Cocktail dresses, opera coats and enveloping golden shirt dresses mean Fall for a certain kind of woman. That woman is Isaac Mizrahi's woman. Quintessentially urban in its expectations of the autumnal wardrobe, Isaac Mizrahi's Fall 2008 collection speaks to the needs of a city liver. As Isaac reminded us in our video interview at his Fall 2008 show, this collection "its a classic thing." And indeed his "everyday life, everyone's everyday life, the way I observe things" hint at a kind of classicism unique to New York.


"The millions of inspirations that go in the top" as Isaac quoted to us, come out evoking a world of sophisticated parties, soul searching late nights, and a twinge of hard knowledge that comes from staying out late in the city that never sleeps. And even while day looks from the collection have cheery moments of whimsy with fall motifs of leaves and pears, the reminiscing about crisp mornings to us has more to do with awaking to them after long cold nights. And while one can easily say that Isaac's girl is enjoying Wagner at night and Central Park in the morning, we think she is a bit more knowing about her pleasures. Our exclusive original photo editorial with Isaac's Fall 2008 looks suggest at evenings of nuance, inspiration, longing, and maybe even pain. Because everyday life doesn't just happen during the day.

Oscar De La Renta loves a strong woman. Each season he reiterates his appreciation for women that know what they want and know how to get it. His sincere devotion to a certain ideal of womanhood gives him an almost uncanny ability to hit the high points of an emerging cultural moment with his garments. Thus his Fall 2008 collection contains nearly every major trend for the fall season including opulent detailing, lean tailoring, layered textures, and color-of-the moment plum. And while the rest of the world is focused on another cultural moment we find ourselves completely mesmerized by Oscar's world. Oscar's laughing, confident, penetrating and, dare we say it, strong woman exemplifies our hope for a world in which substance matches style. And while we here at Coutorture feel quite privileged to be tackling these challenges a little early with the Fall 2008 garments featured in our editorial we expect the rest of fashion will have caught up by September. But by then Oscar De La Renta will have prepared yet another vision of womanhood for us. Proving that to be be truly strong one must always be a little bit ahead of the pack.

Links:
Oscar de la Renta Fall 08 Backstage
Oscar de la Renta Fall 08 Photo Gallery
Oscar de la Renta Fall 08 Video


It can be so hard keep track of content when its updated everyday. But we have impressive designer video interviews and original editorial spreads. May we cordially suggest perusing our selection? Enjoy New York Fashion Week Designer Video Interviews from Oscar De La Renta, Donna Karan for DKNY,Michael Kors, Isaac Mizrahi, Nicole Miller, Erin Fetherston, Ashleigh Verrier , Adam Lippes, James Coviello, John Varvatos , Monique Lhuillier, Joanna Mastroianni, Tory Burch, Neeam Khan

Not caring very much about what other people think has been the formula for being cool since cool became a "thing". Designers have been a prime example of this for as long as fashion has existed. Anyone who has ever become a sensation was never really like everyone else. You can't lead the crowd if you are "of" the crowd. And that's all there is to it.

We were thinking about this when we read that Scott Sternberg, who runs Band of Outsiders and Boyy, has scraped his Spring 09 presentation/show in favor of a video saying, “I don’t make runway clothes. These are clothes you wear on the street, so I’m just super-uncomfortable with it. It puts it in totally the wrong context — I want to do something closer to where the clothes are, and let people actually touch and feel them as opposed to seeing them on a 14-year-old anorexic model.” Aside from the fact that this might have something to do with the recession, he's totally and completely right and everyone knows it. The only reason we go to these shows, which are more or less completely irrelevant because there is no 'spectacle'--just blazers as usual, is because it gives everyone a break from the insane stuff during fashion week. It's really, ahem, low-key, and really, ahem, unpretentious and as much as we realize it's kind of unnecessary, we've always appreciated the break in insanity. So, Sternberg, in addition to this, has shot his look book with a celebrity friend on polaroid. This, we think, takes the cake. It is very cool of both of them to be behaving this way because it takes the power of The Industry and of The Tabloids and puts it right back in their own hands. Like, "Oh, you're going to try to have me schedule myself in the same time slot as DKNY? Oh, you're going to try to make me some common Starbucks slurping celebrity?--"No, that is not how we're going to do this.". These are the instances that remind you just why you know this person's name in the first place.

A very interesting article landed on our desk this morning (teehee). Portfolio's Lisa Marsh wrote an article on the discord between the menswear shows and buying season. She used this week's 'abbreviated schedule' of men's shows that took place in accordance with the trade shows happening in New York right now, Capsule, Collective, and Project, as a talking point for whether a men's fashion week would ever pick up in New York. Basically, about a decade ago, there was such a thing and it came after Milan and Paris in July. American designers, felt their collections weren't given enough attention because of this (no one wants to be the third in line and right before women's kicks off) so they started moving their showings to Milan instead. And the rest is recent history. New York's men's fashion week kind of faded away and now, we're left with the remnants. Yesterday we were meant to attend the Obakki show but had a really intense (but fun) shoot that ran late. Normally a show and a shoot wouldn't have even been scheduled on the same day to avoid that exact problem but we figured we would already have covered Capsule and wouldn't need to see some random runway presentation--if worse came to worse. What we found out today, in the article, was that the Obakki show was part of a handful of shows happening this week that are trying to revive a menswear week in New York. It was, to our surprise, kind of an organized 'let's revive men's fashion week' thing. Well, brand reps, you could have fooled us! We certainly appreciate the invitation but wish we'd know that the show had a context. In the end it's really not anyone's fault. The point is that menswear is experiencing some tricky booking conflicts and will (we hope) sort itself out in the coming years. Everyone says menswear is back in New York (meaning that men are dressing better than ever and the collections from contemporary to high price points are more interesting) and we just hope that means a proper fashion week is in the works.

Lee Matthews' work can look unfocused at first blush. But dig deeper and you learn that her bohemian sensibility blossoms from her impressive production process. Her collections are created from bits and pieces that are collected and sourced such as antique buttons, fabric swatches, Victorian postcards, artworks from around the world.

All of her work is hand painted, dyed or finished with local Australian labor. Her focus on unique dyes, washes, treatments along with handemade detailing make her a designer tailored made for a world newly aware of the need for conscious fashion consumption.

Her SS2008/09 collection was a delicious mix of comfort oriented clothing with a few harder metallics and silhouettes for added interest. Her florals in particular grabbed us with their vintage appeal.