Naeem Khan’s s/s2011 Collection: Collectible Fashion

TEXT, VIVIAN KELLY

Many of the world’s best fashion designers are men. That’s always puzzled me as they can never actually try on the clothes and truly know what it feels like to wear them. It’s an argument Donna Karan made years ago when she brought out her iconic “five easy pieces” collection of black basics she felt all women needed for their busy lives. Obviously, there is a way around this problem, as there are some very talented male designers, such as Naeem Khan, who know just what their female clientele wants and have loyal followings as a result of getting it right.
In lieu of trying the clothes on for themselves, male designers rely on muses and feedback from the women they design for and retailers such as Neiman’s Ken Downing. Ken’s “girls”, he told us, [pointing to his blackberry] consult and confide in him, and tell him – really tell him – what clothes and accessories they love.

As far as muses go, Naeem has his wife, jewelry designer, Ranjana Khan,
to draw inspiration from on a daily basis, and perhaps, his show stylist, Mary Alice Stephenson. Ranjana is gorgeous and exotic and Mary Alice
is blonde and beautiful in that classic Old Hollywood way. Both women look very different, but both look fantastic in Naeem Khan.

The smart designers listen to “their girls” and deliver strong fashionable collections that move women to faithfully buy every season. Some clients even become collectors. Fashion design is like pulling off the perfect recipe in that there has to be a perfect balance of ingredients.
In our backstage chat, Naeem spoke about his philosophy. “My formula” he stated, is very simple: it’s classic, it’s glamorous, and I keep tweaking, every season. I want to deliver classic, wearable glamour that is so wonderful that it is worthy of collecting. I have lots and lots of women who collect me. People have been collecting these [pointing to a rack of the s/s2011 collection], maybe since the day I started, six or seven years ago.”

As I first replayed our interview, I considered Naeem’s philosophy. The words “classic” and “wearable” do not often go with “glamour”. Classic and wearable are in one camp, and glamour, falls in another. Right?
Naeem Khan, like Oscar de la Renta, is one of those rare designers who have made their careers by consistently delivering drop-dead head turning glamour that’s not even remotely vulgar.
Naeem is very aware of curbing any tendencies of excess. “In my case, because of the clothes being so intricate, you have to be really careful. You can really overdo it. Overdo it – really. When you keep cooking for 30 years, though, you become a master chef. I have to make sure that I give my customer newness every year, and that it’s to the time.”



You need self-confidence to wear one of Mr. Khan’s creations. The list of celebrities who wear Naeem Khan is diverse but all of these women have self-confidence oozing from their pores. Angie Harmon, Elizabeth Hurley,

Michelle Obama,
and Kim Cattrall all project extreme femininity and self-confidence whenever you see them in photographs. Put them in a Naeem Khan dress and the result is that classic glamour that all women look for when they tune in to watch their favorite celebs walk down the Red Carpet. If you’re a basic black girl who’s happy with her five easy pieces, you may want to look elsewhere. If though, you decide that you really are a Naeem Khan woman, rest assured that you will in no shape or form resemble a walking Christmas tree in one of his creations.
Naeem is extremely in tune with his clientele’s horror of looking foolish. “When you make fashion, you have to make clothes for the real woman. I make very very intricate clothing. When you are doing my kind of clothing, my philosophy is clothing has to be real, It’s going to land up in the store, and it has to sell.”

He concluded our interview by saying that one-day, he hopes to have a retrospective of his work.
Maybe in a few decades, the MET’s Costume Institute would have one dedicated to the “Best Oscar Dresses, 1990-2020, featuring Naeem, Oscar, Armani, and Marchesa as some of the period’s top looks.
In the meantime, Naeem’s clients continue to buy and his presence on the Red Carpet continues to grow.

