Guy Laroche (Q4214)
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Guy Laroche is a fashion house from FMD.
| Language | Label | Description | Also known as |
|---|---|---|---|
| English | Guy Laroche |
Guy Laroche is a fashion house from FMD. |
Statements
2001
designer
2004
Designer
2007
artistic director
hat designer
This was a recklessly honest presentation from Richard René at Guy Laroche, and as such a refreshing antidote to the considered dissembling we are so used to in fashion. We rolled up to the house’s HQ at 35 Rue François 1er expecting a show; what we saw instead was a presentation of 10 garments alongside a photograph and a caption. As René explained, he had sourced each vintage piece—some from eBay and spending a total of around 5,000 euros—and then worked to update and exaggerate each one. These are the first 10 looks here, and they’ll be available as one-off purchases. The looks after are made of a beige crepe René found in the archive and became entranced by.As far as my limited French had it, René said he was over making collections that never go into production, as the last three years’ worth had not (he seemed to indicate). Instead he offered this sincere and straightforward gesture that spoke to the history of a once great house now surviving on thin pickings, yet still proud, and still just about making ends meet. It was a beautiful and economically expressed move. What’s next, though?
27 February 2020
Guy Laroche designer Richard René went where many other designers on the block—okay, pretty much every other designer on the block—wouldn’t right now with a collection honoring chic 1970s sex workers. As the notes put it: “This collection is dedicated to these liberated girls and boys who, for a few 500 franc notes, contributed to the splendour of France.” As he explained backstage, René was inspired byEmmanuelledirector Just Jaeckin’s 1977 movie,Madame Claude. This Serge Gainsbourg–soundtracked “thrillerpolitico-érothique” (thanks, French wiki) was based on the real-life door-to-door Bible salesperson turned procurer of sin Madame Claude, real name Fernande Grudet, who (according toVanity Fair, no less) counted John F. Kennedy, the Shah of Iran, Maria Callas, and Gianni Agnelli as satisfied clients. René discussed the sense of freedom and sexiness he saw in the period and said he was particularly taken by a scene in which Claude, played by in-the-audience Françoise Fabian, walked into some snooty boutique (it might have been a Laroche boutique, but my French could not quite keep up with his) looking devastating.Walking on a vintage Guy Laroche–logo carpet, some of the looks at first were enticing enough. René mixed suede and jersey in skirted pantsuits, tobacco rompers, and an elegantly fluid white-collared jersey dress. Even some of the logomania pieces had a nuttily burnished luster to them, although they did bunch unfortunately at crotches of both genders.Things fell apart when René struck upon a perhaps too-much-information leitmotif for a prostitution-inspired collection: holes. One black dress featured a huge semi-sheer circular panel at both front and back that displayed a fair few inches of butt cleavage. Denim pieces were cut like Swiss cheese. It was an orifice overload. Then came the payoff: We saw bodies, vaguely J. Lo–at–Versace flowing jersey dresses, and briefcases all printed with a vintage 500-franc-note design. “C’est horrible!” breathed a showgoer just down the bench from me. I found it not all horrible (especially the start), and in fact pleasingly culturally specific in the almost patriotic carnality of theme—just check out those tobacco, navy, and cream tricolor pieces.
25 September 2019
Marble ismarbrein French.La Rochemeans “the rock” in English, and marble is a kind of rock, so Richard René maybe thought, Hey, it’s close enough, and presented an all-black collection that featured the irregular white seaming of Basque-country Nero Marquina as its decorative theme.To the wincing strings of the beginning bit of Max Richter’s “November”—recently used in Lacoste’s cheesy-yet-awesome delayed-train piqué polo romance ad—we were presented with more marbleized surfaces than any high-class kitchen showroom could ever aspire to proffer. There were marbleized fitted jersey pants, marbleized LBDs in crepe, marbleized minidresses with built-in cloaks, and a marbleized skirt-and-pant hybrid that combined all the disadvantages of both garments with the advantages of neither. A strong-shouldered minidress near the end with a semidetached seam that zigzagged from shoulder to navel, to hip, to hem, flexed winningly open and closed as the model walked in it. There was a marbleized fugue in Swarovski.The models sometimes wore fedoras and weirdly steampunk, Google Glass–like wraparounds with teensy lenses that—a wise colleague noted en route to Rochas afterward on the Fédération de la Haute Couture et de la Mode shuttle bus (glamour!)—looked like they’d been sourced fromHellsing. Combined with odd leather gloves that covered only the fingers but not the body of the hand, these lent certain looks a camp, hit-woman vibe: Villanelle ironically dressed as an assassin at a costume party in which she plans to non-ironically assassinate someone. There waswaytoo much breast exposure. Yes, those sheer tops were radical and revolutionary when Yves Saint Laurent did them in 1968. But hey, that was 51 years ago. The context was burn-the-bra and student revolution. So, no. To compel a young woman to bare her breasts in the line of professional duty in 2019 is pretty creepy.
