Ladylike with a little edge
There’s an edge to this season’s looks. A little urban, a little ladylike, a little sharp: like a buttoned-up heiress with a substance abuse problem. Lots of beautiful surface finishes with some darkness lurking underneath.
At Ferragamo, they let loose with footwear more suitable for a dominatrix — with its architectural lines, glimpses of bare skin and glistening PVC and patent leather finish.
Rafe Totengco, who was inspired by a recent trip to Venice, offered his usual trippy prints on totes but went in a more stylized direction for some purses, including studded crossbody purses in black and structured bags in stamped croc in an inky, almost iridescent green.
Designers like Phillip Lim played off the blurry lines between masculine and feminine, in roomy suits, while Thakoon — working with plenty of gray and black — offered streamlined patterns, like circle skirts with a men’s shirt overlaid with a textured knit mimicking a vest. Alexander Wang, who worked with patterned grids on chunky knits for his first look, is going for ladylike with straight-edged rectangular front-flap purses with an abbreviated strap. Creatures of the Wind operated with panels of color on boxy silhouettes, giving the impression of a grid motif — a popular trend for this season and in the coming months.
Such smart tailoring requires a bolder touch with makeup — still with a minimal edge. Nars, responsible for the recent shows of Lim, Wang, Thakoon and Creatures of the Wind, did slicked-back hair or a loose textured unmade-up coif with either a bold eye or lip.
At Thakoon, a rectangular painted lid in a textured hue — utilizing the collection’s latest release of eye paint in a weightless gel formula — is a fresh counterpoint. Paint the lid with an intense pigment, like Nars Ubangi, a black with an iridescent shimmer, and then layer a metal shade over for depth.
For 3.1 Phillip Lim, a semi-matte, highly-pigmented lipstick in a deep rose brown like 413 BLKR or velvet matte lip pencil in wine red like Cruella is modern and grown-up. Paired with thick brows, it’s a masterful way to achieve the season’s trend without overdoing it.
