Bankable Glamour From Kors

By CATHY HORYN
Published: September 10, 2008

Michael Kors got down to business on Wednesday, sending out a smart spring collection that probably saved a few retail chiefs from watching their profits further erode. And Narciso Rodriguez, in a cooler mood, lightened up his minimalist line with stripes and offbeat prints.

RODARTE A pleated skirt with a chiffon top and laser-cut leggings.
Wherever Mr. Kors plants his oar — Portofino, Malibu — the results are inevitably and hopelessly glamorous. And with the economy entering what appears to be a long stew, Mr. Kors’s sporty American glamour seems highly bankable. And this time he has found just the right contemporary looks. The Beach Boys were on the sound system in the Bryant Park tents, but that’s about as nostalgic as the show got.

Just as in Mr. Rodgriguez’s show on Tuesday night, Mr. Kors offered a fresh take on stripes, opening with a belted tunic in royal blue and black striped cashmere over black stretch-wool shorts. Despite the surf theme, and some adorable two-piece swimsuits, the stripes were more graphic than nautical, and were complemented by bold polka-dots and gingham checks. So the style can be worn anywhere.

In every way the collection seemed thought out, full of trends like clam-digger pants and metallic fabrics as well as more-sophisticated pieces. The best of these were a pair of dresses — one in red gingham silk and the other in a lightweight navy wool pinstripe — that were cut so that the hem rose on one leg. A number of designers have shown variations on the hiked skirt, including Marc Jacobs and Mr. Rodriguez. There was also a style at Kors with a spilling top in white silk. It’s a great look.

Overlapping stripes of electrical tape gave Mr. Rodriguez the pattern for graphic black-and-white prints. They were rendered as a slim cotton skirt shown with a sharply notched black canvas jacket, and skinny print trousers worn with a clean, tailored jacket. Mr. Rodriguez evoked the line and dot theme in other sexy ways — with black stripes caging a slim dress of burnt coral silk or as a bandeau top under a lean black linen jacket.

The collection was as fresh-looking as it was varied. Jackets were generally cropped and close to the body, usually with a curving line. But the newness was really in the dresses, in the waves of stripes over a silk dress with black chiffon shoulders and a floaty, sheer back.

Let’s imagine that Kate and Laura Mulleavy’s Rodarte line was designed by Alix Grès, the Paris couturier who set the postwar romantics straight with her modernist pleated dresses. What would Alix do? It’s an interesting exercise to compare the working methods of two contemporary designers, widely hailed for their “vision,” with a woman of unquestioned genius. What made Madame Grès exceptional?



For one thing, she held a set of beliefs about women. She designed for them, not for editors or abstract notions. Though she was a tyrant in her fashion, she always had women in her sights. This is not the case with the Mulleavy sisters, at least this season. Their latest collection consists of pleated skirts and body-conscious mesh tops and slick pants, all in monochromatic Pan-Cake hues with laser-cut leggings and nasty gold platforms. The mood is tough — Valkyries in chiffon — and the style clipped and pasted from other designers, mainly Azzedine Alaïa.

But that’s not the real problem. It’s that the Mulleavys didn’t seem to have a woman in mind when they put together these clothes, as they plainly did when they first showed their lovely, broken-down knits. It was as if their interest lay solely in achieving an effect with an object.

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