Christian Cota (Q2760)
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Christian Cota is a fashion house from FMD.
| Language | Label | Description | Also known as |
|---|---|---|---|
| English | Christian Cota |
Christian Cota is a fashion house from FMD. |
Statements
Beset by well-wishers at his packed presentation at The Standard Hotel, Christian Cota took a minute to display a by-product of his labors: his hands, which bore a faint but distinct black tint. "I've been painting and dyeing fabrics all week," he explained cheerfully. Cota, who likes to get down and dirty in the design process, gave himself plenty of opportunities to play this time around. Inspired by the textiles and handicrafts of his native Mexico, the designer created a polished, exuberant collection featuring 13 original prints and embroideries—all riffs on indigenous graphics—jumbled up on draped cocktail dresses and slinky silk pants.This explicit focus on prints, long a signature of his, marked a return to Cota's creative roots as well. And he approached them with a new sophistication. To make sure the colors of the embroideries—handcrafted by a women's collective in Mexico—popped, he went over the threads with a paintbrush. (This explains the stained hands.) The print-on-print trend appears to be sticking around, and Cota's use of texturally rich embellishments ensures these pieces will stand out. There was a definite confidence to this collection, something that has been lacking from his work in the past. "I wanted to do what I love," Cota said of this season's approach, "even if it's a risk." Risk rewarded.
10 February 2012
Christian Cota is smart. He opted out of the runway this season and went for the one-on-one, a tack he's been trying with his customers by talking to them at more trunk shows, with appreciable results. "For day, a woman told me she has to be able to throw what she's wearing on a chair and not worry about it," Cota said during our appointment. "I've really been keeping that in mind." Ease, versatility, value. These were Cota's bywords for Spring, and his succinct, 24-look collection offered plenty of all three.For ease, there was a long, gauzy, silk chiffon dress in lemon with an undulating, hand-dyed hem. For versatility, one could take apart any of the matching skirt-and-top combinations, like a black draped top and floor-skimming slit skirt in curve-hugging washed cupro. Belted, the look passes for a smart-sexy dress; worn as separates, the pieces would pair with your favorite basics. As for value, Cota's latest collaboration with Aldo translates his saturated prints into killer—and retail-friendly—platforms and pumps. About those prints: Cota's digital graphics have long been collection highlights, and this season he wisely focused his efforts on them. Inspired by the deep sea, he colored hundreds of anemones separately on a flared stretch cotton dress and sent bursts of aqua luminescence scuttling through a satin pencil skirt.In May, Cota will move into his new studio space as part of the CFDA's Fashion Incubator program. By then, if he continues listening to his clients and maintains a laser-sharp focus, he'll be hatching plenty of new ideas.
8 September 2011
Christian Cota has been busy. In addition to exploring upstate hiking trails—part of what led him to this season's functional, technical mood—he also collaborated on a collection of shoes with Aldo and worked with Saga for his first serious foray into furs. But back to the hiking: Inspired by serious mountain climbers and their gear, as well as the dress of high-altitude natives—Tibetans, Andeans, Himalayans—Cota approached his clothes from the inside out, thinking about things like secret pockets, reversible fabrics, and detachable hoods. The influence of the Tibetans, et al., came through in a heretofore unseen interest in draping and the growth of Cota's knitwear category. For the most part, everything worked. The lambskin leather top that opened the show had a soft, textured look; if it wasn't what you'd pick out for a walk in the woods, it had an ease to it ideal for wearing day-to-night in the city. A felted wool pencil skirt with a swathe of fox running down the front was country-chic; conservatively cut and colored in a soft brownish gray, it read as a luxury item with legs.Cota played with abstracted animal prints this season, mixing them together or blowing them up. A cable-knit jacquard sweater looked cool patterned as an oversize skin. The black pants it was paired with, which featured a reptile print that started from the back and worked its way fully down the calf, were less successful. In fact, most of the animal motifs could have been done away with; there was enough of something new going on without them. This was by no means a perfect collection, but for Cota it represents an essential step. The CFDA/VogueFashion Fund nominee and FGI Rising Star Award winner has proven he can cut a beautiful dress and create a mean print. Now we know he can also take on fur, knits, draping, and outerwear.
