Tuesday, December 17, 2013

Chic Police

              In Elle magazine's recent article about Oscar de la Renta and his 50th anniversary of his company, he says he doesn't like the words ''pretty'' and ''chic'', but prefers style. Which I certainly agree with. Chic and pretty aren't words that really bring to mind any kind of substance. Better words would probably be ''beautiful'', or ''gorgeous'' (or their inevitable alternatives, at times, ''horrendous'' ''horrific'' and any other word that could connotates natural disaster, but applied to clothing) as descriptors. But the title for my review of his pre fall collection went together so well, with the military style jackets and the fact that ''Fashion Police'' has already been used. Onward!
         Look 1's deep purple jacket and skirt was too monochromatic for me. Purple is an excellent color, but this was too much. The jacket and skirt would look okay separately, but the color still was too dark for me. 2, on the other hand...wow. I love it! The pitch black layered jacket and semi-sheer skirt was so beautiful. One of those outfits that's just enough casual and just enough out there to be perfect. 3 was a filler look. The only way to describe it was long black dress. Done. 4 was too artificial. The jacket, again, too purple/bluish, and the pattern was a lame effort to make a long coat interesting. And no buttons? Ick. Look 5 was so sloppy! The jacket was practically a long thin blanket with pockets, and pants were wide, but not bell bottoms. Just say no to wide pants that are not bell bottoms! The green in the jacket, and blue in the pants, were just the wrong colors. Very Macy's sale rack. Look 6 was another flat jacket with boring print, and the skirt with leaves and one bird looked like a photo, almost. Also, Pier 1 Imports ''art.''  I'm more into patterns. 7 was filler. The structure of 8's sweater was fabulous. It flared out perfectly, and the braided twists were excellently placed. 9's jacket was a copy of classic Chanel, and skirt, again, filler.
            Look 14 was better than most of the looks, but it still wasn't all that exciting or ''new.'' The jacket looked like a sweatshirt. And the looks before were a slouchy jacket and way too much plaid for comfort. One of my favorites was 15, a belted black top with polka dot holes, also in the skirt. The top in 16 was too casual and hippie. The white and black plaid square in the middle of 17's jacket was just strange. I found a favorite in look 18's dress. The top is just black, but then the skirt starts with white lines and dots descending down, and then we have a white skirt with black speckles. The marks on the skirt reminded me of diamonds. Look 19's print was basically a Michael Kors for T.J. Maxx swimsuit print turned into a skirt suit. Blech. 20, on the other hand, brought back the beautiful skirt of 18, and the paisley/sheer jacket was a perfect mix of very different patterns. But did the Michael Kors print really have to sneak in, in the under shirt?
          21 had to be my favorite. A long, elegant dress with the most minimal print, outlined by the print in 18 that I loved so much. The matching dress had one of my favorite trends, a modest dress but just with the very top in brown sheer. 22 waited to long to poof out. It looked awkward. Look 23 wasn't very elegant or beautiful, but it had a slight cute aspect to it. Not a very mature look. I am going to assume look 24 was supposed to appear very extravagant and lush, but the way the dress draped and the diamond (?) bow was sloppy (why can't sloppy just stay with sweatshirts?). Look 25 was an all black gothic outfit. It should've been in the ''Chaos To Couture'' exhibit at the Met (which I went to-it was amazing!) Look 26 was plain ugly, and I might add that even the model didn't look all that impressed.
          Look 27 reminded me of fall themed hotel wallpaper. With 28 came yet MORE wallpaper. But this time I think it was swanky hotel wallpaper. If that could possibly make it any better. 30 was certainly better than the wall paper looks,  and had more structure, but the glittery lace on top of the bright, dark blue was too loud. And 31! It was the fringed curtain that would go WITH the hotel wallpaper. AHHH! Look 32 looked very plastic, and straight out of ''Seventeen's Prom Dress Special- $95 Dollars and Less!''Up until 36 the looks were also very prom, but 36 was one of my favorites. The thick folds on the chest and the flat draping skirt was gorgeous. Rich red wine colored top with a hot pink skirt. A perfect color pairing. 37 was too much like a quilt. The purple body and red flowers just didn't go together, and the skirt was way too wide.
          The last few looks were the best. Look 38's yellow gown that blends into lavender at the bottom was so lush. Lavendar lemonade (Taylor Swift's favorite drink- duh!). The white flowers with gold stems worked well to, and didn't upstage the colors. 39 was, yes, ANOTHER hotel curtain (sorry). Luckily the last look, 40,  was a good finish. A very light lavender gown with a sculpturally folded skirt.
       This collection had some really horrible moments, but standouts like 36 and 21 made it worth it. But designers seriously need to try harder now, or just make less collections.

No comments:

Post a Comment