Perched over snowy Central Park on the 48th floor of the Solow Building, New York can take your breath away. You don’t hear the car horns or see the slushy puddles at the curbs, and the indignities of the morning commute all but fade away. Carolina Herrera has always been a label about a special kind of uptown, airbrushed perfection. Wes Gordon, who staged his fall show for the brand at the top of the Solow, has developed a feeling for it, even while he’s working to rejuvenate it for a new generation.
Tearing your eyes away from the billion-dollar view, there was a garden “planted” with 3,000 cherry-red ranunculus, a tribute to the movie from which Gordon drew inspiration, the 1979 comedy Being There, starring Peter Sellers as a simple gardener. Seller’s philosophical pensées made a big impression on Gordon when, as a young boy, he watched the film with his father. “As long as the roots are not severed, all is well and all will be well,” Chance the gardener relates in the film. It’s a worthy metaphor for Gordon’s task here.
And anyway, florals are a natural at this label. They crawled up a strapless evening dress like vines, decorated both prints and jacquards, and were pinned to lapels as golden brooches. Most striking was the single large flower that blossomed at the waistband of the sleek black pants that opened the show. Gordon said, “It’s definitely the sexiest and sharpest I’ve done with Herrera.” And that’s a fair assessment. The jacket of a pinstriped suit was sliced at the midriff, and he paired long, narrow skirts with bandeau tops in place of more traditional shirts. The white button-down being a Herrera icon, he didn’t leave them out entirely. He cut them oversize and tunic-length and accompanied them with cage skirts in Chantilly lace.
A little pruning here and there would’ve served Gordon well, and suits with double-breasted blazers and full pants did not exude the first bloom of youth, which he made a point of emphasizing elsewhere. But all in all, Gordon tended this garden well.
