The show was called "Frostbite," an oblique reference, perhaps, to the collection s chilly dominatrix edge, like Robert Palmer s video vixens filed to a much sharper point. And if that suggests the eighties, then Prince singing "Erotic City" on the soundtrack sealed the deal. Anyway, that s the magic decade for Jenden, to the point where a full-skirted white dress with a lace effect looked like something Cyndi Lauper might have gone formal in. Otherwise, the clothes were mostly black, fitted, and folded to the body. A fishnet body stocking was the foundation for a zippered dress whose precise folds looked like origami, or a trompe l oeil layering of a man s eveningwear. There was a bandage dress (not for the first time in this eighties-infatuated season) in gray with a hint of Lurex, and a bondage outfit in a strap-draped bird s-eye jacket and pants. Other eighties touches: the huge zips that bifurcated dresses and tops, the multi-pleated pants tapering to the ankle. The mystery of "Frostbite" may have been solved, Rosebud-like, by the arrival of two dresses—a puffball, a trapeze—whose cutouts made the wearers look like giant mutant snowflakes. Yikes!
