Pamela Skaist-Levy didn t miss a beat when she was asked about the inspiration for this season s Skaist-Taylor collection. "Authenticity, love, and friendship," she said. "That cheesy enough for you?" Sure. But as today s presentation reaffirmed, Skaist-Levy and her partner, Gela Nash-Taylor, are fashion hit-makers precisely because they desire to be happy-making. Were the clothes here intellectually taxing? No. But they weren t dumb, either. With the documentary The Troubadour as their jumping-off point, Skaist-Levy and Nash-Taylor riffed on the look and vibe of L.A. s late-sixties, early-seventies singer-songwriter scene, conjuring hippie-inflected eyelet dresses, macramé tops, fringed leather jackets, peasant blouses, and boot-cut pants. These designers aren t particularly literal, so the looks were finessed for figure flattery and mixed liberally with items, such as a crisp yellow tank dress, that didn t seem to relate to the Troubadour reference at all. "All we really cared about was making really effortless pieces," Skaist-Levy explained. "You know, the kind of thing you throw on and feel good in, whether it s a skinny day or a fat day. And pieces where you didn t have to worry about what kind of underpinnings to wear. Easy." That attention to women s experience of wearing clothes is the emerging Skaist-Taylor signature. And as far as we re concerned, there s nothing cheesy about that.
