All Saints Fashion
All Saints Fashion
All Saints Fashion
All Saints Fashion
Jared Gold Fashion
Jared Gold Fashion
Jared Gold Fashion
Jared Gold Fashion
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Gen Art: Blurry Black Eyeliner, Blue Latex & Balloon Prints
Written by: Catherine Townsend
Photos by: Gruber-FWD
New York, Feb 9, 2001/ FWD/ --- It may have moved to the mainstream tents,
but the Gen Art show is still on the cutting edge. After showcasing up-and-coming designers
for five years, this time they chose to give four alumni a shot in Bryant Park. "We wanted to
get a mix of people from years past, whose businesses are growing but who may not have been
focusing on runway," said Gen Art Fashion Director Mary Gehlhar. "It's great exposure for
them."
Weaving her way through Goth kids, tattooed and pierced drag queens and frazzled makeup
artists backstage, Gehlhar said being in the tents is tremendously exciting: "We are used to
building everything from the ground up ourselves, but this year Nokia sponsored the event,
the hair and makeup people donated their time, and everything was ready -- all the designers
had to do was show up."
Designer Jared Gold,
leaning down to smooth the low-slung trousers of a model with smeared
black eyeliner and teased hair, said what he loves most about the shows is "mixing it up and
having fun," and said to watch out for the last "really wild" piece down the catwalk. Not that
any of the rest of the designs were tame -- the show looked like a vaudeville act complete
with models (some of them drag queens) dancing down the runway throwing flowers. He kept the
designs bright and playful by pairing bright shades of hot pink and electric blue with tailored
details like dentelle and knee patches. The combinations may have been pure fantasy, but taken
separately most of the pieces were actually wearable - except maybe for the pouf satin ball
gown with a hot air balloon print (which did look good, though, on a seven-foot-tall man covered
in blue Latex).
Paige Novick,
who first showed with Gen Art in 1996, said her ultimate inspiration for style
comes from "a French woman" -- and sent women out in flirty feminine silhouettes and racy red
bustiers. "It's boudoir, and reminds me of can-can dancers in Pigalle in Paris, but using modern
textures and fabrics." Novick added unexpected playful elements like a wide ruffle belt over
leather cigarette pants, or a streamlined wool corset dress with a removable off-the-shoulder
rufflette.
Martin Churba of the Trosman-Churba
design team said he wanted to use unusual juxtapositions of
texture and fabric, like the beaded floral-print sleeveless top worn with knee-length skirt that
he describes as the "stamp" of Trosman-Churba. They may have gone too far with some of the designs.
The mixture of elements worked best when they kept it simple on pieces like the beaded print top.
But other outfits, like the pleated plastic skirts in burnt orange and mustard, elicited audible
groans from the audience.
Conversely, Stuart Trevor
of All Saints stayed away from brights with his edgy streetwear line.
He said his favorite look for fall is the pinstripe suit, in black and white for men and magenta
and baby pink for women. "Since it's our take on the suit, it's a classic but still a little crazy,"
he said. This is the collection for the prep school boy who cuts class -- taking basics like military
bomber jackets, magenta or black cords and striped blazers, then adding leather ties and funky wide
belts. "You know how you scrawl song lyrics on a notebook in grammar school?" he said, showing off
a basic black sweater with the lyrics to "Our Lips are Sealed" scrawled in silver graffiti. "That's
what I was thinking of."
With such diverse talent, it's hard to generalize, but the front-row report sounded good, with model
Ines Rivero and actor Donovan Leitch both giving the show a thumbs-up. Rivero, who is pregnant, said
she liked looking at the clothes "even though right now I am not really into designers, I am into
the two pair of pants I can fit into now -- I'm not hugely pregnant yet, but have this stomach and
can't wear any of the designer sizes." Which means she looks like the rest of us on a normal day.
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Page Novick Fashion
Page Novick Fashion
Page Novick Fashion
Page Novick Fashion
Trosman Churba Fashion
Trosman Churba Fashion
Trosman Churba Fashion
Trosman Churba Fashion
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