From the Cobrasnake to Narciso Rodriguez

catwalking.com via TFS

New York Fashion Week shows are great for any model's resumé. But let’s face it, with up to 300 shows every season in that city, there are some pretty low-profile gigs. Not so Narciso Rodriguez, one of the biggest US fashion names, who kicked off his career making a wedding dress for Carolyn Bessette Kennedy – and most recently designed the controversial red and black emsemble worn by Michelle Obama for Barack Obama’s Victory address on November 5. Stephanie Carta just scored the Narciso Rodriguez show – after hinting that she might via Twitter. After her recent appearance at Givenchy's haute couture show in Paris, nice to see Carta distancing herself further still from her unfortunate summer Cobrasnake photoop. Joining Carta on the runway was Catherine McNeil. Here is the complete Narciso Rodriguez collection on style.com. And here is an update on which Oz models are in town and what they are doing.

These lists include shows which have already taken place, together with new bookings (sourced from the various agencies). They are not yet complete.

Stephanie Carta
Narciso Rodriguez
Phillip Lim
Staerk
Matthew Ames
Vena Cava
Tuleh

Catherine McNeil
Ohne Title
Alexander Wang
Preen
Diane Von Furstenberg
Carolina Hererra
Thakoon
Matthew Williamson
Derek Lam
Narciso Rodriguez
Isaac Mizrahi
Zac Posen

Myf Shepherd
Joseph Altuzzara
Jason Wu
BCBG
Lacoste
United Bamboo
Adam w/ Samuel Francois
Diane Von Furstenberg
Erin Fetherston
Donna Karan
Marc By Marc Jacobs
Max Azria
Philosophy
Michael Kors
Phillip Lim
Devi Kroeel w/ Brana Wolf
Brian Reyes
Zac Posen

Also confirmed for 16 shows in London.

Skye Stracke
Joseph Altuzzara
Mulberry
Karen Walker
Thuy
Akika Ogawa

Bridget Malcolm
Lela Rose (opened)
Miss Sixty
Marc by Marc Jacobs
Andy & Debb
David Delfin
Toni Maticevski

Chelsea Scanlan
Shipley & Halmos
Chocheng
Ideen
Mara Hoffman
Tuleh
Vivienne Tam

Shanina Shaik
Shipley & Halmos
Abaete
Mara Hoffman
Lorick
Yeohlee

Vanessa Milde
Toni Maticevski

Rosie Tupper
Lela Rose
DKNY
Nanette Lepore

Christina Carey
Joseph Altuzzara
Vena Cava
Tuleh

Julia Ikonomou
Andy & Debb

Le Rouge et le Noir: Obama makes history, Michelle Obama upsets fashion police

reuters/daylife

Well that didn’t take long. The PA reverb had barely subsided after America’s next First Family stepped off the podium at Grant Park following Barack Obama’s victory speech, when the critics started. Not the political critics – the fashion police. Yes, an African American had just made history by being elected the 44th President of the United States, but some seemed more focussed on a bigger issue: slagging off the future First Lady’s dress. Which may have been designed by a Kennedy fave (now confirmed).

In attempting to ID the dress a quick check of the websites of some of Michelle Obama’s designer favourites, notably the Chicago-based Maria Pinto, bore no fruit.

The Red Carpet Fashion Awards blog has however just thrown Narciso Rodriguez’s name into the ring and frockwriter thinks they could be onto something.

Teamed with a black cardigan or knit bolero, Obama’s two-tone sleeveless sheath with criss-cross black satin cummerbund under the bust bears a remarkable resemblance to this dress from Rodriguez’s Spring/Summer 2009 collection:


narciso rodriguez SS09/style.com

But while the New York-based Cuban designer has dressed Obama on at least one previous occasion – and of course originally shot to prominence in 1996 after designing the wedding dress for Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy – his design does not appear to have gone down well in the blogosphere.

