by Toni S. Johnson
Mercedes Benz Fashion week was held February 13-20, for the last time in Bryant Park.
After being held in the Park for 17 years, next year fashion week will move to Lincoln Center. According to the Associated Press, designers will now have about 25 percent more space to present their collections in the new location and it will give designers about 87,000 square feet of space. That compares with the 70,000 square feet at Bryant Park.
Let us just hope that designers do not pull out like they did this year, because that is just what will be left: space. This season however, designers like Marc Jacobs (even after cutting his invite list in half), Dennis Basso, Chocheng and Phillip Lim (where new couple Kanye West and Amber Rose were seen canoodling), did a pretty good job of making up for designers that did not show.
Designer Phillip Lim, did an amazing job of channeling the mod era, London fog and all. Models bopped down the runway to Lissy Trullie and her band, while donning mod haircuts, bell bottoms, trench coats and platforms. Don’t get in your time machine yet, the pieces all had a kick of 2009 with cut outs on the jackets, double collars and well tailored pants.
Pants weren’t the only thing that were done nicely. Skirts were seen throughout the shows, following the same trend: short, short and shorter. For fall,, Chocheng added a nice flair to the cut with a with a nice pair of opaque brown tights and platform shoes, giving the look a flirty attitude. The tutu or ballerina skirt was in full effect but matched with a blazer combination and the right shoes, you could pull it off easily. Living in New York will give you an added plus, because here, well, they get away with anything.
Color made its way into several shows, not just on tights, but literally as well. With models like Han Jin, Gracie Carvalho and Arlenis Sosa, who represent women of color, the runways were on fire even without the burnt sienna that showed up into a lot of the designer’s collections. Sosa, representing the Dominican Republic, made her way to the opening spot at Bottega Veneta and Oscar De La Renta last year, making her a favorite this season. She rocked fashion week with those two designers, Derek Lam, Michael Kors and more.
This year’s shows modeled the other fashion weeks in Paris and Milan, in the fact that designers were given the chance to really bring the creativity to the runway. With the economy in a recent downturn, the more eye catching-the better. Designers pulled out secret weapons this season in an effort to draw consumers to their brands. They’d be smart to take advice from the master Armani, who has housed all of his brands from the expensive to the moderately priced all in one location. Snagging each consumer, one pocket at a time. Fashion week did just the same.
Overall, the fashion industry is in a lull at this time, but Mercedes Benz Fashion Week brought together the elite of New York and the socialite, the aspiring and the aficionado, all under one tent, all in the name of one thing: fashion.
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