Costello Tagliapietra Spring Summer 2011

Design duo Costello Tagliapietra are masters at draping jersey. This was most evident in the first few looks that came down the runway but after that things became a bit strained. I usually love their work, it’s so subtle and beautifully made that a single dress from them is a major building block for an outfit that will last you years.

For spring it looks like they were experimenting and really pushing themselves and that’s admirable but there were so many looks that just didn’t work. Silk sack dresses with diagonal ruching looked awful, as did the questionable looking prints. But it wasn’t all bad. A gorgeous long sleeved dress with a fist-full of pin-tucks fanning out from the torso was testament to the restrained elegance they do so well.

Costello Tagliapietra Fall 2010 Review

The collections by Jeffrey Costello and Robert Tagliapietra are always a New York fashion week treat. They have that certain something about their work-much like the Mulleavy sisters at Rodarte-that makes it special and fall 2010 was no exception.

The models looked beautiful with hair crudely swept up and their faces were kept bare except for a stamp of red lipstick. Swirls of tightly bound jersey-their specialty- nipped the waist of a dress in what I can only describe as winter pastels of dusty clay and moss.

A dress in candied rose could’ve been disastrous if made by the wrong hands but looked effortless when done by Costello and Tagliapietra and that’s the beauty of their work: making the most notoriously difficult fabric look like a breezy walk in the park.

The pants left a lot to be desired, falling somewhere between a riding crop and a harem, distorting the hips which will flatter few.

I'm melting! I'm melting!!!