Karen Walker's Fall 2009 collection, which was shown during New York Fashion Week, was titled "Cracked". On the runway the theme manifested in chic break-away jackets and quirky prints depicting shattered china plates and broken strands of pearls. Walker also experimented with princess sleeves this season, showing the new silhouette on everything from trench coats to jersey dresses. Check out the full range of looks in the gallery below.
Karen Walker showed one of her cool, signature collections today--there were sunglasses in exaggerated shapes, easy pleated high-water trousers, silk dresses with floral prints and feminine ruching on the sleeves. It's a formula that keeps the guest list the same every season--making her shows feel more like a fun Fashion Week break than anything else.
A friend of ours went to visit one of the designers of Mexican brand, TEAMO, and sent us this picture of one of their Spring 09 blouses. Buttoned-up and cropped to perfection, it got us thinking about how many blouses were styled this way on the Spring 09 runways. Crop tops we're written about, but the buttoned-up look is just now permeating in our minds. We remember seeing a similar look, right off the bat, at the Karen Walker show. It was similarly cropped but, in this case, floral. There were also fabulous examples of buttoned-up tops at Behnaz Sarafpour--these came with strong shoulders too. Tommy Hilfiger and Ralph Lauren both did it in creams with full fledged androgynous styling to boot. Even Marc Jacobs, as feminine as was his Spring 09 collection, kept things tidy with this look. 'Buttoned up', admittedly, is something we'll see every season but there seemed to be a plethora of examples this Spring. Just like the choice to tuck-in, buttoning up is a subtle yet marked trend in its own right.
To see that pink TEAMO blouse in action, click here.
A picture is worth a thousands words seems may be functionally illiterate's favorite aphorism but we too prefer showing over telling. Last week while much of the fashion world tuned in to London we spent a great deal of time pouring of Air New Zealand Fashion Week photography. The collections that were officially showing were for Winter 2009. Pesky Southern Hemisphere buy cycles aside, Air New Zealand Fashion Week is in its 8th year.
New Zealand's apparel business is relatively small, worth about $227 USD a year (compare that to Ralph Lauren's 4th quarter 1.24 billion in net revenue), but it certainly did its best to pull off a very full fashion week. Only exporting roughly 9% of its apparel business to the United States, we like to think that this homegrown fashion stays local even if it inspires globally.
We begin by suggesting Coutorture favorite Karen Walker. Though while Karen Walker may be a big name to us in the states, it is Kirrily Johnston that can really claim the hometown fame. If you go in for the moody fashion we suggest the Edgar Allen Po trifecta of dark and brooding scenesters Huffer, sleek and bleak Nyne, Kurt Cobain's not dead Stolen Girlfriends Club. The much hyped local favorites Jaeha did do much for us though we did enjoy the the comfortable hip Salasai. Another unexpected charmer was New Zealand's answer to Anna Sui Trelise Cooper
But if you really want wild and wooly New Zealand authenticity we suggest Nom D, a line so appreciatively hip and woolen they make us wish we were a Kiwi. Even if their dark humour about their wool industry as demonstrated in Black Sheep still confuses us.
A friend of ours went to visit one of the designers of Mexican brand, 
A picture is worth a thousands words seems may be functionally illiterate's favorite aphorism but we too prefer showing over telling. Last week while much of the fashion world tuned in to London we spent a great deal of time pouring of 
Fornarina
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