New York Fashion Week: 5 cool things you need to know about for Fall 2014
I just licked chocolate off the wall… isn’t that just the best ever fashion metaphor? Here at New York fashion week, there’s a show every hour on the hour. Sometimes on the half hour. It’s a perpetual carousel of Fall 2014 treats, treats we’re mean to synthesize, analyze and tell stories about. So hey, here’s your first batch of the 5 trends and cool stuff you need to know about from New York Fashion Week Fall 2014—including the chocolate bit.
Spectacles
It’s still pretty unclear as to why Alexander Wang set up shop at Brooklyn Navy Yard a.k.a. an hour’s trip out of the city, but boy did his mechanically-controlled stage of robotics, multi-snap pockets, neon windbreakers, chunky shearling-lined bombers and leather/nylon neon/neutral barrage deliver in the wow department. Not to be fun-outdone, Opening Ceremony designers Humberto Leon and Carol Lim closed the gap between their treats and those of Willy Wonka’s, with a wall of melting chocolate trickling down its runway wall.
Technicolour dreamcoats
I’d like to thank Joseph Altuzarra for making an Andrew Lloyd Webber reference possible with intarsia plaid mink jackets done in vibrant CMYK hues, shearling coats with magenta trimmings and cobalt wraps. And Alexander Wang, for bringing hyper colour back from the ‘90s with heat-activated coats that revealed swirling neon prints when put under the lamp. Elsewhere, Thakoon layered long puffers with Warholian floral panels and Prabal Gurung double-faced persimmon and tangerine on an outsized shawl coat.
Common People
Rick Owens’ out of the box casting last season is tricking down with Voguers at Hood by Air and DKNY , who cast “real people” to walk the runway like gender-bending model Andre Pejic, It girls Hannah Bronfman and Chelsea Leyland and hip hop hype man A$AP Illz. Rising rap star Angel Haze, who also modeled at DKNY, has been making quite the fashion week rounds, from Helmut Lang to Alexander Wang. Oh, there was also a streaker at Prabal. Cause YOLO. (He must have thought to himself)
Seeing red
Head-to-toe monochrome has been a big thing on the runways, especially with red. At Lacoste, a redhead model made for the best burgundy bomber/trouser/toque match, while at Prabal Gurung, another was wrapped in a scarf/sweater and asymmetrical skirt.
Ones to watch
Team Canada’s having a good run outside of Sochi too, with quite a few stellar shows from homegrown talent. Canadian-born Chris Gelinas showed futuristic yet vintage (and I know that makes sense cause I’ve seen Her) collection of sporty structural separates. Paris-based Calla Haynes finally made her scene-stealing chow Lilybear part of the business with a graphic effigy of the dog printed on trousers, trenches and more. Meanwhile, Kaelen played the monochrome game with a beautiful presentation of stiff gallerina coats in baby pink and power suit red.