15 February 2011
Christian Cota has always had polish. Since winning the Fashion Group International Rising Star Award in 2009, he has confidently homed in on his signatures: digital prints and a controlled, sculpted silhouette. This year, he followed up his FGI honor with a CFDA/VogueFashion Fund nomination and graduated from a presentation format to the runway. So do his clothes merit all the attention? Yes, for the most part.A week spent at a solar-powered house on the Yucatán Peninsula prompted Cota to juxtapose nature and technology. His prints featured feathers on the one hand, and circuit boards on the other. The feather print looked lovely on leather shorts, but a beaded interpretation of the digital database was too heavy to look high-tech. An avian influence was apparent in the fluttering peplums that whooshed out from the backs of tops and in the upward flight of airy trains on the closing gowns. A short dress with a carefully stacked skirt belled out from the waist; its architectural qualities were beautifully balanced by the sherbet hues of its print.At their best, Cota's designs look easy but not unstructured. He is an excellent tailor, and when he trusts himself to let the clean lines shine, his skill at flattering the female form is obvious. One of the night's best looks was the quietest: a nude, knee-length silk georgette column that buttoned down the back at the end of a deep V. With pockets on the rear, it looked like a man's dress shirt worn backward, and it was very, very sexy.
10 September 2010
Inspired by Cubism, Christian Cota decided to see what would happen if he turned his soft draping into hard lines. The outcome, for the most part, was a confident and polished collection from one of New York's most buzzed-about young designers. Invoking Cubist methodology, Cota pulled things apart and then put them together again. A short, strapless faille gown in an abstract zebra print was actually two dresses in one: He made the first in black mesh, the other in the print, cut them apart, and then combined them. The puzzlelike result had extremely clean lines and an appealing volume. Another dress had a basket weave of hand-painted blue and gold leather across the bodice and down the skirt. The handiwork was obvious, but instead of looking crafty it was graphic and slightly futuristic.Cota developed three of this season's prints in his bathroom. A palette's worth of paint was splashed onto a sheet in his tub, and then digitally rendered. Ultimately, he ended up with the same design viewed from three different perspectives. The best called to mind the blurred headlights of cars moving fast on a city street. It looked hip on a short skirt paired with a sleeveless chiffon top in another of the print's iterations. Cota has tremendous breadth, and last season he was hampered by his attempt to do too much at once. His artistic vision is still a work in progress, but this collection had a cohesiveness the last one lacked.
15 February 2010
Like many (or at least some) Americans these days, Christian Cota is feeling guardedly optimistic—and he expressed that mood through the metaphor of an urban garden. "You're still in the city, but you can see something growing beyond the gates," he explained at his jam-packed presentation Tuesday. (Rose Byrne and Amerie were among the crowd.) Blossoms popped up all over the place, from gorgeous saturated prints—seen on a long dress with a fitted bodice, as well as on a slim A-line skirt—to the flowerlike shapes of the clothes themselves. "I wanted the woman to look like she was blooming," Cota said.But not everything was roses. A silver lamé bandeau and knee-length skirt were meant as an alternative to all the super-short after-six dresses out there, but the idea didn't quite work. (What the look lacked in leg, it more than made up for in midriff.) For a young designer starting out, though, Cota has an impressive number of admirers, and they should be able to glean enough good stuff from this collection to hold them over until he finds a surer footing.
14 September 2009
"Nature shows us that there's always beauty in upheaval," Christian Cota wrote in his program notes. The Mexican-born designer, who won the Fashion Group International's Rising Star Award a few weeks ago, kept things down-to-earth for Fall quite literally, incorporating pebblelike embroidery and a mineral print into his collection. Cota, who trained with Angel Sanchez and debuted with eveningwear four seasons ago, showed that he was able to shake things up with this collection. "Instead of uptown chic he went a bit more crazy and youthful," said model and fellow countrywoman Liliana Dominguez, who was in the audience. She wasn't the only one who noticed Cota's evolution. The shift in his work is deliberate. Sure, there were some overwrought looks, but overall the collection was cleaner, hemlines were shorter, and there were even a few sporty elements, like a terrific jersey blazer worn over a cocktail look. "When I started, it was all about fantasy. I am learning more about my client and am changing the way I am designing," Cota explained.
12 February 2009