Last night the CFDA Awards, the Oscars of the fashion world, took place and in New York at Alice Tully Hall and the winners are in. Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen took away the big womenswear designer of the year award for The Row, Joseph Altuzarra won the Swarovski Award for womenswear and Phillip Lim for menswear and Tommy Hilfiger was awarded the Geoffrey Beene Lifetime Achievement Award.
Simon Spurr didn't end up winning the menswear designer of the year award, which was just as well considering all of the controversy surrounding his departure from his namesake line.
"Powerful" and "primal" are words French-born, New York-based designer Catherine Malandrino used to describe her Fall '10 collection. Entitled Khan, said collection began with Malandrino's vision of earth from above, and moved on to her musings on our common ancestors and harmony with the natural world. What does all that mean? Lots of leather, statement fur and silhouettes that are, simultaneously, approachable and tough.
Mixing textiles and textures? Absolutely. And Malandrino added the type of hand-detailing customers expect from her. Distressed leather, trapunto embroidery and hand-brushed prints prevented a collection done largely in black from blending in. Finishing her models' looks with warrior-plume hair and the strongest of brows, it became clear that Malandrino's idea of personal harmony doesn't involve being a wallflower.
Shopping for fashion week always makes us remember something: Stocking your wardrobe can get expensive. And as much as we'd love to have a closet full of nothing but designer clothes, shoes and accessories, we'd also like to pay our bills. Enter Rent The Runway, the online shop that charges users a fee to borrow high-end pieces for a specified amount of time. Just pick a piece, set a delivery date, and the clothing shows up on your doorstep in two different sizes. When you're done, you can return the garment in a pre-paid package - kind of like Netflix for clothes.
We have our eye on a red Alice + Olivia number, but the site has plenty of labels for any taste or price point. How about Catherine Malandrino or Lela Rose, or Halston Heritage - which RTR recently added to its selection? Sure, it'd be ideal to save the money and buy the clothes to keep, but then we'd just get dress envy again every time we saw the next season's collection. And to us, the freedom to have fashion ADD is worth a lot.