27 February 2019
There were, ooh, about four times as many people waiting outside this Guy Laroche show than could fit in the venue, a great little gig space called the Yoyo in the basement of the Palais de Tokyo. That was an interesting display of local love for a brand whose collection, if you could get in, didn’t quite merit that passion.Entitled Shadow and Light, and featuring show notes that specified early-morning, post-club moments and included commentaries such as “White, black, the radical and minimal geometry of a shape,” you could see what the designer was getting at. The modest codes of Laroche were jettisoned for a dichotomy of black and white or transparent and solid in an overtly ’80s iteration. There were some dubious—oh so dubious—pieces, the prime offenders of which were both pants. Would you wear a pair that had one flared leg, cut in with opaque panels against a black frame, opposite a slim-fit, office-appropriate leg? Schizophrenic pants? Or a pair that was, ankle upward, black and fitted and fine until, ooh, a smidgen north of the vagina—the point at which the black cotton was replaced with another semi-sheer panel that revealed several centimeters of butt cleavage? The model’s butt was a great butt, and there were indeed both shadows and light cast within its cleavage under the shimmering purple-beamed disco ball, but this seemed an unnecessary intimacy.This is turning into a negative, butt-centered review, but rest assured the shoes that covered just the big and first toes leaving the three smallest to protrude beyond an elastic strapping upper were also as oddly curated as the DJ’s cut of the Cure’s “10:15 Saturday Night” without its awesome guitar solo. This was a throwback evening collection that felt out of time with now but would work excellently as a costume for a Netflix miniseries about ’80s Parisian club culture or a Grace Jones biopic. With butt cleavage.
26 September 2018
Last season, in a pre-debut interview, Richard René allowed that he is a radical minimalist. Spare lines are his home turf, so perhaps it’s not surprising that his inspiration for Fall was a blank sheet of paper. Not the figurative writer’s block variety. The A4 letterhead kind. For his first look, the designer sent out a model wearing his blank sheet (the back was in black jersey).“I wanted to explore graphic art and especially art brut, so I started with the most minimalist thing that exists,” René said backstage. “Winding a scarf around the neck is as simple as it gets—it’s all about being free with your clothes. The Guy Laroche woman does what she wants.”Maybe she does. She might crumple up a sheet of gold and wear it as a necklace. But her clothes never, ever step out of line. Two collections in, René’s Laroche is not about the kind of self-expressive, freestyle mash-up that has rebooted other storied Paris labels. It’s about structure—a tightly controlled world where there is no room for error, let alone the “perfectly imperfect” undercurrent running through many collections. By definition, it takes a strong personality to pull off a handkerchief skirt or peplum; stand-up edging that adds a cape-like extra inch or two to the shoulders; or a dress that appears to have been dipped neck-first into a pot of gold paint.On the other hand, a crisp gold trench with horizontal stripes is the kind of piece that could offer mileage without making its wearer look uptight. So, too, will the impeccably tailored trousers that will crop up in-store. And, one imagines, a few knits to warm up those open-sided numbers—no matter how much anyone might crave a little minimalism these days, an open panel draped over the head and shoulders does not an outfit make. René has an enviable blank page before him, and tailoring skills to burn. No time like the present to create a Guy Laroche woman who’s a bit warmer, not to mention three-dimensional.
