Rodarte
by Marilyn Kirschner | photographed by Yannis Vlamos

Laura and Kate Mulleavy presented their fall collection to several hundred of fashion's heaviest hitters (including Vogue's Anna Wintour and Grace Coddington; Harper's Bazaar's Glenda Bailey and Stephen Gan; French Vogue's Carine Roitfeld, Bergdorf Goodman's Linda Fargo, and Fashionlines editor in chief Christine Suppes who flew in to New York just for the occasion and wore one of their fabulous black coats. The venue of choice was the Darryl Roth Theatre located in Union Square East. And while it may not have been as jaw droppingly memorable as last season's floral homage, it was truly amazing in terms of creativity, workmanship, vision, and execution. My only complaint is that there was no run of show with accurate descriptions of fabric, etc. since the pieces are so intricate, complicated, complex, and hard to describe.

This season they said they were inspired by "visuals and sounds that connote a feeling that we want to capture in our work" and that they were "in love with the color green" (as in the color of money....do you suppose this has something to do with the duo's desire to be more commercial?????) Though there were only three pieces that were done in this hue.

The standouts this time were the structured black crinkle vinyl belted coat with curved hem and heavy jewel encrusted sleeves; the pale olive heavy wool coat with pleated back and massive sleeves; the olive wool suit with a blouson jacket which had a very full back and brown faux ostrich sleeves, worn with a short curved hem skirt; a narrow metallic tunic in gold, silver, and bronze shown over a long gray hand knit mohair skirt; and a gold lame dress with curved hem worn beneath a long cabled gray hand knit mohair cardigan. Just a note... Christine and I agreed that the knitwear was sublime and the combination of the couture dresses with the knitwear was unbeatable. We both think they would be wise to expand on this idea. By the way... after last season's negative review from Cathy Horyn of The New York Times, I was anticipating her review this season. I did not see her there but I don't know if she was or was not. Stay tuned!