If you survived the mad crush at the doors at Philipp Plein, and endured the hour-long wait for the show to start, you were rewarded with a fairly energizing performance of "Work" by Iggy Azalea and her two backup dancers. The runway show that followed wasn t short on sass of its own. The lace jeans weren t a print, like we ve seen elsewhere this week, but actually sheer, skintight lace. Cutouts on a crocheted tank formed the shape of a skull (sure, it s been co-opted by just about everyone, but a cranium still provokes—just ask McQueen s Sarah Burton). And a crystal-embroidered column gown was emblazoned with what Plein s program called one of his most provocative slogans. It s unprintable here, but let s just say that the F-word appeared no less than three times. That certainly got your attention. At this point, Plein seems satisfied with making a spectacle, and he tried plenty of different tactics to do so: exposing skin (as alluded to above), riffing on icons of other houses (Givenchy s stars, in this case), employing all manner of flashy metallics, studded baby blue leather included. You can see this brand maturing into something along the sexy, in-your-face lines of Just Cavalli, even if Plein still has a ways to go to get there.
