Exposure Fashion Show Photos
1 comment June 9th, 2006
Posts filed under 'Runway Reviews'
Omiru’s Five Favorites from the ExPosure Fashion Show
Sun & Surf
Naughty Nautical
Red Carpet
Conceptual
Japanese Schoolgirl
7 comments May 22nd, 2006
Gen Art San Francisco | Erica Tanov
Photo Credit: Drew Altizer
Key Takeaways: This season was about unusual pairings of color, patterns and texture: We spotted jersey on satin, burnt orange combined with plum, and prints mixed in with plaids.
Color Palette: Orange and blue, chocolate brown and lime green, plum, burgundy, orange, champagne.
Silhouettes: Wide-legged pants, boxy jackets, slimming jersey wrap dresses and long, flowy skirts.
Accessories Report: Scarves–tied around the head, around the neck, around the waist–anywhere you can dream up.
What’s Wearable: Virtually everything, particularly the beautiful champagne evening gowns included in the collection, as well as slimming wrap dresses and cropped jackets.
What’s Not Wearable: A fringed poncho channeling the year 2004.
May 17th, 2006
Gen Art San Francisco | DEMA
Key Takeaways: Volume is key: puffed sleeves, bubble skirts, and wide legged pants. Oversized collars, deep v-necks, 3/4 sleeves, and double breasted coats make us feel like we’re watching NY Fashion Week.
Color Palette: Neutral shades, with splashes of green, purple, maroon, and mustard.
Silhouettes: 3/4
length tops, high waisted styles, deep-v necklines, long sleeved
styles, hemlines at the knee, bubble skirts, and a lot of
layering.
Accessories Report: Boots, colorful scarves, sweater caps, and dare we say a poncho!
What’s Wearable: Most everything. Love the slouchy cardigans!
What’s Not Wearable: We’re not fans of the dark stockings–they make the looks older than they have to be.
May 16th, 2006
Gen Art San Francisco | Gytha Mander
Photo Credit: Drew Altizer
Key Takeaways: Gytha Mander (meaning “A Gift From Meâ€) brings us a collection that fuses Rasputin-like tendencies with a Dsquared mindset. Even so, his pitch-perfect men’s apparel exude a dark elegance that echoes equestrian regality with warm tailor-made suits. His style seems to find that form-fitting nuance that seems to get lost in Western menswear.
Color Palette: A mix of ruby reds, oranges, blacks, whites, teals, camos, blues, browns, purples, and a whole landslide of shades provide a warm hodgepodge of colors that compliment this collection. All of them blend smoothly without taking away from the designer’s vision – especially the iridescent blue lined blazers.
Silhouettes: Fitting each model to a tee, the mildly sharp, broad-shouldered blazers are juxtaposed with the autumnal skinny-fit trousers.
Accessories Report: Ties are whimsically paisley printed and fancy with bold stripes, while scarves make an occasional appearance.
What’s Wearable: Nearly all of the outerwear is something all fashion-minded men would want to get their hands on – even the professorial herringbone jacket with leather elbow patches. He switches things up with an alternative to the traditional button down shirt via the banker shirt. The use of unique color perspectives and prints excel with the linings and stitching in the topcoats and blazers, while the trousers (even the denim) fit handsomely. The overall contrasting textures make a lot of the pieces appealing and wearable.
What’s Not Wearable: There was a recurring bib present on many of the tops. They seemed more infantile than fashionable – but they are useful for those butter-dripping lobster dinners. The trousers may have been endearing overall, but there was one particular pair that drew unnecessary attention to the crotch area. The pants looked like Brokeback Bon Jovi. Gytha Mander also utilized gun holsters in the collection (à la John Bartlett Fall Collection ’06.) They make look cool on the runway, but unless you’re a prominent law enforcer, let’s leave this one on the racks.
May 16th, 2006
Gen Art San Francisco | Galya Rosenfeld
Key Takeaways: Nothing about this collection was dull. Loads of shine and asymmetrical patterns made this the perfect ending to the GenArt fashion show.
