Narciso Rodriguez introduced new shoe and handbag collections at his show. They mixed precious materials like alligator, lizard, and python with suede in geometric ways. His clothes for Fall share a similar sense of being spliced together. A neat-and-trim charcoal tweed peplum jacket was patchworked on one shoulder and the opposite hip. And a pair of fab beaver fur coats were color-blocked in warm autumnal shades. (The show s color palette was moody and gorgeous.) Coats had bell-like volumes, blossoming out below the waist or, less successfully, falling in A-line tent shapes from the shoulders. Things weren t quite so mathematical on a good deal of the ready-to-wear. Rodriguez s minimalism is a sensual minimalism; at his best he lets the body lead.
So day dresses draped around the torso, where the interplay of matte and shiny fabrics accentuated natural curves. Both a double-layer tweed and flannel bustier and a tank stitched from black lace and embroidered silk looked slightly askew, and sexier for it. Rodriguez applied that same lesson to narrow, bias-cut silk evening skirts with fluttering trains that gave runway wind machines a good name.
Pants haven t been getting much play this week, and they weren t the main thing on Rodriguez s mind, either, but the trousers he did show had a sporty yet polished ease.
