NEW YORK (AP) – The Associated Press is all over New York Fashion Week, from the runway designs to the celebrity-filled front rows. Here are some recent highlights:
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A FEATHER FEST AT MICHAEL KORS
If you had to pick one adjective to sum up Michael Kors’ latest collection, a good bet might be “feathery.”
The designer was going for “the flirty freedom of things that move,” to quote his production notes, and there were flirty feathers on at least 10 of the looks he sent down the runway – starting with feathers adorning a pair of jeans, and moving to feathers on a houndstooth tweed coat, on a denim or tweed skirt, and on black silk for ultimate evening effect.
There were also plenty of sequins, adding a very bright sheen to some of the fashions, especially a silver sequin embroidered “streamer” dress, with the hem cut into strips that indeed looked like streamers, and also a pair of seriously glistening silver metallic stretch tulle pants.
Kors always has a healthy celebrity contingent at his fashion shows, and Wednesday’s event was no exception: Blake Lively and Jennifer Hudson were among the front-row guests. They were there to witness an anniversary of sorts for Kors.
“I’m not one for anniversaries and I’m really not a big kind of looking-over-my-shoulder kind of guy,” Kors said in a backstage interview. “But when I started designing this I realized, oh my God, this is my 35th fall collection. That’s crazy!”
Kors added that as he reflected on the milestone, he realized the most important thing was to keep his fashion fun.
“I wanted this to be full of fun and charm,” he said. “So it’s very flirty, short, leggy, not a gown in sight. All the rules are broken because stylish people break the rules … The seasons are crazy anyway. So when the weather’s terrible, don’t you want to put on a fabulous apple green coat to change your spirits? Don’t you want to wear tweed with flowers? Don’t you want to put feathers on flannel? Wear flats at night? Wear metallic for a day?”
Lively had brought her mom along, a former model who, the actress said, used to make clothes for her kids when they were growing up.
“It’s so nice,” she said of attending a Kors show as a fan. “You sort of like high-five everyone when a great piece comes out, which is often. I’m excited to go hug him backstage afterward.”
-Jocelyn Noveck and Nicole Evatt
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NATURE AND FRITZ LANG’S FUTURE AT DELPOZO
Delpozo creative director Josep Font is nothing if not a romantic, even when he’s honoring the lady robot of Fritz Lang’s 1927 classic film “Metropolis.”
But wait. There’s more to this Spaniard’s fall/winter collection. Blended with his severe geometry and his cool metallics of silver, gold and bronze is the powerful strength in nature of digital illustrator Daria Petrilli, in tiny-waisted Victorian coats and beautifully sequined evening gloves in riots of three-dimensional flowers.
Both Lang and Petrilli are more than a little evident in the details. The Madrid-based brand is known for volume, which Font said in an interview poses a slight challenge in the United States. Not everybody will be drawn to his huge bows at the neck and overly rounded shapes.
But here, he used volume daintily in spots. Some dresses had large block leaf motifs in fabrics that offer the same soft but structured curves as the scuba material so popular on runways in years past.
Font also speaks fluently in pleats, putting a soft version on a long tulle train on a finale gown in black, and razor-sharp pleats elsewhere, including a skirt where they stand on their own at the waist.
He carried flora and fauna detailing into embroidery, putting delicate orange stems on black evening looks. One of his appliques came in red leather squares and rectangles.
Font is a humble romantic, declaring in his spare English the outdoors as a major love.
“All weekends I am going to the country,” he said. “I love my garden to connect with nature.”
-Leanne Italie