FASHION BY THE RULES: NY FALL II

With 7 days of countless shows, I thought that I would sort of narrow it down and give you a sampling of what went on during the week. This week I will cover Victoria Beckham, Carolina Herrera, Narciso Rodriguez, Rodarte and Zac Posen. Sort of a good, the bad and the ugly.
VICTORIA BECKHAM delivered a small and well edited collection of her very body conscious dresses. Using herself as muse, these dresses are only for those with positive body images as they are very unforgiving. Nonetheless, the dresses offer a very chic and slick look without all the ruffles of flourishes that have been offered up all week by so many designers.
CAROLINA HERRERA went back to her roots as a designer who catered to the ladies. She certainly showed an extremely polished and raffine collection that owes deeply to Bill Blass and his “dames.” It epitomizes the ladies who lunch as well as ladies who have access to large bank accounts and use them toward their own pleasure.
NARCISO RODRIGUEZ added just a little bit of curve to his normally razor sharp straight lines. The result is a slight softening of shapes. I found it least effective in the silk dresses. I wish he had chosen alternate shoes as I found them to be distracting and heavy which took away from the clothes.
RODARTE has always intrigued me since I am unable to fathom how these clothes can be reproduced but this time around I find myself asking “are these the emperor’s new clothes?” After digesting the astronomical prices, one must ask: where do you wear these clothes and why would you wear these clothes????
ZAC POSEN poses no question of how these clothes are reproduced, it just poses the question of why would any store buy these clothes?? Who is the customer and what is the point?

For more comprehensive coverage please don’t forget to read me at http://jeffybruce.blogspot.com/ and don’t forget to check out the collections in their totality at style.com