Thuy Pham and Miho Aoki s enigmatic show notes cited Herzog and de Meuron, but if architecture was the duo s starting point, it only really came across in glimpses: in the origami detailing on the waistband of a flaring skirt, say, or at the neckline of the smock dress that opened the show, or on the front and back of a cropped, button-front jacket that was strangely heavy for Spring. As for the rest, it looked like a standard cross section of United Bamboo s reinvented classics: the seersucker suit, the shirtwaist dress, a windbreaker not in nylon but in luxe patent leather.
"You get what you came for," said one editor on her way into United Bamboo s show, referring to the predictability that has caused some to lose interest in the line. And though there was some on-trend news here—high-waisted, rolled-hem shorts worn with a prim golden Lurex puff-sleeve blouse; a flaring skirt teamed with a contrast-collar button-down shirt—the collection did feel rather flat.
