New York Fashion Week :: Gen Art [The ZOO]

Gen Art :: Fall 2006

What is Gen Art? An organization that supports up and coming artists in music, fashion, film and art in New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Miami, and Chicago.

As H. Fredriksson's friends confirmed with me at the zoo-like Gen Art after party at Pacha, this twenty year-old woman is "amazing." Helena does the impossible: builds that long invisible bridge between the fashion-forward in Los Angeles and fashionably-depressed hipsters in New York City. With powder blue softening her every seam, this Gen Art supported designer created the ultimate jumper: a wide strapped jumper for your all-night soirees and business presentations alike. A piece I deemed her "invent-a-dress," meaning a dress truly defined by her vision rather than a spin on a dress structure I already liked, was later called her "signature" dress by her closer cohorts. An inspiring and hardworking young person, Fredriksson's ability to own the omnipotent "bolero" trend of the season by adding cream lace pencil pants while balancing her honey-colored silk blouses and Hollywood coats made her boldness and discipline out in perfect harmony.

Thank God for: those side swept bangs and high side buns. Accessories: slinky to-the-chest silver chains and pumps. Miracle: Self taught + 20 = clean and focused structure. And how!

Mel En Stel
Like I told Ilse Eriksson, designer of Mel En Stel, I'll tell you, "It almost made me cry." Last year, I coined that supernatural chill when you feel a designer has completely fulfilled an artistic vision: "the Graham Feeling." Maintaining a clear communication of his or her designs without compromising that excruciating attention to detail that belongs to a person who loves his craft more than himself, I first felt this at Gary Graham's last show in the tents. This unmistakable and undeniable feeling crossed my path again at Mel En Stel. With ginger disco-nap hair, each of these models stepped out in a breathtaking sculpture of the body. Contrasting the warm tones of the Greta Garbo hair with an aqua and sea foam palette, Eriksson's clothes made the heaviest fabrics seem light. Structurally challenging, with multi-dimensional skirts, fat and wide ties, and unconventional v-line dresses, one felt as if he or she was spying on a group of rainforest creatures. The delicate fabrics and experimental dimensions were accented by the somber women batting their green-blue eyelids at you. With a soundtrack perfect for an aquarium, this show made you feel underwater and somehow still warm.

Taste: like a triple-layer cake. Trends: thick necks, long bunchy skirts, floor length skirts, elastic and silk tops. Feeling: an underwater lullaby with Greta Garbo.

Wyeth by Todd Magill
With those smoky Nouvelle Vague bossanova beats in the back, Wyeth was an extension of that fantasy world created in "Amelie." A close-up beauty provincial feeling with empire waists and bathrobe-like wrap around wool, this collection was reminiscent of an earthy beauty admired by a town's worth of people. Accentuating the most subtle sexy features of a woman, the scoop-back dresses and low center elementary school teacher dresses brought out the delicate wrists of each model. Magill used floral prints to bring out the fragility and elaborateness of a rose and other classic black scoopnecks and keyholes to bring modern minimalism to Hollywood glam.

Treats: that Joseph Gonzalez cover of The Knife's "Heartbeats". Trends: angular necks, fitted bolero top suits, and over-sized coats. [Xenia Viray]

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