Katie Eary is no shrinking violet. Nor does she design for the faint of heart: Since launching her menswear line in 2009, she s clad her boys in everything from motocross jackets the color of radioactive goo to monster fur jackets and crocodile top hats fit for a circus ringleader in icy, icy hell. Eary has made it her practice to send a few women s looks out at her men s shows, and her clothes have been worn by the likes of Rihanna and Lady Gaga, so it s not surprising that she s decided to launch a womenswear range. The surprise is that her first collection is so (relatively) tame.
The operative word, of course, is that parenthetical "relative." Eary s baroque, blown-out tigerfish prints, repeated from the men s collection, weren t exactly sedate. Her swimwear was barely-there and her skirts were micro-short, and what with her emphasis on gold and ultra-luxe materials overall, the general impression was flash. There s a niche for that, and Eary will make a packet if she aims to fill it. But this season, at least, she lost her nerve when it came to her silhouettes. Eary herself admitted that she was being tentative; when she presented the womenswear by appointment, she described her process as "figuring out her girl." That s fair enough, and Eary will find plenty of fans for her refined motorcycle jackets, executed in top-of-the-line ponyhair. She also has a real knack for making swimwear that s insanely sexy yet somehow not crass. But she should heed the fact that womenswear has a higher bar for shock than menswear does, and you don t cross it by applying eye-searing prints to Balenciaga-inspired bonded sweatshirts and sculpted shorts. The fashion scene doesn t need another young designer worshipping at the altar of Ghesquière. But it could use a next Cavalli.
