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Carolina Herrera: Fashion Clout
By: Godfrey Deeny
Photos by: Visko Hatfield
Click on photos to see bigger image.
More photos: [1] [2]
There's never any fashion revolution at Carolina Herrera, though insurrection would make
little sense for a designer who dresses the ruling classes.
For assured style and Central Park view sophistication, no one in America quite touches
Herrera. These clothes are not just for ladies who lunch, but for women who lead.
Up-market,
long-legged eaters like Ivana Trump and CeCe Kieselstein-Cord took front-row seats.
Carolina's specialty is giving the classics a contemporary twist. Thus a slew of opening
loden wool suits and dresses were cleverly tweaked with asymmetrical hemlines and smart,
saddled stitched belts in suede, satin or leather.
No-expense-spared fabrics flooded the runway: double faced cashmere, Russian lynx, luscious
indigo satins and calf leathers so supple they hung like silk.
Moreover, this season Herrera
proved what a cool colorist she can be.
Her combinations of a mandarin leather tunic with an
ebony cashmere skirt, or a high collared mink bomber over ebony pants, were as good as it gets.
When night falls, Herrera isn't afraid to ramp up the volume with a backless chinchilla
stole or tight, one-shouldered silk gowns.
Too many designers create clothes that demand attention. Instead, this Herrera collection
just hissed class -- and clout.
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