Mark Montano: Women of the Metropolitan
By Stacey Appel
Photos courtesy of Mark Montano
New York, Sep 9, 2001/ FW/ --- Due to the late raising of the curtain for the previous show today,
Mark Montano's Spring 2002 collection was delayed by a good 30 minutes. However, it was worth the wait.
This season, his theme was "Women of the Metropolitan Come to Life". Each of the 36 looks that sashayed
down the catwalk was literally a painting in 3D, fantasy dresses in organza and taffeta not to be worn by
the shy and demure.
The show opened with a group of dresses that were nearly exact replicas of the ones the women wore in the
paintings of Degas. "The Singer in Green" and "Dancer" woke up the reserved fashion crowd.
Then, Montano took his inspiration one step further by actually constructing dresses out of artist canvas
and having artist Hanna Lew replicate the works of art onto the garments (think Demi Moore's "Vanity Fair"
cover but not done on skin).
Not every piece in the show was so literally translated, though. The most wearable pieces were inspired
more by the essence of the paintings rather than a line for line interpretation.
Bronzino's "Portrait of a Young Man" resulted in a black shirt dress with puffy sleeves slashed to
expose blue lining. Quite beautiful was the black and red silk dress taken from "Hagar in the Wilderness"
by Jean Batiste-Camille.
Both of these and others could easily be worn to an evening event (perhaps at the opera?). Thankfully ,
Montano delivered a collection that was fun and inspired, costumey, and campy.
But also totally wearable (ok, some of it anyway).
Now that's something New York Fashion Week desperately needs.
Mark Montano Spring 2002
Mark Montano Spring 2002
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