Backstage Beauty at Yigal Azrouel’s s/s2011 Show

TEXT, VIVIAN KELLY

While I love the pretty slightly mussed look makeup artist Bobbi Brown and Kevin Ryan/Frank Rizierri concocted for Tibi, it was great to see some avant garde beauty looks that could have played on the more cutting edge Parisian runways. Such was the case when we stepped backstage to speak with Yigal Azrouel about Fashion Verus Clothes. [watch for Post #4 the week of 10/11].
We lingered to stop and chat with Nonie Crème of butter London [prior post]. While Mark Behnke of Fashion Tribes caught-up with Nonie, I was busy snapping-away at the makeup look created by M.A.C. Cosmetic’s Lucia Pica.
Lucia has countless editorials and show credits under her belt, including the sexy femme fatale for Louis Vuitton Cruise.


I was drawn to what she’d done for Yigal’s show, a makeup look that gave the models’ face an eerily plastic and futuristic appearance, amped up with a splashes of neon pink or orange. The plasticity was highlighted by Bumble & Bumble’s Neil Moodie’s
“wet head”
hairstyle. The slicked-back hair was a welcome alternative to the plethora of seventies frizzy crimped hair and sixties beehives that were all over the runways in both New York and Paris. The look was sexy and urban-futuristic. Neil's no stranger to sexy though. He's the man behind the sexy beach hair in the A/X Armani
ads.
The overall effect Pica and Moodie achieved, reminded me of something you’d see at a Galliano show. Neon is “yesterday” when it comes to clothes, but it’s a fun alternative if you want to channel the dangerous female replicant, ‘Pris’, played by Daryl Hannah, in Ridley Scott’s 1982 classic, ‘Bladerunner’. Even though the movie’s





over 20 years old, the look is still compelling, and fashion has always loved a dangerous woman, be it one of Helmut Newton’s
chic dominatrixes, or Yigal’s coolly confident woman.

The Betsey Johnson s/s2011 Collection

TEXT, VIVIAN KELLY
3D is de rigueur now since Alice in Wonderland hit the theaters earlier this year as is live streaming your show on your website as Marc Jacobs and Betsey Johnson did. So is showing a film pre-show as at Daniel Vosovic, Elena Cassis, and most controversially, Gareth Pugh’s 11+ minute films in Paris. Mr. Pugh’s film
was futuristic, black and white and a bit on the dark side, dredging back memories of Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey.

Betsey’s film, Le Tour de Betsey [about the same length] was on the other hand, a study in happiness and feeling good. For her s/s2011 show, she took all 850 of us stuffed into the big Tent at Lincoln Center on a bike tour of NYC, starting off at Lincoln Center and taking us East, West, Uptown, Downtown, and through the boroughs. Letting myself relax into my seat, I decided to go along for the ride. How can you not? A Betsey show is contagious, a feel-good fete, if you will. I felt the vibration of the bike wheels on the City's potholes as we passed classic New York landmarks such as the MET, with models attired in neighborhood appropriate clothes. There were skateboarders, uptown debs and floral dresses galore. No matter what they were wearing, everyone in the film and on the runway, and in the audience were having fun in the park with Betsey, Lulu and Betsey's granddaughters. Being a Betsey girl gives you license to put on that aqua eye shadow with the bright red lips, bicycle chain and huge diamond paste necklaces that Marie Antoinette might have commissioned from her favorite jeweler - with real diamonds, of course.
Was it fashion? The answer is, it's colorful, whacky and there's lots of spandex,
and it's pure Betsey style. I chatted with Miss USA [see video] pre-show, and she loved the pink ballerina style gown Betsey made just for her, to wear to the show.

The company may be deeply awash in red ink, if reports are to be believed, but Betsey’s putting on a brave face and celebrating life just the same, refusing to sink into the doldrums. Maybe that’s the best attitude the rest of us can take when it comes to dealing with this deep recession we’re in. One good way to banish the blues is to put on one of Betsey’s colorful frocks, apply some eye shadow in a color you normally wouldn’t dare wear, and go out for a bike ride, leaving it all behind for a few hours. Why NOT wear the big poufy gauze poodle dresses and wrist corsages, even if it's not prom?

