There s a reason Helmut Newton never gets old as a point of reference for womenswear designers: The photographer was simply nonpareil at capturing the power of female sexuality, the mastery in feeling desire, and also knowing one is desired. To put Newton s trick in academic terms, his women are both subjects and objects, and for that reason, his work makes for very good source material for a designer like Kevork Kiledjian. Three seasons out, Kiledjian has developed an idiomatic sexiness; with this collection, it seems he s finally caught on to the fact that the women he s designing for want to feel in powerful in their sexuality, rather than beholden to it.
Kiledjian s starting point was a Newton portrait of Charlotte Rampling gazing languorously, yet hard-eyed, into the camera. There were echoes of the photo in the collection s pops of red, and especially in his excellent shadowy red furs; more generally, Newton hovered over the runway in the harnessing motif used in several looks. As is usual in Kiledjian s collections, the clothes were formfitting; this season, he went for a long, narrow silhouette, enunciated by tight leggings that extended over the ankle.
This time out, though, he was atypically circumspect, showing a minimum of skin. The silhouette got same-y after a while, and the silver-ball embellishment was overused, but the designer had a strong theme going with his architectural cutaways, and the jacquards and tonal color-blocking added a nice variety of color and texture. Where the collection really shone was in its outerwear: Alongside the furs, Kiledjian turned out some truly excellent motorcycle jackets, in particular the versions in cherry red and quilted black leather. All in all, a big step forward.
