Fashion’s night out was kind of like our industry’s season opener. It’s been about a week now,but the night showed off our first opportunity to dust off our Dolce’s and break out our first of the season splurges (which have only JUST arrived in stores), before we tire them out during our whirlwind tour around Spring/Summer, Resort and Pre-Fall catwalks. Ask any athlete, and they’ll tell you, the S.O. is the ground for testing new strategies – and come Thursday night, we’ll especially be putting one Fall RTW lesson into full practice: velvet!
Velvet, the fall’s most sensuous night-life textile, got it’s most vibrant boost from L’Wren Scott. While her collection offered several instances of the velvet ball-gown, one of her first looks treated the fabric to a wine-red rendition, and did it over in a more casual silhouette – offering the wearer a rare opportunity to bring velvet into the light. So too did Rachel Zoe suggest new opportunities for the storied fabric. Foregoing the familiar dressy context of cocktail hour, or into-the-early-hours fete, Zoe places velvet at the office; styling it into a single-breasted blazer, and a pair of bootleg trousers, in a color that has our eyes seeing eggplant for days. the By contrast, Tadashi Shoji vetted velvet’s truest, most unique essence: A fabric unlike any other, velvet can translate light into luminous, almost glimmering effect. Shoji, interested in capitalizing on velvet’s exclusive offerings, used it to compose this gorgeous instance of ruched, emerald evening wear. Though Scott and Zoe’s efforts did inject formidible new life into a more Shoji interpretation of velvet’s potential, the fabric is wrenched out of the familiar, most jarringly, by one Rebecca Taylor. Hers’ was a more grungy turn on this particular texture, threading it into her ultra dressed-down downtown collection through patchworked separates and open-worked knits.
While we’d love to step up to the plate in Shoji’s stunning maxi, we have to be practical. Most likely, we’ll be cruising through this season’s parties in an edgier velvety look a la Taylor — and we think our Katherine booties are just the ticket! How about you?
