Monday, February 27, 2012

#4--Richard Chai Fall 2012 NY Fashion Week

Twelve minutes late may as well be a death sentence for Chai according to Eric Wilson, NYT journalist. He clearly was unimpressed and quite underwhelmed with the showing of Richard Chai's F12 show. Better luck next time perhaps? And don't be late!!!  

Richard Chai's collection was late arriving at Lincoln Center for his 11 a.m. fashion show this morning, so while the editors were waiting, they checked their e-mail. At 11:12 a.m., a press release popped in my in-box from Pantone, the color forecasting company, announcing its predictions for the fall season: Olympian Blue, Tangerine Tango, Ultramarine Green, Titanium, Honey Gold, Pink FlambĂ© and other colors that I can’t quite picture but assume to be rather bright. When Mr. Chai’s designs hit the runway, they were, as usual, predominantly based in urban shades of grays, blacks and navy blue. I suspect Pantone’s report is mostly a public relations stunt to get its name in the papers. (It works.) But I mention this as a reminder that New York Fashion Week, with something like 350 shows, cannot easily be pegged to a set of trends for the season. Increasingly, it is becoming a series of fractured voices and images, probably a healthy thing for fashion since it means designers are recognizing the need for independent thinking. “I didn’t want to do anything that was tricky,” Mr. Chai said. “I didn’t want to create looks that were just for the show. I wanted it to be approachable and believable, but also be really aspirational. At the end of the day, it’s pieces that I want people to wear.” Mr. Chai’s gray and black blanket stripes were shown on coats, jackets and trousers for men and women, and later in his show there were sportswear options in claret velvet, wide-legged corduroy pants, and a print that looked like old wallpaper, but no Tangerine Tango. For men, he also introduced his new collection for Filson, including coats, a weekender bag and backpacks trimmed with the company’s signature thin leather strips. The idea, Mr. Chai said backstage, “was obviously the idea of youthful uniforms and a fun way to put things together, but also, for women at least, handsome femininity.”
 http://runway.blogs.nytimes.com/category/fashion-week/newyork-fashionweek/page/2/
Color:
-Olympian Blue
-Tangerine Tango
-Ultramarine Green
-Titanium
-Honey Gold
-Pink Flambe
-Urban shades of grays, blacks and navy blue

Inspiration:
-approachable
-believeable
-aspirational
-"pieces people can wear"
-femininity

Fabrics:
-blanket stripes
-velvet
-corduroy
-"old wallpaper"
-leather
Items:
-pants
-coats
-jackets
-trousers
-weekender bags/backpacks

1 comment:

  1. So...did Richard Chai totally piss off Eric Wilson with the late runway show start??? In comparison to the laundry list of dynamic Pantone-christened color monikers (Tangerine Tango! Ultramarine Green!), the descriptives Wilson used for Chai's collection remind me of an old, run-down Victorian house: "blanket." "Old wallpaper." "Gray and black."

    Geez. Wilson admits the Pantone report is a publicity stunt that works. It took up most of his blog entry on Chai's show. I wonder how much worse the review would have been had Chai been more than 12 minutes late...

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