28 February 2018
Coaxing a storied French name back to relevance is a huge challenge, but Guy Laroche has a few aces to play. Its fragrance portfolio—headlined by Fidji and Drakkar Noir (50 and 35 years old, respectively)—is still going strong without the benefit of advertising. And thenthere’s Drake’s tattoo. That counts for quite a bit.The Parisian house also has a new head designer in Richard René. An alum of Hermès and Jean Paul Gaultier, in 2004 he swept the Hyères Awards, opened his own couture house, circled back to Gaultier, and, latterly, the swimwear brand Vilebrequin. That’s quite a list: ready-to-wear, couture, menswear, swimwear. Nearly all the boxes are ticked.In a preshow interview, René admitted that he’s happiest when he’s sitting on the floor fitting dresses. A self-described “radical minimalist,” he loves nothing more than distilling his patterns down to bare lines.With his first outing, done entirely in black and white, he did precisely that. For inspiration, he turned to Laroche’s most famous muse, Mireille Darc, who passed away late last month at 79. A ’70s icon second only to Catherine Deneuve, Darc was the French Julianne Moore of her day: an indie, a purist, and a risk-taker. In one of her most celebrated films,The Tall Blond Man With One Black Shoe(1972), she appears in a Guy Laroche dress with a plunging back so deep, bumsters look prudish by comparison. The dress caused a scandal and sealed the career of both designer and actress. Ask any Frenchman and he will go glassy-eyed at the thought of it.That’s the girl René is after. The construct—accessorized with blonde wigs, bug-eye sunglasses, and T-shirts emblazoned with the house’s name in the original ’70s-era typeface, or perhaps justDark(get it?)—resulted in a show that was by turns sleek, racy, fanciful, and a tad implausible.Laroche’s Parisian-ness came through in impeccable cuts and beautiful materials: a razor-edged trench in silk faille, perfect grain de poudre trousers, and—for a dash offolie—a white swan-feather coat. The asymmetrical cocktail dresses, like the white jersey one with a single seam; the sliced leather pantsuit that nods to Olivia Newton-John; and the graphic jumpsuits in jersey with organza-veiled swathes across the midriff will make for dramatic pictures. But they felt too exposed. And the rear view! Forty-five years on, you still might get arrested for that (in the States anyway).All 17 of these looks will be produced, the designer said.
But lean in on a few and you get a glimpse of the workhorse potential in this old house. “I’m only interested in the future,” said René, who prefers terms likemodern eleganceandBauhaus maximalismtostriving for chic(too catchall, he notes).Whatever you want to call it, clearly René has tailoring chops. What will be interesting to watch is how his Laroche translates in-store. And particularly how he’ll accommodate the most essential fashion basic ever to come out of Paris: the brassiere.
28 September 2017
The music accompanying theGuy Larocheshow included Suzanne Vega’sTom’s Dinerand The Cranberries’sDreams—mainstays of Gen X mixtapes. Leaving aside the temptation to hum along, these upbeat tunes time-stamped the collection to the ’80s and ’90s. Meanwhile, creative director Adam Andrascik noted that his source material came from two sultry photographs of the maison’s haute couture collections in 1971 and ’72. Backstage, he explained his objective to bring sexy back via throwback; because for all the allure of unisex dressing today, he said this was never really the M.O. of Monsieur Laroche (who passed away in 1989). Cue a draped slip dress in triple-layer chiffon the shade of fluorescent watermelon, and cheeky looks that once again highlighted Andrascik’s talent for form-fitting, wide-legged trousers. There were also V-necklines that nearly met waistlines, which Andrascik explained nodded directly to one of the images. Neither titillating nor indecent, these knits registered as neutral; yet normalized side-boob was not likely Andrascik’s intention. More problematic, though, were the black tube tops over breezy, open-back shirtdresses; they made for inexplicable dark matter, a big stylistic question mark.Attractive surface details on a tobacco leather trench, as well as subtle contours within the knits, spoke to a nuanced luxury more appealing than the color palette. And the embroidery on pants that appeared to be clusters of people carried more novelty interest than the wraparound fur. To use the mixtape analogy, had these solid component parts been shuffled around and edited in a different arrangement, the result might have been worth playing on repeat.
1 March 2017
It is Adam Andrascik’s fourth season at the helm of Guy Laroche and, boy, can he cut a great pant. It may not always be in the fabric that you’d prefer—dark sparkly denim, say, or a sheer plasticky nylon—but it is of optimal proportions, long of leg and high of waist, with the right amount of width and swing. In camel-color cotton, it might even make you reconsider khakis. That’s a force to be reckoned with. Andrascik sent out quite a few of those disarming trousers today at his Spring show for Guy Laroche, but even they couldn’t combat the slightly inexplicable, sheer iridescent, gridded fabric that he used to design much of the collection, or the slightly perverse (if not quite perverse enough) rubbery-looking raincoat that was punctured in clumps, as if by an overzealous punk.What did work: those pants, of course; at least one very good khaki trenchcoat; and thin-ribbed knit items such as tank tops and slim, figure-hugging dresses. It may sound simple, but simple things, when very well done, can make a big difference. They are, for example, what real women tend to actually buy, in droves. If Andrascik can produce more pieces like those, he could very well turn Guy Laroche into a real powerhouse.