Color Palette: Black and white were prevalent, but not boring. Purple, yellow, red and blue were interesting diversions from the black and white.
Silhouettes: The whole enchilada: miniature booty shorts, loose summer shorts, deep v-neck stretch tops, belly-baring crop tops, sleeveless tops with frills at the ends, boatneck dresses with full skirts, and dresses with asymmetrical bottoms.
Accessories Report: Bright-colored and studded handbags. Sandals and pointy pumps adorned the models’ feet.
What’s Wearable: About 3 or 4 pieces were definitely street-worthy: a white boatneck dress with full bottom, a similar white boatneck minidress, a black studded loose dress, a v-neck black miniskirt.
What’s Not Wearable: Some of the color combinations might save you a spot on a "Fashion Don’t" list.
May 15th, 2006
Project Runway Season 2: The Calm Before the Storm
All photos courtesy of BravoTV.com
Fans of the fashionista reality show can rest a little bit easier now that the final three have been announced: Daniel V., Santino and Chloe. This past Wednesday, the final four designers (the three, plus Kara) had to design an evening gown suitable for Iman, the majestic supermodel/diva/wife-of-David Bowie. With such a daunting challenge before the honorable opportunity to show at fashion week, you’d think the designers would pull out all the stops – but think again.
I have to agree with the judges when they said they were “underwhelmed.†The pieces they showed were flat out boring. Take a look:
Chloe’s Dress: Yawn…
Santino’s Dress: Didn’t they already do the figure skating costume challenge?
Kara’s Dress: Double yawn. I understand why she was eliminated.
Daniel V’s Dress: I guess it’s a "winner."
Out of all of them, Santino (although it was a bit horrendous) had the most interesting gown. Everyone else had pretty designs, but as Santino said, they were “safe.†They were as exciting as watching curling on the Olympics. It’s as though the designers thought too inside of the box, and they put all their focus on the schematics of tailoring rather than vehicular creativity.
Nonetheless, there HAD to be a winner. Daniel V. took the golden pin cushion on this challenge. After seeing the Project Runway collections at fashion week, I am sure a lot of people are going to be a little bit disappointed. We shouldn’t compare them to those of last season, but after seeing ingenious collections by Jay McCarroll and Kara Saun, it’s kind of hard not to.
The outcome will certainly be interesting. Daniel, Santino and Chloe’s collections shown last week all managed to stay in the same vein. But if I had to choose a winner, I am going to go with Daniel…or Chloe…or maybe Santino. I have no idea. Stay tuned for the winner!
7 comments February 17th, 2006
Fashion Week Notebook | Project Runway
Photo Credit: NY Metro
Key Takeaways: The final four designers of the popular reality show for fashion groupies each showcased a collection – but only three of them will be accounted for on the season’s finale. The standouts for each designer are as follows: Santino Rice: unexpected clean looks from the over-the-top designer; Daniel Vosovic: frosty looks of femininity; Kara Janx: suburban granola-eating bohemian; Chloe Dao: sexy society girl who actual has a career.
Color Palette: Santino Rice: Heavy use of browns accented with the occasional autumnal reds and blues; Daniel Vosovic: Blacks, whites, browns and grays glossed with subdued light blues; Kara Janx: very fall, but lighter: fun reds, oranges, browns kissed with sky blues; Chloe Dao: besides the regular use of neutrals – deep greens, endearing blues, and confident pinks.
Silhouettes: With all designers, there was an ongoing theme of high waists. Other than that…Santino Rice: the use of delicate fabrics accentuates the very feminine outlines, but still, there is a very dormant edge. Daniel Vosovic: a balanced look of straight lines and curvy forms – strong shouldered jackets reflect off of perfectly formed skirts, while the casual wear is smoothly straight. Kara Janx: very thoughtful use of the high waist – a nice mix of informal whimsy and feminine flowiness. The dresses and skirts cascade down the body, and her slim cut pant suits shadow the body to a tee. Chloe Dao: a wonderful mix of puffy sleeves and diversified tailoring emphasizes different body parts in the most endearing ways.
