SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 14, 2013

ew York Fashion Week came to a close dress with a white collar paired with knee socks. material have been used by everyone from Peter NThursday with Ralph Lauren exploring His next dress added some leather and a Som to Tommy Hilfiger, while Prabal Gurung sexy schoolgirl chic and Calvin Klein black tie to the saucy schoolgirl look. Striped laminated silk and lace and presented hand- offering up a study in geometry for next spring. blazers, jaunty caps and a studious pair of glass- painted “raincoat” jackets. Marc Jacobs was to close the massive final es on one model rounded off the look. Another key trend was cut-out dresses and day of fashion frenzy in the Big Apple, before Fashion week has seen plenty of geometric cropped tops, with bared midriffs seen all over the spring-summer 2014 style cavalcade moves prints, from stripes and polka dots to fashion the runways from fashion prince Alexander over to London, Milan and Paris. queen Carolina Herrera’s use of kinetic art inspi- Wang to American designer Jill Stuart. Lauren added his own twist to one of the ration and layering to create vision-bending While soft pastels were seen throughout the major trends of the season-the classic combina- multidimensional motifs. week, Lauren offered pops of bright color, with tion of black and white-sending out a bevy of The 73-year-old Lauren used stripes and dresses in head-to-toe acid green, orange and saucy schoolgirls in short skirts and dresses with blocks, but also put a triangular print on a coat fluorescent yellow. a 1960s flair. Klein’s new collection was a study which he paired with a shiny skirt, crisp white Several designers mixed masculine with fem- in geometry with loose, box-cut jackets and shirt and floral print black-and-white tie. inine, a look favored by Victoria Beckham, tops-another key theme of the week-and skirts Shiny sateen, neoprene, and scuba-inspired whose flirty, asymmetrical tennis skirts and given a square shape with a side hem. loose pants revealed a new more relaxed side There was a bit of something for everyone at from the former Spice Girl. fashion week: masculinity was mashed with Her two-year-old daughter Harper was romanticism, while elegant looks took on a unveiled as the new ‘it’ girl, drawing most of the sporty feel. Not only will plastic be in fashion attention in the front row as she bounced on her next spring, but it can be mixed with lace or footballer father David Beckham’s knee. tweed as well. Wang, who was appointed creative director White is fine all the time. As for hemlines, of Spain’s Balenciaga last year, also blurred gen- dresses can be short and flirty, knee-length or der lines, pairing boxy tops with flirtatious skirts. fall 1950s style to the calf. “There are no more Michael Kors featured slashed dresses and rules about length,” Nicole Fischelis, fashion slit skirts in his soft, romantic collection, and director for Macy’s, told AFP. earthy colors of nutmeg and grass green that “Nearly all the collections opened or closed have been used by several designers. with white, and it’s not boring-it has transparen- Both “True Blood” hunk Alexander Skarsgard cy, geometric effects, layering, 3D embroidery,” and actress Nicole Kidman took in Calvin Klein’s she said. She said a lot of the looks unveiled show, after a star-studded week which saw reflected “a new minimalism”. The must-have appearances by hip-hop star Kanye West and item for next spring for women is a shirt-dress. pop prince Justin Bieber. “His shirt has become ours”, Fischelis noted. Curvy “Mad Men” siren Christina Hendricks Another theme seen across practically all and actress Christina Ricci were also spotted. shows is that fashionistas can finally breathe- And in one of the biggest surprises of the week, gauzy transparency was everywhere. Dresses 43-year-old supermodel Naomi Campbell made were loose and square and-as seen at Calvin a rare catwalk appearance for Belgian-born Klein-drop-waisted. Skirts were also fluid and designer Diane Von Furstenberg. — AFP full, and tops and trousers oversized and slouchy. With actress Jessica Alba in the front row of a white runway lined by black seats in downtown Manhattan, Lauren opened with a short black