When Johnson Hartig relaunched Libertine a year ago, he did it with a bang: That Fall 11 collection had real finesse, with the screen-printing and embellishment Hartig applied to his vintage finds expressing a clear, poetic vision (at least with regard to the womenswear.) Then, last season, he returned with a collection that felt disappointingly dashed-off. The Fall 12 clothes Hartig showed this evening fell somewhere in the middle of that range: On the one hand, a lot of work went into this season s heavy hand-beading and -studding, and there were some stunning pieces on the runway; on the other hand, this collection was pretty much just the sum of its parts. And for every dazzling item—like the full, Alaïa-esque knit skirt with blue metallic paillettes woven through, or the show-opening black cape gleaming with studs—there was another look that came off belabored and literally heavy. All in all, a mixed bag. A very disco mixed bag, with a lot of cool floral dresses and A-line check coats redolent of heyday Blass.
On the men s end of things, it s fair to wonder how seriously Hartig takes the clothes on his catwalk. This reviewer s guess: not that seriously. Sometimes Hartig s playfulness works, as in motorcycle and varsity jackets bedazzled with punchy messages and skulls and crossbones on the back. Mostly, though, the menswear came over as an afterthought.
