Resort 2013: Alexander Wang, Peter Pilotto, Zac Posen, and more.

Alexander Wang
I wonder if Alexander Wang ever just feels too cool and has to have a little sit-down? OK, I kid, but this is the same guy who last year was lauded hither and yon for making the most ~magical~ plain white t-shirt in all of Fashionland, and is consistently successful every single season with a selection of designs that are basically the minimalist android equivalent of sweatpants and hoodies. This season: blocky black-and-white boots to go along with a whole collection of simple monochromatic outfits, all modeled in the coldest and most kidnappy of basements.

Hipster Snape Eveningwear is my fave, so this dress immediately gets my vote. I'm also rather curious as to how one gets in and out of it. Does it... unwrap? No matter. None of us are rich enough to ever try it on, anyway.

I love a Fifth Element strap-shirt as much as the next guy, but Fashionland is going to have to try a lot harder if I'm ever going to join the club of people who approve of cropped and tapered trousers. This pair are by no means the worst in the collection, actually -- evidently Alexander Wang's flirtation with hipster chic has led to a full embrace of the wonders of unflattering grandparent trousers.

Carven
If this was floorlength it'd look like some kind of marvellous faux-medieval gown. As it is, it appears to be dangerously close to my ideal outfit, ie a classic Starfleet uniform minidress made from 17th century Flemish tapestry. (P.S. That last part was deadly serious.)

Dion Lee
TRON.

L'Wren Scott
PERFECT RESORT COLLECTION. The print isn't precisely what I'd have gone for, but the collection as a whole is deliciously summery, cheerful and retro without being too out-there. And it's the hats that really make each of the outfits. Who doesn't want a collection of complementary pillbox hats? Terrible people who don't enjoy Christina Aguilera's Candyman video, I assume.

BRB wearing this to all future job interviews.

Peter Pilotto
I feel like Peter Pilotto has my beloved Mary Katrantzou to thank for a lot of these outfits. I'm not suggesting anything so drastic as plagiarism because there is a certain amount of overlap between these two designers anyway, but this particular collection did combine two of Katrantzou's main design elements: complex digital prints, and structured minidresses.

The print designs come from illuminated manuscripts sourced from the Royal Library in London, and range from stained-glass glowing to some variations on the current trend for symmetrical "tribal" (ughhhh) patterns on skirts and leggings. I picked the trousers below because they kinda look like they have a really fancy rainbow bullseye drawing attention to the model's vagina, which may or may not be the classy effect the designers were originally going for.

Zac Posen
As model choices go, Erin O'Connor was both unexpected and perfect. Age-wise she seems ideal because Zac Posen does tend to skew a little older, somewhere in the Victoria-Grayson-from-Revenge vamp range. And as a model, what is Erin O'Conner known for? Tall, strong, androgynous looks. Zac Posen, however, is known for wasp waists and hourglass-cut suits, implying that not only is the tailoring excellent in this collection, but there's also surely some corsetry going on as well.

I love this suit. So Cruella Deville!

Zac Posen's capsule lable, Z Spoke, gets a far less positive review from me. Like most spinoff labels it's less interesting (and "cheap", at a mere $1000 per item), but the thing that particularly turned me off was the extreme thinness of the model they used for the lookbook photoshoot. I tend to have a higher threshhold than many people when it comes to the unusual appearance of high-end models, mainly because I look at so many fashion photos on a regular basis, but for a single-model Ready To Wear lookbook this kind of casting is just ridiculous. Z Spoke's designs mirror Zac Posen's in that they emphasise narrow waists and are very tightly fitted, but surely this is something that would be showcased more effectively by a model who actually has something to cinch in?

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NYFW Fall 2012: Ralph Lauren, Alexander Wang, Badgley Mischka, Creatures of the Wind, and more.

Ralph Lauren

As someone on twitter put it, this is like looking into my brain. Ralph Lauren's Fall 2012 show was heavily influenced by pre-war British menswear, included multiple flavours of tweed, and was soundtracked by the Downton Abbey theme music. At least half the collection was made up of Edwardian/1920s trouser suits for ladies, about which I could not be happier.

catwalk pics from Style.com

This was one of those situations where objective criticism falls by the wayside. I love early 20th Century suits, especially on women; I love knee-length trousers; I love Downton Abbey and continue to masochistically watch it despite the fact that I spend most of each episode shouting obscenities at Julian Fellowes' soap-opera hack style of screenwriting. Yes, this is something of a pastiche collection, but I think it plays around enough with 1910s/20s style (plus being genderswitched) that it doesn't fall into the category of directly-copied period costume.