The Monique Lhuillier s/s2011 Collection

TEXT, VIVIAN KELLY

As I sat looking at one of the best collections of this NYFW, I found it hard to believe that Monique Lhuillier started out as a bridal designer. I saw my first Monique Lhuillier collection, over three years ago, on a wet NY Bridal Week, somewhere downtown, on the lower West Side, probably Eyebeam Studio. Listening to the retailers in the row in front of me, I suspected that what I’d see was more RTW that straight-on bridal. The gowns that came out were like something out of a little girl’s fairy tale dream crossed with a knock-out Red Carpet gown. No veils, no extra bling, just beautifully constructed gowns that were flattering and romantic, all at once.
This September, at the RTW shows,
the white jersey dress Monique showed was drop dead gorgeous and fit for a modern day Grecian goddess.

Many designers reference + aspire to create a “goddess gown” [and there’s one on just about every line sheet], but most often fall short of the mark.
While Monique’s gowns are certainly Red Carpet material, she also designs gorgeous cocktail dresses that have just enough of a vintage reference. There were fifties floral A-line chiffon dresses
and a beautiful cream wool tailleur (suit)
with decorative paillettes. Other confections to wear for cocktails included dresses with delicate lace overlay and feather detailing that somehow never looked over the top. When you wear one of these dresses, do as hairstylist Rudi Lewis of Bumble and Bumble did, and go with a classic ballerina chignon, and accessorize as stylist Tina Laakonen did for the show. Tina, one of my favorite editorial stylists from across the pond, and a longtime British Vogue staffer, wisely kept the accessories to a bare minimum. There were gold sandals by Bruno Frisoni and diamond earrings by Fred Leighton. The green silk
shantung trumpet gown accessorized with Fred Leighton, [of course], screams, "Wear me to the Red Carpet!". The only question is, which lucky star will be wearing it to the Oscars?

The Costello Tagliapietra s/s2011 Collection

TEXT, VIVIAN KELLY & LAURA WOOD


In the crazed scramble that ensued this last NYFW, I was thrilled to have a contributor in town to cover the Costello Tagliapietra show for TheFE, while I was at the Ports1961 show, 40 blocks away, at Lincoln Center.

A former Vogue and Glamour Mag staffer, these days, Laura’s an agent for Fine Print Literary Agency. In retrospect, she was the ideal person to send to this show, as her schedule has her on the road with a small suitcase and garment bag, quite a bit these days. There’s not room for anything that won’t do double-duty and that can’t get her through a whole day. She, and so many other working women need beautifully draped, flattering dresses such as Costello Tagliapietra’s that pack well and make you look your absolute best with a minimum of fuss. In short, they have taken the angst factor of how to dress well for day without taking aeons to do it before you go off to a day packed with meetings. Comfy these dresses may be, they’re dressed enough to carry you straight into dinner. These hassle-free dresses are today’s answer to “How Should I dress for day?” for the modern workingwoman.

Said Laura, later that evening, when we met up at our room at the Cornell Club, “I’m in love with this sculpted charcoal top and slim midi skirt. It had a polished appearance, but could have been made out of sweat shirting; they looked so comfy. I could see walking into a room and people noticing I look great instead of the clothes wearing me.”
Comfort. That word usually evokes unfortunate images such as stretch waistbands, and sneakers traded in for heels to walk to the office in. True, women do want to be comfortable, but we want to look great doing it. Clothes such as these, fit the bill, not a pair of candy colored velour
Juicy Couture sweats, which I regrettably see all too often at the airport.
After scrolling through the style.com archives, I realized that another reason I am a fan of this line, is that that Jeffrey and Robert are consistent. Consistency is key when one is building a brand. Another plus is that that you always count on soft colors that flatter just about any skintone.


That’s pretty much the remark the CFDA’s Lisa Smilor made last season, post-show. She’s right, season after season, Jeffrey and Robert show beautifully draped clothes
that hide any [God forbid!] belly bulge and flatter you in all the right places.




The seasonal tweaks relate more to the theme of the season, be it “Irving Penn” or “Punkster”, but strip-away the shoes, the makeup, and what you’ve got left are these same beautifully draped dresses that flatter a woman whether she’s a petite person or a tall woman, or anywhere in between. Regardless of her size, Costello Talgiapietra make a woman feel as if she is wearing fashion, not just clothes.

