When the final curtain came down on Japan Fashion Week, the styles of the twenties and thirties rose to take their place as a top theme in fall ready- to-wear. Certainly, Tokyo’s catwalks don’t impact our market to the same degree as those of New York, Milan, Paris, and London. Still, I can’t over-stress how global influences increasingly overlap these days--which is why I always closely follow them, noting their key directions in color, themes, fabrics, and such.
I wasn’t surprised when yellow — the second most important color for spring in New York, Paris, and Milan — was a top trend that emerged. And the other non- surprise? “New Deco,” of course. Koichi Chida’s Fur Fur collection showed one flapper-like style after another that echoed the era’s whimsical spirit, structured shapes, and fine embellishments--especially those sumptuous low-slung bows.
Also no surprise to me (amid this whole resurrection of “speakeasy style” on the world’s runways) is that fine jewelers, too, continue to focus on creating complementary new Deco accessories. And so far I’ve been impressed with various modern interpretations of the jewelry brilliance of the Jazz Age.
Certainly, I want to mention an up-and-comer I recently learned of, thanks to last month’s Future of Design Contest, a new event in our industry co-created by Cindy Edelstein. It was the competition’s winner, Bree Richey. She’s a Massachusetts-based talent that I believe has great promise — well, the judges did, too, of course. It’s also interesting to me that Richey’s collection happens to be, in large part, one with a very original interpretation of the art, architecture, and fashion of—you guessed it--Art Deco.
Koichi Chida’s Fur Fur RTW Fall 2012 Collection.
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