vogue SPRING 2019 READY-TO-WEAR
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At a Resort preview today, he pinned his mood board with photographs by “the Andy Warhol of Marrakech,” Hassan Hajjaj, of Moroccan women in polka-dot abayas and camouflage hijabs. “I’ve always been attracted to his work and its conversation about globalization and borders,” Gurung said. Those pictures suggested he might head in a military direction à la the Asgarda collection he did for Fall 2013. Quite the contrary, this was an uncomplicatedly pretty offering. He de-emphasized tailoring (save for a sharp-yet-curvy, cherry-red pantsuit) in favor of dresses and separates that looked like dresses, and a cheery palette of petal pink, sky blue, and a zesty olive green. If, at times, you wish Gurung would take more risks, there’s no denying the man knows his way around a frock. The archetypal Gurung dress is bias cut, with fluttery sleeves, and a suggestive cutout edged with silk buttons. This season it came in a floral jacquard in that petal pink, and it was lovely.
Prabal Gurung had a huge success with the slogan T-shirts he sent out at the finale of his Fall show. They didn’t make it into the lookbook for Resort, but they were hanging on the rack amidst the fancier fare he’s known for. “Love Is Love” one read; another said “Femininity With a Bite.” Gurung has long made his politics known, through his collections and his charity initiative, Shikshya Foundation Nepal, which brings education to the underprivileged children of the country where he was raised.
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There’s a dress from Prabal Gurung’s Resort collection that’s been making the holiday-party rounds. It’s a rosy shade of pink silk jacquard with a cut-out at the side, which is lined with functional rouleau buttons. You can wear the buttons undone for flashes of skin or closed for a more discreet effect, but most women go with open. It’s worth bringing up here, because those buttons are a recurring motif in Gurung’s new Pre-Fall collection—at the midriff of a blue and silver velvet fil coupe version of the pink best-seller, and tracing the thigh-high slit of a twist-front, black-and-white gown. He knows a hit when he sees one.
But he also wouldn’t mind shaking off the lingering red carpet association. His repertoire, he explained, extends well beyond event dresses. Gurung made that point a couple of different ways. In one case, he layered a slouchy turtleneck over a bias-cut plaid slip dress trimmed in black lace. Ditch the sweater and you actually do have a cocktails-worthy frock. The other day looks shown were a pair of suits, one in black with gently puffed shoulders and tails and the other in a heathery shade of gray with deep slits to the elbows. Those delicate touches distinguish Gurung’s suits from the many others that designers have lately trotted out now that tailoring is trending. These days, Gurung has a confident sense of what his signatures are—and what he’s good at.
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fashion is very important to everyone
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Luisa Beccaria really lives the lifestyle her romantic clothes are made for. A case in point is the wonderful wedding party she just threw for daughter Lucilla at their family estate, Feudo del Castelluccio, in Sicily, a whimsical place if ever there was one. Lucilla looked like a vision, wearing a dress designed years ago by her mother, a lace concoction fit for a fairy-tale princess. Which she actually is, her father being the Sicilian aristocrat Prince Lucio Bonaccorsi di Reburdone. “I wanted that very same dress since I was a child,” said a smiling Lucilla. “When I first saw it, I said to Mama: One day, that will be my wedding dress!” For Resort, Luisa and Lucilla relied on their true-and-tested recipe: an ode to ethereal femininity, in clouds of filmy fabrics scattered with embroidered wildflowers galore. For the mother-daughter designer duo, in every girl there’s a princess ready to be awakened. They shrouded her in fragile organzas, eyelet linens, laces, chiffons, and georgettes in exquisite watercolor hues. Celadon, almond green, powder pink, lavender, coral, primrose yellow, and sky blue were so delicate they were barely there. Ruching and volants swirled around long hems, elongated sleeves, and décolletages, while crisp cotton poplin had a less otherworldly feel on long striped shirtdresses and sundresses printed with floral motifs. Even if they somehow suggested a more practical approach, it was just a passing, deceitful thought; Beccaria’s girls are dreamy at heart and as bohemian and enchanting as they come.
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When someone writes the history of this era, they ought to take a look at Rachel Comey’s recent outings. By her own description, the first collection she designed after the 2016 election was “angry.” The one after that—Spring ’18—found Comey swallowing that anger, setting her jaw, and getting down to work, making utilitarian-minded garments that reflected a “just get on with it” attitude. This season: escape. At an appointment today, she explained that she was “ready for some beauty and some lightness” at long last, and figured her devoted fans were feeling the same way. Thus her new clothes conjure a welcome joie de vivre, looking, by and large, like the kinds of things you’d pack for a trip to the Aegean. Or perhaps, more accurately, Comey’s duds are what a woman recently returned from the Greek islands would wear to keep her vacation memories close as she pounds the city streets. With its prints riffing on Doric columns, sailor stripes, fishing-net mesh, and goddess pleats, the collection was fairly faithful to its getaway theme, one underscored by airy silhouettes and tender ruffles and draping. But Comey is smart enough to steer well clear of pastiche—she applied her frothy elements judiciously and used her signature off proportions and asymmetries to keep her looks fresh and urbane. All in all, this was a collection that went down very easy, as intended. It was meant to provide the tapped-in Comey woman with a little fashion relief.
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What do you wear to� day?
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