New York Fashion Week: BCBG Max Azria, Cynthia Rowley explore the urban jungle
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The urban tribal aesthetic we saw last season at Proenza Schouler and Balenciaga is starting to turn up in the fall collections in New York this week.
First, it was at BCBG Max Azria on Thursday morning, where neutral-colored, draped silk dresses in geometric cuts were shot through with blocks of vibrant blue and yellow.
And it continued at Cynthia Rowley, where models had bright color woven into their hair and the band Preacher and the Knife struck a tribal beat.
On the runway, galactic-storm print minidresses mixed it up with color blocked jackets and motocross puffer gloves. While marled, multicolored lace tops and silk tops dangling rainbow fringe made for a fun, DIY-inspired look.
Beyond showing her collection, Rowley is doing something interesting with the Gagosian Gallery this season. The designer, who runs with an artsy crowd (her husband, Bill Powers, opened the Half Gallery in New York with James Frey and Andy Spade), got into a chat about art and appropriation with the Gagosian’s store manager [UPDATED AT 4:25 P.M.: An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated that a chat between Rowley and Larry Gagosian got the collaboration rolling], and a collaboration was born.
Addressing the six-month lag time from runway to rack in an age when Fashion Week images travel over the Internet in a nanosecond, she is releasing a few pieces of her fall collection now.
Except that they are not exactly what was on the runway, but more ‘inspired’ by what was on the runway. You might say, she’s knocking herself off, with dresses and shirts screenprinted with images and patterns from the collection.
The Cynthia Rowley for Gagosian pieces will be for sale at the Gagosian Art shop, 988 Madison Ave., and at www.gagosian.com for the next four weeks.
If only all the fashion week shows could be so instantly gratifying.
-- Booth Moore
More photos: Cynthia Rowley’s fall 2010 collection
More photos: BCBG Max Azria’s fall 2010 collection
More from New York Fashion Week
Follow All the Rage on Facebook and Twitter Photo (left): BCBG Max Azria’s’s Fall 2010 runway. Credit: Peter Stigter and Jonas Gustavsson / For The Times.
Photo (right): Cynthia Rowley Fall 2010 runway. Credit: David Goldman / Associated Press
