The Transformer

Although Rad by Rad Hourani's Spring 2012 collection was saturated with the designer's go-to favorite color black, this season was actually meant to be a study of the color blue.  Ranging from the brightest light blue of the sky, to the darkest black blue of the night, the clothes were meant to be a medium to convey the positive vibrations associated with the color: health, lightness, intuition.  As always, the garments themselves were created with Hourani's signature unisexy approach, and many of the pieces had adjustable beltstraps that transformed the shape of the silhouette, often for very pragmatic purposes.  By allowing the wearer to adjust and change the shape of their clothes, Hourani allows them the freedom to change their attire according to their feeling and moods, and gives them permission to forge a new identity.

For more images, see my coverage of the show on Filep Motwary. 

-Tiffany

Norma Kamali 3D

Rather than presenting a traditional runway show during fashion week, Norma Kamali took an alternative route, and showed a 3D fashion film featuring the whopping 67 looks from her new Spring 2012 collection.  Audience members were given pairs of 3D glasses shaped like Kamali's famous cat-eye sunglasses, and then gathered to watch the fun short film featuring dancing models shimmying around in Kamali's sexy, space-age clothes.  Why 3D?  Kamali, ever the tech-savvy innovator, states "fashion is a beautiful partner for 3D, it is fun and makes the clothes pop!"  The video is now up online, and you can even shop the collection in 3D.  Don't have a pair of 3D glasses lying around the house? No worries, you can always sign up for the Norma Kamali email list, and they will send you a pair.  In the meantime, you can glimpse some of my favorite looks from the collection below, in 2D, but still popping.

-Tiffany

All lookbook photos by Xi Sinsong

For their Spring 2012 presentation, INAISCE eschewed models, and chose to display their collection on mechanical surrogates, hanging in a sparse gallery setting.  Freed from the body, the clothes were meant to be seen for their full utilitarian potential, and the garments were ethereal and airy, yet simple and practical.  I admit, it was a lot easier to photograph the clothes without pesky models fidgeting about in them while looking bored and not knowing how to pose.  Nonetheless, for such drapey and thoughtfully cut garments, it is often easier to see them on the body, and the lookbook photos provided a beautiful supplement to the show.  The photographs referenced the Ancient Sino influences behind the collection, while simultaneously enlivening somber color palette with imagery that takes clothes beyond the gothic connotations that the viewer might initially perceive.

-Tiffany

Red or Dead

Red and black is a notoriously harsh color combination, and the intensity of the two colors was used to full effect in Katie Gallagher's Spring 2012 collection Red Red Blood.  This season Katie was inspired by blood--not the splashes of blood from horror movies or nightmares, but instead the sanguine vitality of coursing blood moving through the human body.  Rather than thinking of blood in a macabre way, Katie sees it as our lifeforce, which is perhaps why red has always been such an appealing color to wear.  With her clothes, Katie takes that vivid, living color, which usually remains hidden underneath or skin, and brings it to the surface.

-Tiffany

Abstract Expressionism

While designers often look to artists for inspiration, sometimes lifting from them directly, the results can be mixed. Marc Jacobs was immensely successful with his collaboration with artist Richard Prince, but more commonly you'll see an Andy Warhol soup can cheaply plastered somewhere it was never meant to be.  Demi Park is one of the few designers who has managed to take on the genre of Abstract Expressionism in an in-depth, conceptual manner, and the Spring 2012 Parkchoonmoo show was perhaps the most poetic collection that I saw during NYFW.  Playing with colors that reminded her of her Korean heritage, Park layered various dyed and stained pieces of fabric on top of each other, in an effect that she describes as "painting with fabric."  While the garments are traditionally colorblocked in the sense that bold colors are graphically combined, the layering and movement of the fabrics adds another dimension to the clothing.  While it's difficult to see in still images, the garments' dynamically shifting shapes and colors become living abstract paintings.  Absolutely breathtaking, and truly expressionistic.

-Tiffany