28 September 2016
Three runway seasons into his tenure as artistic director at Guy Laroche, Adam Andrascik is still tinkering with how to communicate the venerable French maison for the modern era. With this offering, he explained that he confronted some of the label’s pronounced ’80s silhouettes, which daunted him initially before he realized they could be manipulated so that the volumes no longer felt time-warped. Hence the shoulders that sloped like wine bottles and cocoon skirts bookended with athletic bands. Andrascik’s modification of materials sparked intrigue; it turns out that a metallic leaf motif had been hand-painted using real copper, and a quatrefoil guipure had been stitched over another lace. These, and the multicolored tracery beadwork, functioned like small artistic statements that should be well received among Guy Laroche’s well-heeled clientele.But the ruffled placements failed to strike a chord; the ones placed at breast level, for instance, were slightly more plentiful than what you might find on a vintage bikini. It was slightly more problematic that several shapes did not appear as if they could accommodate a range of body types—unless they were broken up into separates, which incidentally was Monsieur Laroche’s strong suit. So perhaps this collection’s weakness was principally a question of styling. Still, Andrascik has a rare opportunity—and a small window—to infuse the brand with much-needed cachet by creating one must-have piece and repeating it over and over again, no matter which direction he steers the collection.
2 March 2016
The heritage of Guy Laroche reads blurry at best in our collective consciousness, so when London-based designerAdam Andrasciktook the reins of the storied house earlier this year, it was his turn to write a new set of rules. From that first outing, it was already clear his vision dramatically overstepped the Parisienne tropes of Monsieur Laroche’s couture past, driving a more youthful, urban sensibility that returned in his second collection for Spring.Stretching a tall tale of “tropical dystopia” to describe his sophomore effort, Central Saint Martins–trained Andrascik showed an upbeat cross-section of ladylike daywear collaged with wartime references, such as the khaki jacquards traced with palm fronds that occasionally returned as mirrored appliqués for evening. Swinging between touches of military detailing and ultra-feminine froufrou, his barely there shirting, off-the-shoulder jackets, and miniskirts benefited from the strictness he employed via brass button symmetry, yet faltered into unnecessary complication when ruching and knotted hemlines took center stage.Among the complex slice-and-dice of dévoré jacquards and muddy striped separates, Andrascik’s talent with a biker jacket rose once again to the fore, with that Laroche staple energized in multiple permutations today. In leather, it featured a daring cutout shoulder and chain details (perhaps a sultry choice for Jada Pinkett Smith, who sat front row in Fall’s gold-dipped sweaterdress), yet for Andrascik it seems the more streamlined, the better. Cases in point: a Perfecto lapel folding down a straight, double-collar coatdress and a series of scooped-back shirts. They channeled that same millennial grunge that his double-waistband denim captured in spades.
30 September 2015
The name Guy Laroche lingers as one of those slightly indefinable French couture houses that is most likely powered by its much more familiar fragrances, Fidji and Drakkar Noir. Which is not to say that Laroche didn't have a distinct signature in the heyday of the label's namesake. "He was very much of-the-moment," said Adam Andrascik, the Central Saint Martins-trained young American who showed his first collection for Laroche today. "It's my challenge to bring back that relevance."The route he chose was rock—a hard, deconstructed edge that, for all its tip of the cap to Guy's signatures, such as open-backed tops and use of the shiny skin known as "paper leather," went looking for relevance in much shadier places. One of Andrascik's stated influences wasThe Pillow Book, Peter Greenaway's cult movie from 1996 that revolved around the fetishistic power of body art in Japanese culture and the unabashed nudity of Ewan McGregor. For his own collections in London, Andrascik had leather jackets tattooed, an effect that was unfortunately unfeasible for Laroche. Even more unfortunately, the effect was duplicated today in a black-and-white tattoo print, overlaid with gold foil Japanese calligraphy.The foil effect worked much better when it was used to define sinuous knit dresses that were Andrascik's most successful stab at relevance. The mesh overlay he applied to fitted jersey dresses also put a glint in the eye of the Guy Laroche renaissance. Still, the cumulative effect of panel-hemmed warrior skirts, dévoré velvets, and black lacquered lace was inevitably gothic, which probably wasn't the effect the designer was after. But as an indication of his state of mind going into this formidable assignment, Andrascik did mention that one of the things that appealed to him most aboutThe Pillow Bookwas the strangeness of two cultures fusing. "I'm a boy from Pittsburgh coming to Paris," he mused. "I can relate."
