Holy Hemlines, Batman, it's Fashion Week Month again!

Sheesh.  I haven't finished looking at the Fall 2010 collections yet (not to mention Pre-Fall, Cruise and Resort), and New York's Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week starts tomorrow.  Given that I'm not getting ready to go to Italy this season (alas! alack!) I'll try to pay attention, but dayum, there's a whole lot of fashion going on. 

Anyone watching The Rachel Zoe project this season?  Dayum, Rodger (Mr. Zoe) is being a whiney bitch.  And really, all that drama over that Marchesa dress:  OF COURSE the designer is going to save it for the odds-on favorite for the Best Actress award (Sandra Bullock), instead of lending it to a mere presenter (has Demi Moore even been in anything lately?).  Get over it, already.

Forget the Ugly

Not to long ago I was bemoaning the look of the Twenty-Zeros, which I summed up in a single word: ugly. And then WHAT does the American Fashion Industry do? It beats me over the head with the pretty stick during New York Fashion Week. My only complaint now (and you knew there had to be a complaint, didn't you?) is that I've downloaded a whole mess of pretty and I don't really know how to divide it up to write about it, although a post titled "Pretty in Pink" is inevitable. I guess I could continue on in that vein: Pretty in Prints, Pretty in Blue, what have you. And I probably will, now that I think of it, because I thought of it and I'm lazy. Anyhoo, here's a sample of the water in the pretty pond:

Barbara Tfank Spring 2010 - Pretty in Pink

Oscar de la Renta Spring 2010 - Pretty in Blue

Reem Acra Spring 2010 - Pretty in Prints

Lela Rose - Pretty in the White House

Isaac Mizrahi - Pretty on the Red Carpet

Look at that -- waistlines in the right places (more or less), decent hemlines, pretty pretty colors, easy to wear shapes, sleeves. Sleeves! Be still my heart!

The various Vogue commentaries say that the explosion of pretty is a result of the economy: designers want to make things that will sell, i.e., clothing that will appeal to adult women with discretionary income and jobs. Well, these clothes make me want to shop, which I haven't really wanted to do in about a year. So good on the designers, they've reeled in at least one fish.

Green Design at N.Y. Fashion Week

All Alabama Chanin Spring 2010

And now for something completely different ... I'm just going to quote the Style.com review of Alabama Chanin's line:

Natalie "Alabama" Chanin does good work(s). She compiles oral histories of Southern textile workers, salvages old quilts, and is striving to make her business zero-waste. All of the stitchers who create Chanin's (quite literally) homespun garments work from their own houses and live within an hour-and-a-half radius of her family and business base of Florence, Alabama. And they use organic materials grown and produced in the good ole U.S. of A.—a fact proudly announced on the Alabama Chanin label. Is it any wonder she's a Fashion Fund finalist?

But y'know what attracted my attention first? The shoes. (Alas! No detail shots yet!) Shoes a woman could walk in, or, if necessary, run away in. Good on you, lady.

It's Fashion Week Month again!

Jason Wu, Fall 2009

Yessiree, the fashion shows are coming fast and furious, in spite of the sad state of the economy. There are lots of new names (or, new to me) in New York, like Altuzarra, Bibhu Mohapatra, and Koi Suwannagate although it appears from the photos that many designers are electing to show clothes at showrooms, rather than on the runway, which is more expensive, and the collections are smaller. Good luck, all y'all.

L'Wren Scott, Fall 2009

I can't keep up with all the shows, but I did check in to see what Jason Wu, now famous for designing Michelle Obama's inaugural gown, was up to. He produced lots of looks for a chic first lady. I also scanned enough collections to notice a trend toward longer skirts (check out L'Wren Scott's collection; yummy!). Thank heaven, it's time the world stopped being young Hollywood's gynecologist.

Kinder Aggugini, Fall 2009

I looked at one of the London collections because the name caught my eye: Kinder Aggugini. He did a multi-season collection, showing floral chiffon dresses with boots and coats. Very nice.

Do check out Style.com's full screen option for viewing the collections, the clothes are shown in great detail.

New York Fashion Week = sensory overload

Isaac Mizrahi, Spring 2009

It's only a few days into New York Fashion Week, the first event in Worldwide Fashion Month, and already I'm overwhelmed. It seems like the number of runway shows increases exponentially with every season, making it impossible for any normal person, i.e., one with a non-fashion job, a house to clean and pets to feed, even to flip through all the designer slideshows on Style.com or nymag.com. I can't even keep up with the Fug Girls' reports at New York Fugging City, but that might be because I have to stop to google three-quarters of the "celebrities" they write about. Really, why are the stars of Gossip Girl everywhere, and why should I care?

The slideshows at New York Magazine are fun because they let you label every look "fabulous" or "hideous," but that scale would be a lot more useful if they added a third category, "meh." Because when there are thousands of looks going down the runway, you can bet there's going to be a lot of "meh."

Project Runway fans have already realized that, once again, the finalists (or three finalists and one decoy) will have their well-publicized shows weeks before the episode in which they're chosen is broadcast. Way to go, Bravo!