Albert Kriemler lost his mother, Ute, last December. His show today, accompanied by a small orchestra playing her favorite composer, Bach, was a tribute to her, he explained backstage. Although it was almost all black, and inspired by her personal wardrobe of turtleneck gowns, blouse-and-pant combos, and clean tailoring, his new Akris collection wasn t necessarily somber.
Though in demeanor still mournful, Kriemler found interesting ways of letting in the light. Starting with the house s signature photoprints: This season, he used a dark photograph of a street, the streetlamps casting horizontal white lines across the planes of what he called his new three-piece suit—a double-face cocoon coat worn over a double-breasted jacket and a tunic dress. A nubby, three-dimensional St. Gallen embroidery added shimmer to a short cape and its matching pencil skirt, while a floor-grazing skirt in unlined lamb s fur had its own sheen. Other embellishments, including gridlike patterns of jet crystals and silk fringe, lit up his evening offerings. The fringe was contained by horizontal seams; Kriemler didn t seem quite up to the cheerfulness that loose fringe might ve suggested.
And yet there were other intimations of a son and a company moving on. Kriemler had some brilliant sportswear on the runway today; his customer will love the look of an oversize herringbone sweater and snood worn with matching chevroned pants, or a pantsuit in a tonal plaid cut from cashmere, angora, and wool. In right about the middle of the show, he included a single white lamb s-fur coat. That bright moment served to underscore the poignancy of this season s story, and one couldn t help but be moved.
