Custo Barcelona Fall '08
If Bill Blass seems to be rooted in a time and place..Custo Barcelona...despite the name of designer Custo Dalmau's company, is rooted in Custo. With menswear that would be hard for this reporter to wear, though it looks fun on, you know, very thinnish men, Custo has a magnificent feeling for women and every part of his show refects that, including his menswear. From the hair, to the patterns, to the fabrics, to the bopping Eurolads next to them....Custo women are energized and entering flat-out heavy duty bomshellocity. Note to You: These clothes DO bring out the drop-dead inner bombshell.... always good news to the Glamwire News Team. Sure, the styling makes it happen in this show as well. Old timers complain about the rise of styling on the runway...and if you don't have this hair... proceed cautiously with Custo at your favorite department store...Truthfully though the clothes will look great on a lot of women....the width of this collection's style is there. Hillary Clinton and Georgette Moschburger would look great in some of the dresses and that stunning grey and read mohair coat (Custo #3). For young and the more courageous old, this is a wildly original and energizing collection and it stamps the style of this talented designer on the New York runways.
--Milon Henry Levine, Senior Reporter
Bill Blass Fall '08
"I happen to like New York," sang out Bobby Short, and presumably, Bill Blass may have sang that out too every once in a while. Right before he died, Blass said he always carried in his wallet a picture of a young man he came to New York with from Ft. Wayne Indiana in 1939. The young man lost his life in World War II. Bill Blass's work is eternally about the young people he met in the early 40s, having drinks and seeing picture shows...after their bustling working days in this magnificent metropolis. Peter Soms' first collection for Bill Blass completely captures that....as Peter Brandt and Glenn O'Brien work to be true to Warhol as the guard changes at Interview...Som was enitrely true to Blass in his first BB Collection. These are power suits and azure trench coat and noir fedoras...the only other vibe here seems to be the latin tinged party dress...it's not just the 40's ...it's Bill Blass waking up on September 23rd, 1940, when he just turned, in fact, 18 years old and was already succeeding as a designer in New York City....that moment took the entire fashion world by storm and Som did us a great service to make a collection that crystalizes it.
--Milon Henry Levine, Senior Reporter
Temperley London Fall '08
The name smacks of a Tanquery Gin Ad and something about Alice Temperley throws you into the sense of aristocratic elegance...and its not just the London that accents her legendary line's name. Temperley's Fall '08 collection carries just the right combination of voluptuousness, or what Glamwire Junior Reporter Zac Time eagerly refers to as "sluttiness," and refined-yet-swinging British Glamour. It was one of Glamwire's favorite collections this season.
Anna Sui Fall '08
This collection marked for Anna Sui a progression. Last fall saw a lot of faux fur eskimo jackets and gloves...and this fall Sui went Psychadelic Eskimo--Native American--Pan Asian to push her own glorious style to the limit. To me this was the collection that was truest to Anna Sui herself, rooted in color, hippie splendour, cross culturalism and delving into the richness and beauty of bohemia and yes, dare I mention it here online, love.
--Milon Henry Levine, Senior Editor