Ralph Lauren isn't one of those labels I get pre-emptively excited over, unlike Mary Katrantzou, Alexander McQueen, Haider Ackerman, or Gareth Pugh. However, I've come to realise that every season, Lauren turns out the largest number of "conventional" outfits that I unequivocably adore. None of what we're looking at today is a product of groundbreaking design experimentation, but instead is the result of years of detail-work and attention to the ultimate goal of creating perfect tailoring for extremely rich people who want to look stylish and adult without making a statement.

This collection ranged from more working-class inspired suits with cloth caps and brown tweeds, to the glossy aristocracy of top-hat-and-cane suits. Also noticeably present were some riffs on the early women's suits -- ie, pantaloon-like short trousers, brown lace-up shoes, cloche hats, and the ubiquitous grey-brown patterned jumpers.

This is where the modern touch comes in.

There was something about this three-piece suit that screamed Ralph Lauren, to me.

After a moment, I realised that it was the fabric, which reminded me of this Ralph Lauren Purple Label ad from (I think?) 2009. Am I concerned that this level of fashion pattern-recognition is eventually going to take over my brain and fill up all my memory space with clothing and costume knowledge to the detriment of everything else? (Answer: yes.)

The latter half of the collection concentrated on more traditionally feminine eveningwear, which to my eyes paled in comparison to the suits. Thankfully they didn't go particulalarly heavy-handed on the 1920s influence, presumably because the designers were aware of just how many Jazz Age gowns the fashion world has in store for us this year already.

Alice + Olivia
Retro-cheesy mod style? Yes please. I hope someone wears this on a red carpet at some point -- it's very eye-catching. 

Anna Sui

Alexander Wang
This season's focus was fabric, specifically laminated fabric and plastic fibres. Everything was waterproof, artificial, and vaccuum-sealed to within an inch of its life, although without the aid of Wang's design notes I don't know if I would have picked up on much of that. With a few exceptions, this collection was a bit of a miss with me. I couldn't really work out what his goal was, or his audience, especially since he seemed to have traded in his usual ultra-modern American comfort for rigid, armour-like jackets that looked like they'd behead the wearer if she tried to bend her neck.

I wish we could have seen more of the plastic mesh turtlenecks most of the models wore beneath their coats, because I think they might have been the most saleable item in the collection. Odd-looking and probably not all that comfortable against the skin -- they looked like they were made of unwoven, moulded plastic -- but undeniably Alexander Wang, and perfect for layering into an outfit for a hint of early-2000s cyber style.

The alien-like detail on this dress, continuing directly from sleeve to glove, was one of my favourite parts of this collection. A sterile and eye-catching look.

Badgley Mischka
Yet another Metropolis-inspired collection, hot on the heels of at least two during Couture Fashion Week last month. I give this one more credit, though, because instead of running directly into the 1920s they went more thematic, with dull-sheen greens and golds, and the wild hair of all silent-movie madwomen. Also, I have a soft-spot for anything that reminds me of the green/gold motifs of the costumes of the movie Thor.

Creatures of the Wind
This has got to be one of the most eclectic collections I've ever seen. At first I was intrigued, because the inspiration was supposedly the 17th Century Scottish mythological text, The Secret Commonwealth of Elves, Fauns, and Fairies by Robert Kirk. In case anyone was in any doubt about how much of a nerd I am, at the age of 11 or 12 I had an obsession with fairy myth and legend that was so intense I got a reader's pass to a local university library so I could go to the archive and handle an original copy of this book, cementing forever my slightly unsettling fixation with white book-handling gloves.

It's unclear to me just what part The Secret Commonwealth... played in the creation of this show. There were certain elements of peasant-skirts and so on but in general it seemed like a randomly flung-together selection of Etsy-wear. I have no doubt that it would receive a high rating from Tavi Gevinson, but aside from that I'm rather puzzled by its lack of cohesive structure.

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