As always, New York Fashion Week comes in with a bang on a Thursday, seemingly drags on with ebbs and flows through the following week and then (just like a one-night stand from the 90’s) leaves quietly on a Friday morning with a few memorable highlights and maybe a regret or two. Here are a few of my memories…
Let’s Go Have a Kiki…
— Cocktails and cool couture at the K. Milele NYFW SS2016 presentation…
There’s nothing like bringing in New York Fashion Week with a fantastic cocktail surrounded by the city’s most fashionable tastemakers. Goal achieved, as XEX was in the house to fete Kianga “Kiki Kitty” Peterson’s Spring/Summer line, which was chock full of fabulously restrained-yet-sophisticated mixed patterns and pieces that incorporated sensual cuts that most stylish women wouldn’t hesitate to add to their Resort suitcases come January.
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This is not Kiki’s first time at The Fashion Rodeo, however. In her 20-plus years in the industry, she has “ghost-designed” collections for everyone in the whole wide world. With a flair for the celebrity brands market specifically, Peterson has developed collections for rapper-turned-brand Jay Z’s ‘Rocawear’, “celebri-socialite” Nicky Hilton’s ‘Chic’, rapper Eve’s ‘Fetish’ offering, music mogul Sean Comb’s ‘Sean John’, singer Justin Timberlake’s ‘William Rast’, and Beyoncé and Miss Tina Knowles’s ‘House of Dereon’ lines- among others. She is currently turning out Nicki Minaj’s eponymous clothing line.
Kiki showed her namesake collection right before the beginning of Fashion Week via a presentation cleverly disguised as a swanky cocktail party on Tuesday evening, where renown celebrity stylists such as Mike B, Michelle Ten, Misa Hylton, Niki Schwan, Atiba Newsome, Sonya Magett, Robert McKenzie and Memsor Kamarake each used their talents to each style one of the more editorial looks from the new collection on mannequins. The effect was further confirmation of the versatility of her line- and why she’s a fashion stylist’s best weapon.
What’s neXEXt for Kiki? She’s designing a sportswear line that incorporates copper in the fabric, so that your blood circulation is maximized while looking fashionable on the beach or in the gym. How fabulous is that?!
Wednesday at the Thaddeus O’Neil presentation, mint- spritzed vodka cocktails (with nutmeg!), watercress sandwiches, and wood plank floors sprinkled with actual sand gave guests the feeling of both chilling in the Hamptons and/or strolling the sandy beaches of California. The après surf designer showed his Spring/Summer collection in a balmy loft in Little Italy, but the models (some playing with beach balls in makeshift wooden, pink-stripped tiki-huts and others in repose on squares of astroturf reading various classical tomes) were ultra-cool while wearing the label’s stylishly summery offerings for both men and women.
East Meets West, NYFW-style….
Treats from Taiwan were the order of the day on Thursday afternoon at Gotham Hall, as Malan Breton’s Spring/Summer ’16 runway was replete with bold color and prints that pushed the Orient aesthetic while remaining true to his impeccable tailoring for both sexes.
Meanwhile, early on Sunday morning at the Moynihan Station Post Office, HaiPing Xie gave us Asian regality both via his shift dresses (with their artistic scribblings across the torso that made me think that these were his version of Chado Ralph Rucci’s ‘L’Enfant Terible’ gowns a few years ago) and his extravagantly-constructed silk gowns that floated like magic carpets up and down the runway while the models donned bright, intricate headpieces.