(New York) To the music of the Cure or Joy Division, models parade in skirts inspired by lampshades: American designer Tory Burch celebrated the 20th anniversary of her brand at New York Fashion Week on Monday by ensuring wanting to make the “everyday sublime”.
“I was inspired by a lampshade,” the designer explained with a burst of laughter to AFP, evoking these skirts in colors – bright orange, turquoise – or shiny materials, which seemed to stand alone at the level of the waist and gave an air of floating to the bodies.
“I wanted sharp corners, but I wanted the skirt to come off and fold in no time, almost like origami,” she adds. The piece, among the most unique in its fall-winter 2024 collection, was worn with light tops with long sleeves and hoods, during a fashion show under the arcades of the great library in Manhattan.
PHOTO PETER K. AFRIYIE, ASSOCIATED PRESS
“I tried to see how to make the everyday sublime,” adds the designer, whose brand has long been considered very classic and is now evolving towards cooler aspects. Thus, she uses very light materials, but gives them character with raw cut seams, adds multi-colored fringes to a long sequinned coat, or makes a delicate ruffled dress stick out from a pleated jacket.
“I think this is a woman who is confident in herself and seeking to be optimistic in the world,” she added.
At Carolina Herrera, “beauty is power”
“Beauty is power,” assured Wes Gordon, the artistic director of the Carolina Herrera house, earlier. Faithful to the image of the brand founded in 1981, the new fall-winter collection is characterized by precise and refined silhouettes, enhanced by ruffles on the sleeves, skirts, as well as embroidery. The house classics are there: pencil or ruffled skirts, black and white checked suits, with sleeves inspired by Japanese kimonos.
But it is above all on the colors that Wes Gordon has left his mark since he was at the head of the New York house, taking it away from basics like black, white and brown to combine blocks of red or navy blue with blacks, pinks, yellows, denims and florals. All to dress a woman “without shyness, powerful and confident and who loves clothes”, he explains to AFP.
Wes Gordon seeks a “dramatic balance” between “color and combination of colors in prints and embroidery, precision and discipline in cutting,” he summed up at the end of the show, organized at 41e floor of a Wall Street building with an impressive view of the Statue of Liberty and Manhattan.