NYFW diary: Marchesa meets Great Expectations
Only Marchesa designers Georgina Chapman and Karen Craig could make Miss Havisham look haute (oh to be a wealthy spinster living in a dilapidated mansion). For fall, the duo drew inspiration from David Leon’s 1946 film version of Charles Dickens’s Great Expectations. Amidst all of the usual tulle, light-as-air layers and long pooling silhouettes, they created a fresh spin using exaggerated Victorian shapes, dusty, antique accents and unexpected new pieces (snakeskin print leggings).
Even the models played out the theme with near fainting spells (hours spent standing on a pedestal under hot lights will do that to a girl), trembling (skyscraper needle-nose heels) and forlorn faces (constricting collars). Irina Lazareanu to the rescue. In between posing for photogs at the presentation, the Canadian model-turned-musician threw worried glances to her friends, saying “I feel so bad for them, it’s the shoes, they can’t stand on them. They have to sit down.”