Mercedes Benz Fashion Week at Lincoln Center is approaching quickly. Like past seasons, the tents will compete with Milk Studios shows and other off-site locations. Fashion Funhouse Emporium's credentials as a legit source of coverage have finally been approved. Yay! I suppose this means I can officially talk about who I want to check out with some "street cred!"
Here are the women's designers showing at Spring 2011 fashion week that I am curious to see. Good, bad, and in between, this is what the shows are all about.
Photo: Yuna Yang Blog
This New York based fashion designer has two past collections on her site. This season, she'll be showing at Lincoln Center. When I checked out her collections, I see potential from this Central Saint Martins grad, yet there is some question to who she wants to be as a designer. Her pieces range artsy, structural suits to very basic looking ready to wear. I'd like to see her go full throttle,with Galliano couture, if she's really not focused on selling as her biography states. We need some more craziness at New York shows.
Photo: Jenny Packham
I am familiar with Jenny Packham's lacy and ultra feminine luxury wedding collections from when I worked at In Style Weddings. Of course, I'm ready to see what this British designer (also a Central Saint Martins alumni) will send down the runway for ready to wear again this spring. Her past couple of collections showcased red carpet ready dresses, which isn't too much of a stray from matrimonial gowns. So far, she's a bit of an edgier Carolina Herrera, keeping with the high end evening wear aesthetic.
Photo: William Tempest
Another Brit on the New York scene, this designer's past collections have been pretty basic geometric influenced body conscious dresses. He's worked with some heavy-hitters, like Jean Charles de Castlebajac and Giles Deacon. He's even designed accessories and clothing for Miss Madge, Madonna to you others. It will be interesting to see this guy evolve, hopefully away from Alexander McQueen/ Balmain style dresses and into his own signature.
Photo: Parkchoomoo
So I'm not only giving preference to the British designers this season, enter Seoul, Korea's Parkchoomoo. This designer has been around fashion for a while. Her family owned a children's apparel company in Kimje, in the southern part of the country. She opened her first retail store in 1988, but since then has had a mostly Asian following. With a less rigid Calvin Klein simplicity, and little less fear of color, she's not about getting better, for shes already established. She's about taking over a new market. I'd like to see what she has in store for the US.
Photo: Irina Shabayeva
She's trying hard to shed her Project Runway affiliation and become a force in fashion. Last season she crept quietly on to the runway with an off-site show that showed off what she can do with a little financial backing from Tupperwear. I'm assuming this year, she may not be sponsored by the plastics company since she's no longer a newbie. But it is my guess that lack of petroleum based synthetics will not hinder her. With the imagination showcased last season, as long as she keeps to her own without compromise, she'll be around for more than 15 minutes of reality television fame.
READ MORE PAST FASHION WEEK COVERAGE:
Spring 2011 Men's Designers to Watch
Irina Shabayeva Runway Fall 2010
Fall 2010 Condensed Report A-L
Fall 2010 Condensed Report M-Z
