Economic woes aside, it s an exciting time for New York fashion, as once-new labels evolve into serious businesses while a promising freshman class moves into its young designer shoes. With the heat of Francisco Costa as a mentor and a standout 15-look debut, Julian Louie is one of the buzziest of the bunch. His second collection comes forth from a stream of references: the discovery of a hefty felt, which led to the idea of riveted clothes, to tectonic plates, to armor, and then to samurai armor. Oh, and then there s the matador thing. In practice, Louie was exploring "austere layering." Every look began with a sleek, almost alien-looking (in a good way) microfiber dress or top that the designer described as a "second skin." Over that went a white shirt with a stiff imperial collar, and tailored jackets, skirts, and dresses that looked like they were crafted from various hammered panels of felt and Swarovski beading. A highly modern and original vision, for sure, but also quite feminine and even sexy, with bold shoulders, flaring hips, nipped waists, and sleek little pants on looks that echoed a torero silhouette. It s also an approach with a potentially tricky runway-to-reality translation. "I m taking it extremely slow," said Louie of his retail strategy. Good thing. Certainly, any one of those upperclassmen can tell you that success takes time.
