[Images via Style.com]
Michael Angel
Light and dark, soft and hard, thesis and antithesis…having contrasts can be a great thing. They bring dimension and diversity, adding that Je ne sais quoi where it was previously non-existent. Michael Angel‘s Spring 2011 collection was full of them: hidden vs revealed, inspired by a recent trip to Rome, bursting prints vs matte, transparent latex, buttoned-up collars vs. skirts with daring slits. Throughout it all, the designer kept his trademark prints yet somehow managed to present a simple, minimalist collection that was at times, appropriately austere and lush.
[Images via Style.com]
Buckler
If the models on Buckler’s Spring runway looked like fresh-faced Eastern European athletes, that look was intentional. Designer Andrew Buckler, whose self-proclaimed design concept is “English bloke meets New York,” said he was inspired by Bauhaus, as well as the 1936 Olympics. “The guys have sort of just come in off the running field,” the designer shared with FPD in a quick post-show interview. There was a weathered elegance to the pieces, with a splash of sportiness and a pinch of rock and roll. I’d like to think that if Kafka was around, he might pick up a Buckler piece or two on the way to the library, or the gym.
[Images via thebudgetbabe.com]
Nautica
For Nautica, Spring 2011 is all about the water , the people and the places of the American Southern Coast: easy, charming, vibrant, authentic. A great showing of casual, yet put-together menswear echoed the sentiments of spring 2011: variations of khaki with a burst of color here and there is the way to go.
[Images via the Sally LaPointe Facebook page]
Sally LaPointe
“A mix of beauty and distortion, the collection is inspired by the intoxication of accepting madness.” This is the opening statement on Sally LaPointe’s Spring 2011 run-of-show. What followed was beautiful and distorted alright, with exaggerated shoulders and hips, and rose-embellished moon boots with billowing, amorphous dresses. It was foreign and bright, with lots of shimmering silver and patches of black, much like what you imagine a trip to the moon might be.
[Images via Kaci Hamilton]
Luis Valenzuela
Eco-friendly fashionistas out there, prepare to be blown away by Luis Valenzuela’s Spring 2011 collection. The artist and designer was inspired by, of all people, his grandfather, to create a women’s collection made from existing materials: a lamp shade, men’s trousers, an old chandelier. The result was a whole new take on “masculine” women’s wear. Valenzuela still managed to evoke Victorian drama even when you could see the waistband and belt loops of a pair of men’s pants as the back of a model’s dress.
-Kaci Hamilton
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