New York Fashion Week :: Yeohlee [The ZOO]

Yeohlee :: Spring Summer 2006

Set in at the Helen Mills Theater in Chelsea with the accompaniment of a live jazz fusion quartet (which seemed to be a theme this season, think Marc Jacobs, Diesel, Linda Loudermilk to name a few) anyway, it was a nice touch especially as the clubby overused tracks of most shows were still bouncing around my brain and I enjoyed this interlude of real music. I also loved the mix of model to real woman... it was refreshing to see what a non-model would look like in the clothes. usually, I , like everyone else, have to wait till we are in the safety of a dressing room to see how it translate to us mere mortals! Now Yeohlee is known for her clean, crisp lines and this show was no exception. Her black wool gusset coat with a cotton organza Kebaya was a reminder of her clean aesthetic. I did however; find some of her garments to be quite cumbersome. For example, the "hoist" dresses seemed to have too much fabric to make sense and I wondered what would happen in real life if these were to hit the streets... In my case, I might get caught up on the railings at my children's school if I rounded the corner too quickly... There were some highlights for me though. There was a black waxed linen vest with a lovely green piping that I liked very much as well as her coat of the same colors with the inside out pocket. Fern Mallis hit the runway wearing a double-faced wool jacket with a white gauze shirt, which looked amazing on her. There was also a natersall cable dress that looked beautiful and had a nice fluid feeling. With regard to hair and makeup, as is her tradition, she kept both at the bare minimum, and while I found that there was an opportunity to explore new ideas, she took the safe road and stuck with what she knew. All in all, this was a consistent showing and another variation of her core theme. [Kelley Quan]