The Tibi s/s2011 Collection Show

TEXT,VIVIAN KELLY
Pre-show, backstage, designer Amy Smilovic spoke about how she wants to get away from prints a bit and show fashion that looks like how she herself dresses. For fall in NYC, Amy's in a pair of black silk dupioni trousers w/ self coverered buttons and an easy long sleeve orange silk shirt and heels.


She is most decidedly NOT one of those designers who's backstage running around in gray sweats and pins in her mouth. This extends to workdays at her studio. Everyone needs to come in looking dressed, or you get sent home to change.
Amy put her models in loafers but they weren't generic school girl penny loafers. These loafers boasted a fashionably trendy wedge heel. Even shorts looked "dressed" as in a crean pointelle knit long sleeve sweater worn with well-tailored khaki silk shorts and a super short black tunic dress with matching shorts.



The little zebra print coat was fun but a strong shoulder + black pipinhg trim detail gave it an uptown girl vibe - something 'Serena' might throw on in Gossip Girl.




Instead of pattern, there was an abundance of texture, that included smooth washed silks, basketweaves, crochet, and beaded chiffon. You can pull pieces from this collection, and wear them with others already in your closet or splurge and buy a whole new headto toe outfit for the newer more toned down Tibi look. Designer Amy Smilovic has met her criteria: "to render fashion in an accessible way".

Backstage With Bobbi Brown at the Tibi s/s2011 show

TEXT, VIVIAN KELLY

There are some people that it's love at first sight with. Such was the case with MAKEUP MOGUL, BOBBI BROWN. I first met Bobbi when she'd just started her namesake company and there weren't a whole lot of colors, but she had this great color called "brown", which everyone agreed looked good on anyone and everyone. She wore a lot of black, very little makeup and smiled a lot. The models loved her for her chilled-out attitude, and as the harried PR for Michael Kors, so did I.

Fast-forward 15 years later, and Bobbi's still Bobbi. It was great to get to catch-up a bit with her backstage, at the Tibi s/s2011 show. There she was, adeptly fielding questions fired at her by eager editors and film crews waving mikes in her face, all the while showing the special palette she'd created for the show. Bobbi turned to the crowd of faces and jokingly asked, "You're all from websites? Doesn't anyone work for magazines anymore?" She, like everyone this season who's in the fashion business is marveling at the sheer number of bloggers and tweeters who now cover fashion week.
For Tibi, Bobbi did her signature fresh and clean makeup, which went nicely with the side parted ponytail, accessorized with two clips. The Tibi girl is historically fresh faced but she has some fun too. This season, Bobbi provided that with a thicker eyeliner with her long-wear gel eyeliner to create the winged eye that was the focus for this show. The look was pretty, but not TOO perfect.

Meanwhile, over in the hair area, Aveda stylists Kevin Ryan and Frank Rizziari dealt with hair drama. One of the models arrived on the latish side rushing from her previous show with her long blonde hair crimped to the max and loaded down with product. Frank walked over to take a closer look and warned, "Honey, you have to use water and wash it all out or you're going to cry when we work on your hair".
He turned back to us and explained, "When a model comes with tons of stuff in her hair, dry shampoo will only make the hair grittier and will only serve to mask it. The only thing that works is water." Good to know, as I'd always assumed dry shampoo was the quickie solution to getting product out of one's hair.

I caught my few minutes of face time with Bobbi, and she answered the questions I lobbed over to her.
As to what she wants the makeup to achieve for this [or any show she does] "is for women to look and say, 'I want to look like THAT', wearing those clothes and THAT makeup."
We discussed how she's able to address her ever-exapanding global customer base. When she creates a palette, she thinks about how it has to work for women in England, Japan, and the USA. In short, she wants them ALL to love it.
Bobbi's Best-selling product after all these years is the original BROWN which started it all.
How many sku#'s does she have? "Hmm, I don't know, but I'm really excited about this one"[pointing at the sleek silver croco "TIBI" palette of silvery shadows." I left not knowing how many lipsticks are on the line, but I know I'm getting in line for one of the Tibi palettes when they're out this spring.