4 March 2015
Backstage at Guy Laroche, creative director Marcel Marongiu named Claire McCardell as this season's starting point. In a way, it seemed funny to hear him cite a designer other than the one whose name fronts the house he works for—especially when he likely has access to a treasure trove of source material. But to view the collection as a total statement, not the sum of its parts, is to better appreciate how Marongiu considered the freshness of McCardell's daywear back in the '50s. For Spring he was trying to provoke a similar feeling, rather than channel her designs.Marongiu opened the show with a grouping of leather color-blocked minidresses and continued with slim-line navy overalls made feminine with the addition of bikini tops or bare backs. The languid ribbed knits expressed Marongiu's word of the day, "freedom," as did the maxi slipdresses covered in kinetic geometric prints. For textural contrast, he deftly played with a crosshatched leather and an exclusive Malhia Kent Lurex-and-raffia tweed. After that, the cocktail dresses paneled with amorphous Plexiglas pieces seemed extraneous, mostly because they felt neither of McCardell's day nor ours.Yet Marongiu eventually revealed two additional inspirations: The oversize buttons on the well-tailored jackets were a nod to his grandfather, a general in the Swedish army; and the tweed's blue-and-yellow mix, which conjured the palette ofStarry Night, again riffed on the designer's Swedish roots. "The collection is actually an homage to my mother because she used to dress in a quirky way," said Marongiu. "And I owe her a lot." Now isn't that the worthiest starting point of all?
24 September 2014
Marcel Marongiu arrived at the colors for his Fall Guy Laroche collection after viewing the Serge Poliakoff show that recently ended at the Musée d'Art Moderne in Paris. Cinnamon, teal, deep green, and deep purple were among the intriguingly muddy hues favored by the painter. (Marongiu, who paints in his spare time, seemed less interested in the vermilion, rose, and ocher that would have rounded out Poliakoff's preferred palette.) But the artist's modernist, irregular shapes didn't figure into the Guy Laroche silhouette story, which for the most part appeared more streamlined than last season's tiers and tulips (one exception: two shaggy Mongolian sheep fur coats). Marongiu, who has been the artistic director of Guy Laroche since 2007, softened his volumes with long accordion-pleat skirts and a floor-grazing sack dress, while keeping pants lean and cropped. The designer drew attention to garment construction with raw-seamed edges that projected outward from felted wool tops, and pinched waists on dress coats. Lacquered leather and calf hair were surface-treatment alternatives for outerwear. For evening, Marongiu introduced black sequin polka dots embroidered onto tulle sheaths sans underpinnings. In case this was too much provocation, he showed how they could be worked into LBD variants with solid knit layers and a soigné coat. The fact that you can add Guy Laroche to the list of brands flaunting exposed nipples for Fall is the most obvious proof that it has relevance today. But don't discount the less risqué looks; they'll hold up much longer.
25 February 2014
Today, the Guy Laroche show opened with a hoodie. But the filmy fusion of silk and polyamide ensured that this was no average sweatshirt. Paired with a flared miniskirt in matching material and ankle-bracelet python stilettos, the look pushed the brand into far cooler boy/girl territory than in seasons past.Except that this was not the collection's main message. Artistic director Marcel Marongiu looked to dystopic cinematic references—Gattaca,Metropolis, and David Cronenberg—rather than Rihanna off-duty. He cloned the diamond-shaped buttons on crisp white shirts so there were two rows, and he experimented with optical fiber as neo-fringe. He could have convinced us that the small white leather pieces puzzled and sewn together were the skin of an otherworldly animal. Marongiu was clearly focused on fabric innovation, but the stronger moments included the coats and gilets that were as amply shaped as they were buoyant in weight. Here was volume that looked forward, rather than the box-pleated dresses that looked back (to Laroche's sack silhouettes). Hemlines that curved with exaggerated effect, fabric that folded in on itself, and asymmetrically fastened blouses went against the natural—albeit unscientific—laws of how garments are constructed; some ended up too tinkered.Laroche, an early colorist, might have wondered about the bilious yellow grouping that emerged midway through. Marongiu explained that he had been obsessed with the hue of the highly poisonous golden frog. Its scientific classification:P. terribilis. That kind of backstory doesn't auger well. Fortunately, the collection had the type of movement and form that will play well both on-screen and off.
