Author: Olivia
Pamella Roland Spring/Summer 2013 Collection
September 8, 2012To understand Pamella Roland’s Collections, you have to understand the Pamella Roland clientele. A Pamella Roland customer is successful, confident and sophisticated. This makeup creates a woman who doesn’t bother with middling gimmickry. Pamella Roland understands her audience well, this Spring/Summer 2013 collection is a bit of a departure from previous collections in the sense that she’s drawn down the color selection to a much simpler palette. Previous Spring collections had an array of pinks, yellows with very little in the form of monochromatic colors.For this collection she used a simple array of whites, pearls, black with a dash of solid colors in-between. Her knowledge of her audience as a result speaks volumes in the way the collection is presented. A personal favorite slash highlight is a black shorts suit that is cut perfectly. The jet black jacket falls right below the hips and the striped top that accompanies the piece is right above the waist for an aesthetically impressive contrast. The shorts are daring for the typical Pamella Roland audience, but not garish and creates a beautiful look overall.
Was this a pants on fire collection built for the fashion forward cum trapeze artist? No. And that’s what made the collection uniquely special. The brilliance was in its knowledge of its audience.
Olivia Forgione
Rebecca Minkoff Spring/Summer 2013 Collection
September 8, 2012When it comes to Spring, Rebecca Minkoff has always created collections that are fun, somewhat flirty and aesthetically pleasing to the eye. Minkoff can spoil her audience and clientele with this mantra. Should she decide to go dark one season, it might throw off the balance of her universe (and that might not a bad thing). This season she did not throw off the balance, she continued to do what she does: make it look effortlessly easy, while knowing that there was an incredible amount of detail and work done to put together this collection.
Take the following image as an example:
Minkoff pushes the conventional edge and goes straight through it. American designers tend to straddle that edge and teases with it, but Minkoff creates a look all her own and is successful at it. This is no easy task. Creating a suit with floral patterns edged against a pair of white pants with two blocks of color in a jacket takes a bit of a daring mind. It’s almost easy to pan it in words, until you see the execution in action.
What about a beautiful shirt dress with embroidered accents at the sleeves and hem? It’s classic with a bit of fun thrown in. Minkoff created a Spring collection that worked well for her audience and eschewed all the extra fluff.
Olivia Forgione
Wondergirls Circa 2008
June 24, 2010
The K-pop group Wondergirls have had an infatuation with all things retro since their debut many moons ago. It’s no wonder then in 2008 the group did their best to emulate all things 60s with the mod dresses reminiscent of the Avengers and bob hair dos. The prints on the dresses for the campaign hearken back to a time when fashion simply wanted kaleidescope effects on their minis, wanted as much leg as possible and wanted curves. Fast forward 40 years and many elements remain though the changes are obvious. While legs are definitely a wanted feature, the glam is gone or at least has transformed into a pouty seriousness. At the time of this campaign, the Wondergirls were launching their Peripera beauty line. Consisting primarily of lower priced makeup and skewing towards the younger set, the Peripera line caught on with the Wondergirl audience but the retro look was toned down. Creating a wishlist of all things 60s fashion specifically from the Wondergirls campaign, it would be pretty straightforward: halterneck dresses, opaque orange, yellow, red and black stockings (not all in the same stocking mind you) and bright slingbacks.
It’s a dream to want these things to return sometime during the fall 2010 season, but looking back as recent as 2008 gives hope that the cyclical nature of fashion will reincarnate the 60s somehow, someway.
Olivia Forgione
