Lazaro Hernandez and Jack McCollough are fashion s early adopters. The Alaïa references that have been spotted on the runways this week? So last season. They ve moved away from their Spring outing s essentially spare sensibility and rediscovered the interest in surface decoration that informed some of their best collections. Coats, for starters, were a veritable patchwork of materials, with wool bodies, popcorn-knit sleeves, and fur collars or fur-lined hoods. Some necklines were studded with patinaed crystals. Minimalists may find the overall effect a bit much, but the workmanship was beyond question.
Paul Poiret, the twentieth-century innovator whose many hallmarks included East Asian motifs, and whose oeuvre will go on display at the Costume Institute come May, could ve been one of the show s touchstones. His influence was there in cocooning kimono jackets, the standout of which came in white-and-black fur-trimmed jacquard. And you could see it in the vintage-y twenties dresses dripping in jet. Other embellishments had a more modern dimension. Intricate pleats zigzagged up and down the fronts of chiffon dresses, or crisscrossed at the bodice in a way that resembled the bustier shapes for which this duo is loved. Radzimir dresses in luscious jewel tones were treated similarly.
If these rarefied clothes have a small target audience, that s sort of the point—especially now that the boys have proved they can reach a large Target audience any time they want with the instant success of their recent high-low collaboration. Exquisite details? Cheap chic? These two talents excel at both.