24 September 2013
That's right, the lady is a vamp. Such was the takeaway from today's Guy Laroche show, which found designer Marcel Marongiu putting a noirish spin on frank sex appeal. Marongiu's stated inspiration this season was Marlene Dietrich and her seductive and very womanly way of wearing men's clothing. For the most part, Dietrich's presence in this collection was subliminal—you caught her in the suiting emphasis, and in Marongiu's range of very polished aviator jackets. But the overall vibe here eschewed Dietrich's trademark insouciance in favor of a more straightforward and emphatic femme fatale aesthetic. Draped leather and camo-print dresses with forties silhouettes featured plunging V-necks and/or slits up tothere. Tie-neck blouses came with high-drama, billowing sleeves and were paired with A-line trousers with legs for days. Color and texture, too, helped raise this collection's volume—Marongiu punctuated his black and navy looks with monochromatic ensembles in purple and fuchsia, and his most intriguing material here was a braided silk with the look of python. Insouciant, not so much.And then there were the mesh dresses and the halters. Aside from Marongiu's iffy proposition that women wear leather or crystal halters plain, as tops, the really odd thing about this show was how many of the looks seemed to have wandered in from another collection entirely. The fuchsia ensembles, for example, had a clean look and sporty mien that were out of whack with the rest of the clothes, while the pieces in a black, rosette-textured technical fabric were winsome and romantic, and likewise felt out of place. Yet these were some of the stronger groups for Guy Laroche this season, which suggests that Marongiu would do well to ease up on his looks. A little intensity goes a long way.
26 February 2013
Marcel Marongiu is "sick and tired" of jeans and sweaters and all the other pieces that apparently prevent a woman from looking her finest. In his mind, women are dressed their best in a "total look." At first, this sounded a tad ironic, given that the late Monsieur Laroche was one of the early champions of separates. But Marongiu didn't actually mean a collection of formal dresses; in fact, his formula was streamlined, sporty, and included a strategic showing of skin.As artistic director for Guy Laroche since 2007, Marongiu insists he's more confident now in this role than he's ever been, and you should be able to see that in the clothes.So do you? You might share his conclusion based on the opening coat that reappeared in a different coloration midway through the collection. In double-face woven crepe, laser-cut at the edges, it was strict but swingy. Thick visible seams on its inside played up the color contrast (emerald green and navy; limestone and powdery pink) and proved a nice touch.You might not be able to tell that the architecture of Frank Gehry and Oscar Niemeyer motivated Laroche's silhouettes. But that's OK. Marongiu's emphasis on an attenuated line, from high-waisted trousers to fluid ankle-length silk jersey skirts, got the message across.His use of prints was all or nothing. The two patterns—a grid of triangles and abstracted leaves—showed up on bags and geometric stacked heels in addition to the clothing. No styling necessary: Marongiu has your whole outfit thought out for you.If the designer's confidence was evident in the multitude of bandeaux—strapless, T-backed, halters—then the ensuing question is: Do you want to wear this? Marongiu's reply: "What woman wouldn't want to wear this?" Some of this, surely. But of the 42 looks, 11 featured cropped tops. And once you ditch the bandeaux (which many customers surely will), you no longer have that total look.
25 September 2012
The major takeaway from Marcel Marongiu's slick, noir-ish collection for Guy Laroche was its experimentation with textures. In the first look out, the smooth, high shine of a patent skirt was played off a black ribbed and molded turtleneck. Marongiu then segued to more tactile fare. He seemed to be taken with disturbed surfaces, as in a nubby wool that looked as if it been nibbled on by a creature of the night.That idea was at its best in pieces with sequins that were bristled up here and there. They worked rather nicely when paired with basket-weave knits—a more casual breather from the collection's somewhat rootless seventies-inflected severity. The hard-edged sensibility softened slightly as Marongiu juiced things up with a grouping in rich pumpkin orange, followed by one in gold. A third jewel tone grouping would have been a stronger finish than the heavy gold tribal embroideries looks that closed the show.
28 February 2012