September 5, 2007: It's officially New York Fashion Week, and I kicked it off with a little backstage action at the BCBG show this morning. The scene was surprisingly calm, considering it was about 57 minutes to showtime. Mainly press, including a Dutch crew whose correspondent--despite desperate attempts at correction from her cameraman--insisted on calling the line "Max Azria's BC and G," as well as a few lost-looking people (not unlike myself), and some semi-primped models (I say "semi" because they still had pieces of paper pinned to their hair - I'm not sure why).
The models all looked kind of like Claire Danes in Stardust: very pretty, slightly glow-y, fairly ethereal. You know, straightened but softly fuzzy hair, shimmery eye shadow. I was a little jealous of all their dewy spring-ness, especially since I'm pretty sure somewhere around July the weather just fast-forwarded to October.
As for the actual collection (it is fashion week, after all), belts were big (as in important, not large, they were actually quite normal-sized). So big (as in important), that I'm pretty sure I watched three interns gravely dig through a bagful of belts and earnestly discuss which one went better with which outfit. There might have been tears, and the belts might have all looked exactly the same. And part of that sentence is a gross exaggeration on my part. Hint: it's not the belts.
The clothing: feminine and curve-conscious. (The aforementioned belts? For cinching waists.) Muted but girly colors. There were nudes mixed in with heather-y purples, and grey-blues complementing shades of pink and peach. Attention was paid to detailed bodices and corset-like accents. In the words of Merrill Greene, Creative Director of Style Sight, a trend forecasting and online fashion resource, Max Azria's Spring '08 collection took a "cleaner approach to shape", as well as inspiration from both "natural systems, like seashells" and "architecture."
To sum it up in my words (which, hopefully, is why you're reading this): pretty, but in a refreshingly structured way.