Here's a comment left by “Skye” on Mrs O, one of several blogs dedicated to tracking the style of Michelle Obama:

“Tonight’s dress was just short of hideous”.

And “Jon” on the same blog:

“Did you see the black and red frock disaster Michelle wore on election night at Grant Park? Barf! Fashion violation #1 and counting! From where, pray tell, did she drag out that fashion dreg? No style queen will she be in the White House if that was ever an indicator. Where are the fashion police when you need them?”

Ditto "Berdine Logar":

“What a disaster that dress was tonight at Grant Park. Someone’s got to help her with her wardrobe!”

And the criticism has not been isolated to niche blogs.

Noted one Gawker editor on the extremely high profile New York media blog:

“It was moving to see Michelle Obama on stage with her husband, and she's not a woman we would ever cross. She's also elegant! But what was the story with that dress? A lucky garment of some sort, perhaps?”

And Gawker commenter “MadamLash”:

“... the dress was a poor choice for TV against a night time background. Reminded me a little of one of those hypercolour T-shirts with odd splotches that show up in unfortunate bodily hot spots.”

Even political blog But As For Me! hopped onto the slagoff bandwagon, dedicating its 'Joke of the Week' to Obama’s dress choice:

“What Does A Hippie and Ex-SDS Wear To A Rally?

Answer: The Dress Michelle Obama Wore On Stage In Grant Park!”

It’s great to see people with their priorities so quickly sorted after yesterday's inspiring scenes.

(UPDATE: 1.39am. In the event that anyone checks the Mrs O blog and spots the exact same images which appear on this frockwriter post, as well as an earlier dateline to this post, please be advised that both at the time of filing, and for some time afterwards, there was no other blog post on the Narciso Rodriguez dress listed on Google Blogs between the Red Carpet Fashion Awards post - which ID'd the dress - and this post. I not only linked to the latter blog, I also spent some time finding an image of the victory podium on Daylife.com (a site which, up until this point, I have always assumed was a division of Getty - hence the original Getty credit). Of the plethora of images from last night, it seems to be a remarkable coincidence that Mrs O chose exactly the same image. Posting times can of course be manipulated. Mine is not.)

Narciso Rodriguez takes pity on the standing - gives the bird to Castro

Another day, another Rodriguez. But this one hopefully won't be showing prison-issue anklets - just minimalist chic. If Marc Jacobs thinks the world needs more beauty and less "backless bustiers blah blah blah", Narciso Rodriguez is on the same page.

I'm now standing inside his show venue, a Chelsea studio space, waiting for it to start. Let me tell you, it's a very nice place to be standing. And I'm not talking about the decor.

Getting into a fashion show for which you don't have a ticket is usually at the discretion of the respective PR firm, and involves waiting outside the venue until close to show start time. It's not quite The Day After Tomorrow here - yet - but that said, with what I read on one website was supposed to be -21C windchill factor today, it's not advisable for anyone to be outside for any extended period. And we're just a bunch of middle class wankers watching the next season's three, four, in some cases five figure outfits parade by. I frequently find myself wondering what happens to New York's homeless in weather like this. A friend said she heard a meteorologist on TV one day this week warning viewers not leave any skin uncovered - or risk frostbite. Rodriguez' PR team has kindly, nay sensibly, let the standing in.

A model walks out in a sculpted, longline black wool jacket over crisp white skinny pants, with a hint of a bootleg at the ankle - the same skinny bootleg that we saw at Marc Jacobs last night - and a sophisticated urban mood is set. A woman's voice on the soundtrack belts out the words, "the streets of Berlin". Five months ago Rodriguez was one of the early New York adopters of the sci-fi mood which reached a crescendo in Milan and Paris. No fibreglass body armour here, as in his spring show, but this new collection does have a hint of 1960s retro futurism, with its sculpted white jackets that nod to Courreges and Cardin.

