Carolina Herrera struck the most becoming balance between high-fashion for high-society and hi-tech this season in New York. While the designer with one of the most resoundingly ritzy brand names on the schedule endeavours to do this mostly every season, her approach matured this time round, with tactile and intricately layered embellishments embracing emerging textile technologies but not overdoing them.
Alongside this garments dripped down classy silhouettes and didn’t appear in any way, shape or form, rigid, something which often goes hand in hand with fashion’s move toward the world of tomorrow. Herrera’s love of opulent, and for some outré, touches still won out in some respects, in the aubergine died karakul trim of collar, pockets and belt on a long dress coat for example, and the pyramid stacks of silk on skirts.
For the most step however, AW16 was a leap in completely the right direction. A collection which one doubts will scare off the kind of young ladies Herrera should be targeting, the ones whom previously may have been daunted by her operatic take on eveningwear and high-brow daywear.
These were clothes that slinked down the runway with a modern cleanliness and even a bit of sporty verve, note the bomber jacket suit in peppermint karakul, the kind of clothes that carves out Herrera’s niche as the grande dame of New York fashion a little more neatly.
by Liam Feltham
Images courtesy of Carolina Herrera