk and striped super-fine merino pullovers, as comfortable as a sweatshirt, that would take hours to unscrew its knitting machine somewhere in Italy, but I’ll spare you. You actually don’t care what goes into the sauce. Knowing would spoil the fun and mystery of what brains and hands can conjure up. For now, the brand partners are doing a small presentation. I just hope they will one day bring their much-underrated sensory form to the runway. It will be very surprising.