There's also a shot of urban sport in the retro-look, chevron-appliqued wool parkas, for both men and women. It's a beautiful collection, in a sophisticated palette of black, white, cream, grey, popped with a strange petrol blue. The jackets are moulded and sculpted around the body, via detailed seamwork; the pants are skinny and more often than not, black and high-gloss, rendered through a wool/nylon amalgam. The coats are sublime - one black Princess line contoured wool coat reaches to the floor. Mayor Bloomberg should mandate for such coats - and Toni Maticevski's doona ballgowns - to be issued to all Gotham denizens in weather like this.

There is a tough chic to the eveningwear, with its exposed silver zippers, leather bodices and strands of silk cords which hang like seaweed off the bodices of a series of otherwise no-trick, floor-length silk columns in black or white - as if the ghosts of bigger ballgowns which survived a nuclear holocaust.

I manage to squeeze a couple of questions in backstage afterwards, including just what Rodriguez thinks about the possibility of Castro's revolucion coming to an end soon. Being Cuban-American, I figured he'd have an opinion.

The collection seems very urban, almost industrial. What was your inspiration?
The reality of the way we need to dress and how we need to live. I mean, fashion can be a fantasy, you know, and fun and frivolous and disposable. But I'm not very interested so much in that. I'm very serious about my work and the technique, the craft. But also how it functions in life, how to dress women, how I need to dress. I mean I need suits, I need pants that move, I need things that function.

Berlin seems to be popping up as a reference at these shows. Your soundtrack makes reference to it. What's the Berlin connection?
It's an inspiration. I think it's something that's exciting. Berlin is exciting, Berlin brings an edge, it's very urban. I live in New York, I travel around the world. I think the collection really reflects what I see. What I see for the future and the way that clothing should look.

What do you think about the very real possibility of Castro carking it some time in the not-too-distant future?
Oh I don't make political comments.

Yes but presumably you have an opinion on what it may mean for Cuba?
Yeah, I mean I think any dictator who goes away is a good thing, especially in Cuba.

Do you think someone will replace him and it will be a case of same-old, same-old, or is it high time for change in Cuba?
Hopefully it's time for not only fashion to change but all dictators to be abolished.

Original post and comments.

Seat wars #1: Checked out by Anna Wintour

I am standing outside the Narciso Rodriguez show. One of the bigger, buzzier names, Rodriguez is not on the official schedule but off it - and the front entrance is like Fort Knox.

A crowd of around 100 is standing in a queue waiting to get in. They are now letting some through. Curiously, some of these people seem to have tickets, while others do not. And quite a few of the latter are being let through because they are with the "right" person.

It's like a nightclub. Let's hope some of the hangers-on have jobs to do here because I and several others who don't have tickets, do, and we would like to be allowed to get on with that reportage. I'll get to why I don't have a ticket a little later. It is in part due to the size of this event and the shambolic manner in which it seems to operate.

"Erin you're OK, and you, you, and you are with Erin, you're OK too, come through" says one PR flack who is wearing de rigueur New York PR black, accessorised with mandatory Janet Jackson-style headset.

"You're all OK too" she says to another posse.

It seems the PR is fine with plenty of hangers on who don't have tickets, but she challenges one woman who does in fact have one. It should be pointed out that anyone who has a ticket but no assigned seating allocation must wait until the end, when they let in the unseated dregs.

"Excuse me, do you have your seating assignment?" the flack says to the woman.

"Cathy Horyn from The New York Times" the woman responds in a deadpan voice.

Another PR is kind enough to eventually let me in, once everyone else has gone through.

There must be 500 people inside here - a brick warehouse space with bare concrete floor. I make my way, as per usual when I don't have a seat, to the beginning of the runway where the models stand and pose for shots.

Apart from the minor inconvenience of having to stand, it's actually the best "seat" in the house. This fact appears to dawn on the Prada-loving devil herself, US Vogue imperatrix Anna Wintour, who is about a metre and a half in front of me, in what we both must assume is the best seat in the house.

Wintour checks me out. She seems to be thinking, "You interloper".

Original post and comments.