Last season I was somewhat bewildered by young&restless's inspiration: the flying squirrel. This season, designer Ashburn Eng has gone for a more familiar source of inspiration: boy meets girl. The collection centers around powerful women dressed in menswear inspired pieces and three-piece suits, with an atypical and often asymmetrical twist. A button down jacket loses an arm and opens up with a low-cut neckline for a revealing reinterpretation of the power suit, and pleated half-skirts are attached to classic black slacks. While many other designers have been inspired by Wall Street style (Alex Wang comes to mind), I've never really taken to these collections, as they are so far away from what I normally wear. However, the young&restless collection seems far enough abstracted to be perfectly to my liking, probably because I wouldn't dare to wear them to a real office!
