Chaiken (Q4063)
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Chaiken is a fashion house from FMD.
| Language | Label | Description | Also known as |
|---|---|---|---|
| English | Chaiken |
Chaiken is a fashion house from FMD. |
Statements
"I'm a little obsessed with sand and sea," Julie Chaiken told Style.com. "And that carried forward to a Mediterranean feeling."Though little-publicized, some behind-the-scenes changes have taken place at the company: The creative director, Jeff Mahshie, has left, and Julie took her bow solo this time. But Chaiken fans need not worry. While there wasn't much depth to the collection, it had plenty of charm.The show got off on the right foot with a very simple, stark-white suit, designed for life under a blazing sun. Safari looks followed (belted jackets, rolled sleeves), and narrow silhouettes (straight skirts, tidy shifts) alternated with slithery draped dresses with names like Atlantis. Chaiken, based in San Francisco, enlivened her black-and-white palette with hits of pool blue and a bouncy wave print. "The collection is a little bit younger and a little lighter, meaning less serious," she said. "Being from the West Coast, I have to think of it as being for an American woman, rather than just a New Yorker."
6 September 2007
The spirit of Millicent Rogers haunted this all-American show like a dirndl-skirt-wearing, Navaho-art-collecting, globe-trotting ghost. Jeff Mahshie, who co-designs the line with Julie Chaiken, explained that they chose Rogers as their starting point because of her "chic, nomadic lifestyle," as well as the vivid, ethnographic colors—pungent tomato-reds and yolk-yellows—she pioneered in the 1940s.You could see that Millicent flair in the longer, slimmer cut of the skirts, the curvy glamour sheaths, and the fuller trousers. Front-row guests like Kelly Rowland and Juliana Margulies no doubt were most interested in the latter: Customers count on Chaiken for a well-cut pair of pants. This season, they can choose from a flannel sailor look, a full-cuffed option, or sporty cropped styles. Many of these were worn in a (typically Millicent) mannish manner, with cravats and hand-knit calvary jackets.Less successful were the tuxedo looks and cummerbund-bound waists. There were also several anomalous sari pieces—apparently a reference to the cultural tourism undertaken by their style icon—and five "Taos" dresses in full-on sun-scorched primaries that were just a bit too much Millicent.
5 February 2007
Julie Chaiken and Jeff Mahshie did not maintain the hyper-focus of fall's show, but instead wandered between three themes for spring: acid-colored silk satins, camping/safari suiting, and ombré. This didn't make for the most coherent outing, though there were strong separates here, and the long, flowy silhouette that they created with floor-sweeping skirts and full pants were a welcome sight among the week's overload of trapeze dresses (not that these were entirely missing at Chaiken). "We want to move away from the bubble, and are using elastic drop waists for spring," Mahshie explained. This lent a sporty feel, as did simple tank dresses and the final blouson jacket. Bold prints and silk satins—especially in blinding chartreuse—struck a jarring note, however. The designers fared better when they stuck to black and white and to outfits that they described as "easy, pretty, and American—but not in a flag-waving way." It's not hard to imagine the young Hollywood set taking a shine to Chaiken's coverall for shopping expeditions or a dark "tuxedo" short suit for a power lunch under the Cali sun.
11 September 2006
The Chaiken line has its celebrity fans—Alec Baldwin, Julianna Margulies, and Illeana Douglas were all present today—but Jeff Mahshie and Julie Chaiken's fall collection was aimed squarely at their customer, not their front row. The show was full of modern everyday pieces that would work equally well in the office or at the Mercer Bar. (Despite Mary-Louise Parker's recent endorsement at the Golden Globes, they eschewed big-statement evening looks.)The palette was succinct. Inspired by the painter Oscar Bluemner, whose work is currently on view at the Whitney, it focused on gray, red, navy, and camel. Silhouettes were also kept to a minimum: skinny pants, capes, Eton jackets, and scoop-neck dresses in jersey and wools. The tightness of the show was both its strength and its weakness: There was consistency of vision, but it was also repetitive, relying too heavily on one or two tricks (the frog closures used for ornamentation, for example). Still, with so many frills everywhere else for fall, it was undeniably refreshing to see such a clean collection.
6 February 2006
With paint company Benjamin Moore as a sponsor, Chaiken had the audience expecting a bold show of color. While there were shots of orange, lilac, and buttercup yellow, creative director Jeff Mahshie kept with the season's burgeoning minimalist streak and focused primarily on form and shape.Most of the collection's full-skirt frocks (shirtdresses for day; strapless in a crinkly metallic cotton for evening) appeared in white, black, cream, and navy, and many were finished off with rope belts and obi sashes. Of course, Julie Chaiken built the label on its smartly cut pants, and there were plenty of those, too. Some had raised waists, and nearly all with full legs. They looked great with a simple top and a cropped vest, another one of spring's ubiquitous pieces.
12 September 2005
Chaiken has come a long way, baby, since the collection launched ten years ago in January at Barneys New York. Originally known for fab-fitting pants, the line Julie Chaiken and her creative director, Jeff Mahshie, showed for fall, had plenty of fashion flair. In addition to familiar and dependable basics—from V-necks and cardigan jackets to slim Capris and full-cuffed trousers—there were this season's must-have tulip skirts, Empire-waist coats, and colors that positively popped. One highlight among several charming evening numbers: a sapphire velvet cocktail frock cinched with a forest-green extra-wide obi that would look great on Chaiken devotee and front-row guest Mary-Louise Parker.
7 February 2005