From Jason Wu, Rosie Assoulin and Givenchy
How could a collection devoid of color say so much? On Friday, Jason Wu, Rosie Assoulin and Givenchy commanded the loudest conversation. While Assoulin shied not away from abundant color — feeding into the summer hangover with a ginger tonic that peps you right back up and makes you wonder how the hell she does it, Jason Wu stuck to a quiet palette with takes of deep dark green and a copper weave while Givenchy abandoned color altogether.
At Wu, the hair was slicked back tight, the lips were so deeply red they almost looked like velvet and the clothes — traditionally buttoned up and form flattering and made for a woman-in-control — featured an almost-girly playfulness with a series of elaborate ruffles that danced across thighs and shoulders and backs. If by day two, the season of New York was being told to throw its schedule by the wayside in order to relax, Jason Wu held on with aplomb. Not to control, not to defy but rather because she-who-wears-the-clothes concedes at her own pace. And though she, too, has loosening up on the mind (the slides! Gowns worn with flats! The flimsy slip dresses and pure, stark white), she’s seemingly got an East Hampton dinner party to host.
And if I’m invited, I’m wearing Rosie — who has proven herself to be an expert in taking a theme (the beach), providing context (all hail the new bikini) and without literalizing that theme (they’re not actually bikinis; they’re knits, they’re dresses, they’re everyday blouses), or making it seem like an impossibility to achieve, she invites everyone to participate at their behest. Isn’t that something? A brand that has achieved enough acclaim to feel so exclusive and yet endeavors to include us all by, for example, calling a look set in kermit green and a very bright orange, “peas and carrots.” To appreciate Rosie, you don’t have to be anything. Except for maybe enthusiastic.
Then there was Givenchy. The show was hosted at Pier 26, overlooking One World Trade Center on the golden evening of the anniversary of September 11th. The venue was enormous. The celebrities were plenty and the art installation that’s become inherent to Riccardo Tisci’s DNA with the help of Marina Abramovic was set on display above large wood blocks with men and women dressed in white shirts and black pants. As attendees and the general public waited upward of an hour for the sun to set and the models to walk, we marveled in the moment. And once they started, there it was: a profoundly soft collection — negligees and slip dresses, robes and no doubt some reprised couture — absent of color but brimming with ideas that without trivializing the gravity and in fact only further propelling it, gave power to an important night in New York.
Runway Photographs via Vogue Runway and NowFashion.com
Rosie Assoulin Photographed by Krista Anna Lewis
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