By VANESSA FRIEDMAN, New York Times
Sometimes the trickle-down theory works in ways you least expect. President Obama’s foreign policy catchphrase, “Don’t do stupid stuff,” for example, may have pundits in a dither over whether it is a cop-out or realpolitik deserving of praise, but for some designers in New York, it is clearly a principle that appears to make a whole lot of sense.
Left to right, Victoria Beckham showed flowers and safari suiting with mid-calf skirts and high-waist belts. From Altuzarra, a mix of stripes and a floaty handkerchief gown. Credit Nowfashion; Elizabeth Lippman for The New York Times; Jennifer Altman for The New York Times
You can understand why: On the constantly rotating hamster wheel that is the fashion cycle, going out on a limb with a collection if you have not fully worked it through is a scary proposition. It exposes your soft underside. Better to play it prudent.
This is not necessarily bad (at least when it comes to style), though in clothing terms it can be boring: It generally translates as iterations on a familiar theme, and means there are no glaring missteps in a collection, no weird conceptual moments involving, say, women-as-shrubbery, or women-as-alien-space-creatures. But it also means there are few surprises.
So at Alexander Wang, the designer nudged his active-wear aesthetic from hip to haute, jogging it uptown from the Bowery to, say, Chelsea, on the wings of his inspiration — i.e., his favorite sneakers.
Though the show opened with a number of black-and-white trouser looks that seemed markedly reminiscent of his work at Balenciaga, it segued into the world of wardrobe staples seen through a sporty lens: tuxedo trousers with athletic mesh strips up the sides, bright Nike origami minidresses, tailored gray shorts and cropped embroidered baseball jackets.
Dresses were given a tribal (or team) feel through tightly tacked down micro-pleating that swirled around the torso and kicked out into a tennis skirt. And there were a few really lovely floor-length silk satin T-shirt dresses, the sides inlaid with athletic mesh, and an abstract swirl (swoosh?) of a contrast color that didn’t resemble anything that had gone down Mr. Wang’s runway before.
Meanwhile, at Victoria Beckham, Ms. Beckham seems to have relaxed into her own slightly expanded signature. Clean lines and precise tailoring were leavened by new (for her) materials, most notably a sandy jute that appeared in graceful mid-calf summer coats with an integral high-waist belt, patch-pocket safari suiting and pieced T-shirt minidresses, interspersed with strips of leather.
There were stretch-knit fluted sundresses and mid-calf skirts brightened by broad black-and-white stripes at the hem paired with chunky braided cotton sweaters — all firmly in step (Ms. Beckham also introduced her first shoe line) with the movement toward a feminized minimalism pioneered by Phoebe Philo at Céline. But the biggest news of the show was … flowers!
