Narciso Rodriguez Spring Summer 2012

 No. Yes. Yes

No. No. Fuck me dead, no.

Rodriguez has really pushed himself into new territory this season. Regular customers will probably be perplexed but Rodriguez is long overdue for something new. Was he trying something new because he felt genuinely inspired or was it simply trend-driven? It was pastel colour blocking and tricky draping-too tricky at times.
Some of the pieces looked over- designed and recalled the work of Helmut Lang and Balenciaga. The jackets didn’t work. They were strong in the shoulder then fell straight and low and swishy. Extremely unflattering. Look at a Stella McCartney collection if you want to see a well constructed oversize tailored jacket. Despite the tricksy construction the collection was concise with just 30 looks. It’s such a drag when designers like Michael Kors show 60+ looks because if you don’t get your message across after 30 looks then you’re clutching at straws. The pants were strong and some of best I’ve seen so far (Karen Walker's pants were great too but they always are).

Karen Walker gives good pant.

NEW YORK FASHION WEEK IS OVER

My head is still spinning from all the collections I've seen this past week but there's barely time to breathe. London is already kicking and screaming.
I had a quick look on the official LFW website and I think I saw Bora Aksu has already shown so I've gotta look at that.
I saw Jeremy Scott is on the schedule too. Apparently he's going to be showing this collection in New Zealand for fashion week and none other than Vivienne Westwood's muse, Pamela Anderson will be there.

I think the Spring shows were the strongest I've seen in New York lately. The last two seasons were blaaah.

My faves for New York were Donna Karan, Marc Jacobs, Proenza Schouler, Alexander Wang and Karen Walker.

Worst collections? That's tough and most would be for different reasons but off the top of my head Peter Som (but maybe I just don't get his vision), Narciso Rodriguez, Halston (just let the man rest in peace) and Ralph Lauren.

ps, here's a pic of my fave shoe of the season. It's Calvin Klein. It kinda reminds me of this hideous orthopaedic shoe my maths teacher used to wear. You know, the ones you buy from the pharmacy. I love them.

NARCISO RODRIGUEZ SPRING 2010

Narciso Rodriguez has had some bumpy collections and unfortunately for Spring 2010 it looked, well, lumpy.
A mostly black collection with touches of purple, red, mint and grey was hampered with loosely shaped jackets and dresses that may not be very flattering on the average woman unless belted, but I don’t know that that’s what Narciso had in mind. He was trying to create a free and easy collection with spare cuts but it appeared poorly executed. Some jackets were lumpy and unflattering, even on bambi-legged models. Exposed zipper-front tops and dresses looked dated, bondage-like inserts on dresses reminiscent of Alexander McQueen didn’t help the situation either.

But there were some amazing pieces, tops and dresses with sheer inserts, some floaty show-stoppers and a superbly cut cap-sleeved jacket on look 24 was confident and assured. It’s a shame the whole collection wasn’t like that one little stroke of genius.