Style Blog
The art of the fashion show: How
designers set a mood to make you fall
for their frocks
By Robin Givhan September 16
Sophie Theallet spring 2016. (Mireya Acierto/Getty Images)
Robin Givhan, The Washington Post’s Pulitzer-winning fashion critic, is covering New
York Fashion Week. Read her stories on Style Blog and follow her on
Twitter: @robingivhan.
NEW YORK — Designers have to make hundreds of decisions, big and small, to mount a
fashion show. Every choice tells the audience something about who they are.
Designer Sophie Theallet booked the location for her fashion show three months in
advance. She didn’t want some buzzy restaurant. And she wasn’t going to ask the city to
shut down public streets so she could construct an elaborate tent. Instead, she simply
wanted a central location, and she wanted to be outside — or more precisely, on a roof.
And from this particular rooftop, one can see the signature buildings of New York — as
well as a searing yellow one that, for her, evokes the urban landscape of Africa. That’s
what her collection is all about.
The view from the rooftop at the Sophie Theallet spring 2016 show. (Robin Givhan/The
Washington Post)
The French-born Theallet decided that now was the time to create an “homage to the
beauty of Africa because I always love Africa. And it was the moment to show that beauty
that I really stand for. It’s why I’m a fashion designer.”
Theallet has always believed in a diverse definition of beauty. She is one of the few
designers, for example, who has worked in the plus-size realm, creating a collection for
Lane Bryant. But spring 2016 allows her to apply her French design roots to ideas picked
up from travels to places such as Marrakech and her friendship with Jenke-Ahmed
Tailly, a stylist of Senegalese descent whom Theallet calls “the chicest person.”
“She comes from a couture background,” says Tailly, who has worked with Beyonce and
Kim Kardashian. “And she’s referencing the history of fashion.”
Theallet also called up her favorite models, including Veronica Webb, whose Revlon deal
in the late 1990s made her one of the first black models to win a contract with a major
cosmetics firm.
African drummers were recruited to play live. And the show began as the sun was sliding
toward the horizon.
Veronica Webb opens the Sophie Theallet spring 2016 show. (Fernanda
Calfat/Getty Images)
Theallet’s collection blended the rigors of her technique with fabrics that hinted
at traditional African prints, without slipping into costume. She kept to a color
palette dominated by earth tones and used feathers as her favored form of
embellishment. And she included non-traditional size models on her runway.
“In fashion, you’re supposed to fly,” Theallet says. “You’re supposed to dream.”
For spring 2016, Charles Harbison created a collection for what he described as a
girl who is “quirky” and “smart.” One would hope that all designers think of
themselves as catering to intelligent women. But this collection, indeed, suggests
a woman whose aesthetic inspiration is found in intellectual pursuits as well as
visceral ones.
It would be an exaggeration to say that the jazz vocalist Candice Hoyes is
Harbison’s muse. But the two did become fast friends after a chance meeting at
Jazz at Lincoln Center in June, and Harbison did invite her to perform at this
Tuesday afternoon presentation — although technical glitches prevented that
from happening live. And Hoyes is a smart girl, with an undergraduate degree
from Harvard and a law degree from Columbia. Also, as a male designer,
Harbison has said that it is important to him to surround himself with women
who can inspire, inform and critique.
[How Beverly Johnson became Charles Harbison’s new muse]
“We started off talking about our interests: books and music and things personal
to us,” Hoyes says of their introduction. And soon they were talking about the
intimacy of jazz and the connection between fashion and fine arts.
Harbison is a jazz patron and Hoyes is a classically trained singer. For her first
CD, ” “On a Turquoise Cloud,” she dove into the National Archives to retrieve rare
works by Duke Ellington written specifically for female vocalists.
Jazz vocalist Candice Hoyes and designer Charles Harbison became fast
friends.
The singer and the designer find common ground in the challenges of a creative
life. Hoyes came to his studio and “he told me about when he was doing a lot of
soul-searching in college he listened to a lot of jazz vocalists,” Hoyes says. And
she finds confidence and comfort in wearing his clothes when she performs. On
the day of his show, she was wearing a filmy black dress with a patchwork of
graphic shapes.
Harrison spring 2016 (Courtesy of Harbison)
For spring, Harbison’s collection, titled “Vicissitudes,” includes exuberant
dresses with mismatched ruffles, intense shades of red and orange, ribbed
sweaters adorned with buttons and tailored officers coats. It is a step forward as
he continues to refine his vision and find his voice.
Harbison spring 2016 (Courtesy of Harbison)
Telling a story through fashion only begins with the clothes. A fashion show is a
symphony of graphics, models, makeup, props, lighting and a host of other
details, most notably, the music. It sets the mood. Because after the designers
make the frocks, to sell them, they have to create a little magic.