Posts for September 8th 2008

Charles Nolan Spring 2009
Runway

Charles Nolan Spring 2009

Charles Nolan takes us through his dual inspirations for his Spring 2009 collection including one innovative American couple and a book on Post World War I France.
by coutorture

Charles Nolan takes us through his dual inspirations for his Spring 2009 collection including one innovative American couple and a book on Post World War I France.

DKNY is NY
Runway

DKNY is NY

Distilling the essence of urban culture from its less commercially vibrant niches into a palatable empire of easy to buy clothing is the DKNY way.
by coutorture

Distilling the essence of urban culture from its less commercially vibrant niches into a palatable empire of easy to buy clothing is the DKNY way. A few pops of what is particularly trendy in a given season, in this case prints, a pop or two of neon green (it just won't go away) some rompers, a few frips anf frills with bows, puffy shorts, dresses meant to hang off the bones of the emaciated, hell even a few screen printed tee-shirts and you have the perfect New York collection. Big bold blue which has been showing it self on the runway for several seasons made itself a prominent part of the collection. In fact technicolor abounded with a few eye scorching pinks and yellows. It was a season of easy to wear urban wear for the East Village walk up set, well the ones that emulate them anyway. Plus ça change, plus c'est la meme chose.

Its loose, its easy, its urban and its what the cool kids are wearing. Except they are wearing labels the rest of the world hasn't heard of, despite obsessive coverage online from the aspirational. But this collection is for the rest of the world. That might explain the choice of music which includes Madona (though more recent work) and Depche Mode, just as New York leaves its 80s nostalgia period easing us into missing the 90s instead. Thus DKNY transitioned us into a little bit of Whackness style hip hop.

Which makes it, in all its bottom up glory, a collection that is New York for the rest of the world. We wonder if any of the actual creators of the culture even mind the rip. Hell, we think its pretty flattering. Too bad you can't get royalties in this business huh? But remixing it, serving it up "fresh" and saying how about paying a little bit more has been a solid business model in New York since we got started. Thus we say DKNY is NY. Happy 20th Birthday guys! And even though we totally appreciated the Chandon, we think the legal limit is technically 21. But we promise not to tell.