Accessories Report: Santino, despite using a cape here and a coat there, barely accessorized. On the other hand, Daniel V. included a quirky, yet stylish, figure 8-handled handbag with one of his pieces. Chloe didn’t have anything, but her pieces were strong. Kara had a topical beanie-hat thing with each piece that looked like an everlasting gobstopper.
What’s Wearable: Each designer brought something to the table – Santino’s dresses are luxurious pieces for day parties and cocktail soirees. Daniel clearly designed for the working woman. His coats stand out as key pieces – very technical, yet creative. He also showed this exquisite pleated white skirt that was like vanilla pudding – simply delicious. Kara had a good handful of mix and match, street-friendly pieces of blazers and slacks that weren’t over the top. Chloe’s nice prints and fine tailoring give women great day-to-evening wear. One of her best pieces was a pinkish skirt with a detailed pleat adorned on the bottom – very chic.
What’s Not Wearable: For the most part, nearly all the pieces in the collection are wearable – and that may pose a problem. There wasn’t a real sense of fashion-forwardness woven into these collections – Kara’s collection may be the closest thing. Nonetheless, Santino had this corset, puffy sleeved thing that looked like a Victorian S&M costume. Many of Daniel’s pieces were too Banana Republic and even though Kara’s was pretty forward, there was this layered dress that made the model look like a pregnant cupcake. As for Chloe (my money is on her for the win), she made this unflattering, baggy debutant dress – it was very pre-glamorous drug-addicted Courtney Love.
2 comments February 13th, 2006
Fashion Week Notebook | Calvin Klein
Key Takeaways: A study in textures, shown almost exclusively in black. Key trends included: (1) sheer and solid fabrics combos, (2) chevron detailing, (3) bubble skirts, (4) hemlines at mid-calf, (5) fur detailing, (6) cutouts, and (7) long, thin scarves.
Color Palette: Black…and more black, with occasional splashes of red.
Silhouettes: 3/4 length jackets, high waisted styles, deep-v necklines, long sleeved styles, hemlines at mid-calf, bubble skirts, cutouts, and a lot of layering of sheers over solids.
Accessories Report: Thin belts with ingot hardware detailing, and long, thin, scarves.
What’s Wearable: We appreciated the concept of layering sheers over solids, but we found the execution lacking in most cases. Where it worked the best: a blazer with thin lapels over a sheer blouse and scarf over a bikini top (shown above). Another winner: the hip-length jacket with oversized collar and cuffs.
What’s Not Wearable: The super sheer outfits don’t leave enough to the imagination–I can see these being flagged down by the Fashion Police. The mid-calf length skirt lengths aren’t all that flattering either, save for the tallest of girls.
1 comment February 13th, 2006
Fashion Week Notebook | Vera Wang
Key Takeaways: Definitely not Vera’s best collection. She riffs on trends seen on the other runways: (1) high waisted styles, (2) bubble shapes, (3) a-line jackets, (4) sleeved styles, (5) chevron detailing, (6) long gloves, and (7) belts placed high on the torso.
Color Palette: Blacks, greys, browns, and blues.
Silhouettes: Silhouettes were all over the place–we saw high waisted styles, bubble skirts, long cardigans, wrap styles, short sleeved outfits, sheer draped dresses, oversized collars, 3/4 sleeved styles, a-line jackets, and dresses with pockets.
Accessories Report: High brimmed hats, belts placed high on the torso, long gloves, and a feather necklace.
What’s Wearable: We especially liked a classic black dress with a subtle bubble shaped skirt (shown above).
What’s Not Wearable: A yellow-green number with oddly-placed pleats, ruffles, and feathery straps.
February 13th, 2006