Julian Louie (Q4871)
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Julian Louie is a fashion house from FMD.
| Language | Label | Description | Also known as |
|---|---|---|---|
| English | Julian Louie |
Julian Louie is a fashion house from FMD. |
Statements
Collage is a recurring theme in Julian Louie's work, and this season he turned exclusively to piecework. A dress in silk tassar—more grain and less sheen than regular silk—had a color-blocked top and a pleated taffeta skirt in bands of contrasting shades. With its dropped waist emphasized by the shift in fabrics and colors, it looked a bit like a very awesome tennis dress. Lush florals were another part of the story, and Louie developed his prints by manipulating photos he'd taken at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden. Sure, they'd been Photoshopped, but you wouldn't think something so wild could grow in the metropolis. Spliced up and patched in next to one another, the grasses and magnified petals had a palpable energy; they looked ready to burst out of the linear shifts and T-shirt dresses Louie had contained them in. Cloglike wedges (not suitable for gardening), some in the same floral print, were the result of another collaboration with Aldo; if they prove as popular as last Spring's ikat wedges, we imagine both designer and shoe retailer will be pleased. And for Louie's customer? There are standout dresses and cool separates here to make her happy. Though similar, each of these 15 looks packs a pretty punch.
13 September 2011
"This is the non-inspiration season," Julian Louie said at his temporary studio (he's currently sharing space with friend Pamela Love) the day after a video presentation of his collection at The Box. Rather than explore some far-flung theme, the designer said he "started with color."Beginning with the basics—a primary palette of red, yellow, and blue—Louie first took on shoes, the third collection he's made in collaboration with Aldo. Last season's ikat wedges were picked up for production, and this season's color-blocked heels, with elements of deconstructed Top-Siders and loafers, should fare equally well. Super-cute is the only way to describe them.The clothes got color-blocked, too. A camel and gray paneled wool peacoat had geometric insets in lacquered black cotton and an oversize baby blue plastic zipper. Cheeky and cool, it made you think of Legos, in a good way. The crepe de chine tops, reminiscent of men's dress shirts, had printed cotton sleeves and contrasting fabric across the shoulders. And a simple notch-front vest in eye-catching red would be one good way to get your color fix.
16 February 2011
It wasn't your usual fashion inspiration:The Hyena & Other Men, a book of photographs by the South African lensman Pieter Hugo that documents the lives of Nigerian street entertainers and their faunal entourage—three hyenas, two pythons, and four monkeys—provided Julian Louie with this season's springboard. Influenced by the way Hugo's human subjects mixed traditional, opulent African garments with found pieces of American athleticwear, Louie played with adornment and collage. An asymmetric silk satin skirt came festooned with tassels like the kind you'd find on a tie-back for a pair of damask curtains, and a crepe de chine shirtdress had a trim of textured haircloth.During the presentation, Louie explained that he wanted the clothes in the collection to be experienced individually, as an assemblage of parts rather than full looks, so the pieces were shown statically, hung from crisscrossing racks. Running in sharp diagonals along the floor—echoing the clean, geometric lines of Louie's separates—were the results of the designer's second collaboration with Aldo. These open-toe wedged ankle boots, made from patchwork suede and contrasting tribal prints in cotton ikat, featured some of the collection's most playful mixing and matching.Fingers crossed the kicks make it to stores; they looked great with the clothes and called attention to the subtle, crafty details in Louie's beautifully constructed pieces.
9 September 2010
A short film featuring Ukrainian model Jules Mordovets lounging in a variety of Julian Louie ensembles was how the designer presented his Fall line. "There's intense workmanship in these clothes," he told Style.com, as the camera panned across a blouse to reveal a smattering of Swarovski pearls, "and those are the details that get lost in a show."A focus on laid-back silhouettes—carried over from Spring—unified the collection. It ranged from a pieced-together silk T-shirt paired with velvet peg-leg trousers to a roomy ruffle-trimmed dress embroidered with a floral motif inspired by a chair once owned by Marie Antoinette.It was difficult to trace how Louie, who made a name for himself with sharp lines and a knack for color-blocking, came to create some of the more ornate pieces. By contrast, a silk-and-velvet tee with the aforementioned pearl embroidery, worn tucked into a simple black velvet miniskirt, felt like a more natural evolution. In any case, Louie has a talent for clothes that are at once special and wearable. Judging by the influential buyers in attendance tonight, we're not the only ones who think so.
11 February 2010
For a young designer, buzz is a complex commodity. It's great to be lauded as the kid du jour, but if you don't sell any clothes, your tree falls in a lonely forest. That's the place Julian Louie found himself last Fall. "This is the season that I want to launch commercially," he explained at his presentation.Inspired by a sunset seen from a plane window, Louie's 20 looks covered a lovely tonal range of some of the soft nudes and neutrals that have been one of the week's early trends, both on the runway and off. After Fall's strict lines, Louie offered a new softness that should send him straight into commercial arms—floaty crepe de chine dresses and fluid trousers. In each entirely tonal look, Louie added interest by piecing together various textured fabrics—Ultrasuede, moiré silk, tulle, sport mesh—for a study in opacity. He expanded on the idea by using an almost feathery-looking tab fringe strung with Swarovski crystals as trim. As the designer explained, severity is still part of his vocabulary. You could see it here in some stricter silhouettes, but, less literally, it translated as a sort of visual discipline that's an inarguable strength. This collection should help Louie make some consequential noise that's louder than just buzz.
13 September 2009
Economic woes aside, it's an exciting time for New York fashion, as once-new labels evolve into serious businesses while a promising freshman class moves into its young designer shoes. With the heat of Francisco Costa as a mentor and a standout 15-look debut, Julian Louie is one of the buzziest of the bunch. His second collection comes forth from a stream of references: the discovery of a hefty felt, which led to the idea of riveted clothes, to tectonic plates, to armor, and then to samurai armor. Oh, and then there's the matador thing. In practice, Louie was exploring "austere layering." Every look began with a sleek, almost alien-looking (in a good way) microfiber dress or top that the designer described as a "second skin." Over that went a white shirt with a stiff imperial collar, and tailored jackets, skirts, and dresses that looked like they were crafted from various hammered panels of felt and Swarovski beading. A highly modern and original vision, for sure, but also quite feminine and even sexy, with bold shoulders, flaring hips, nipped waists, and sleek little pants on looks that echoed a torero silhouette. It's also an approach with a potentially tricky runway-to-reality translation. "I'm taking it extremely slow," said Louie of his retail strategy. Good thing. Certainly, any one of those upperclassmen can tell you that success takes time.
18 February 2009