VPL Fall Winter 2012
The VPL collection shown today represented a strong return to first principles for designer Victoria Bartlett. With the Michael Clark dance Mmm as her jumping-off point, Bartlett was moved to reconsider the movement of the body, and the way material twists, turns, and releases against it. In practice, this meant that a lot of garments wrapped around the bodice and fell away at soft angles. The collection was heavy on dancers’ stretch materials, notably a dense délavé in a rocky gray, and slick draped jerseys.
The other idea Bartlett took away from Mmm was its play of light and shadow, a theme she worked through in a variety of back-to-front color-blocked pieces, such as a longish dress draped with shiny plum-colored jersey in front, and matte cream-colored jersey in back. The light/shadow meme also meant that Bartlett adhered, even more than usual, to her palette of neutrals—alongside her traditional skin tones (looking very fresh, at present), she showed a lot of white, silver, gray, and black. Less traditional for VPL, there were a lot of dagger-hem leather jackets and mannish coats on the runway; the leather, it turned out, was faux. But it was totally convincing.
The real winners in the collection, however, were this season’s knits, in particular Bartlett’s shrugged-on, oversize sweaters in mottled bouclé and marled wool, and the dense black sweater, fitted to the body, with knit-in braid and armored shoulders. The knit emphasis was reaffirmed in the show’s finale, which included a plethora of elaborate garments that should see a lot of editorial action come fall. — MAYA SINGER
After yesterday’s press preview of the Met Costume Institute’s new exhibit, “Schiaparelli and Prada: Impossible Conversations,” we got our own private tour with Andrew Bolton, who co-curated the show with Harold Koda. He wasn’t coy about some of the exhibit’s hairier aspects, admitting that “initially Miuccia was rather baffled by the pairing of Schiaparelli and herself.” To write the scripts for the fictional “conversations” between the two designers, Bolton spent months combing through Schiaparelli’s autobiography, interviewing Miuccia Prada in Milan, and sifting through both designers’ archives. He told us all about the process of putting the show together and how it differs from last year’s record-breaking McQueen exhibit; you can also see a video tour of the galleries. (Above)
Vahram Muratyan — Prada Parallel Universes
THE CREATIVE PATH IMAGINED BY GRAPHIC DESIGNER AND ARTIST VAHRAM MURATYAN, IS A VIRTUAL ROAD/PAVED/WITH PRADA 2012 SPRING/SUMMER MENS AND WOMENS ACCESSORIES, WHICH HIGHLIGHTS THROUGH RAPID AND INTUITIVE MOVEMENTS TWO PARALLEL UNIVERSES THAT MEET UNDER THE AUSPICES OF PRADA STYLE.PRADA PARALLEL UNIVERSES IS AN EXERCISE THAT GROWS OUT OF THE DRIVE TO EXPERIMENT WITH, AND TO MATCH, NEW COMMUNICATIONS MEDIA AND PRADA’S SEMIOTICS; TO BE CONSISTENT WITH THE PRESENT WITHOUT NOSTALGIA.
THIS DREAMLIKE YET VIRTUAL STORY WAS ENTRUSTED TO THE ARMENIAN BORN ILLUSTRATOR VAHRAM MURATYAN. THROUGH HIS ADOPTED CITY OF PARIS, VAHRAM RECENTLY CAME INTO THE LIMELIGHT FOR HIS NEWLY PUBLISHED BOOK PARIS VS NEW YORK, A WORK OF ART WHICH COMPARES THE TWO GREAT CITIES WITH GRAPHIC SIGNS EXPLORING THEIR DIFFERENT SIMILARITIES.
THE SAME INTELLECTUAL PATH IS FOLLOWED BY PRADA IN ITS SPRING/SUMMER COLLECTIONS DEDICATED TO ACCESSORIES.
