Vera Wang may be in talks with St. John to become its creative director, but for now she s keeping any ideas she might have for commercial knit dressing under wraps. Her fall show, inspired as it was by Mark Rothko, was a decidedly artsy affair, with riffs on the abstract expressionist s color-block paintings showing up in interesting ways on the designer s silk chiffon dresses.
The moody palette aside, this was more or less a typically feminine Wang collection. Witness all the decorative details, from taffeta and tulle corsages to swags of rhinestones. In a couple of intriguing instances—a wool gabardine jacket with raw edges, a pea coat with exposed seams—she did venture out of her usual comfort zone to explore more-masculine elements. She soon returned to her dressed-up sensibility, though. Among the show s standouts were a metallic-blue floral-brocade cardigan with coordinating trapeze dress, and an iridescent rose chiffon gown that was layered over a deeper-red slip to create its own Rothko effect. If the presentation occasionally felt repetitive, it s nothing that a sharper edit couldn t fix.
