" The Lorie Project "

Gabrielle Chanel once said, " Fashion is not something that exists in dresses only. Fashion is in the sky, in the street, fashion has to do with ideas, the way we live, what is happening". Indeed, this remarkable woman redefine fashion into highest possible quality and something that is endlessly used. She made a significant revolution in woman's clothing and her creations became the most classic and timeless one. Thanks to her, we were introduced to little black dresses or LBDs, pearls as the most coveted stylish form of jewelry, chain handbags as the topmost accessories, a fashionable woman, should own. She freed us, from restricted clothing and taught us on how to wear men's clothing in a feminine way. To Coco, clothing is something that we, women,worn in comfort and not based on what the society dictates or lectures; easiness is what really matters most rather than trends. Gabrielle "Coco" Chanel is the greatest and most influential woman designer that the fashion world to ever owned.

Thanks to Coco's influence, number of women did followed her footsteps in designing. Some of them did reached success in this area and still on top of the game, playing an important role in dictating what a 21st century woman should evoke in terms of stylish clothing. Here in New York's Fashion week, a league of women designer continuously gave us both fashionable and stylish clothing that eventually help us further, in embodying our unique sense of individuality. Readers meet New York's "Women on Top", along with their amazing set of collections.

Carolina Herrera

“Lightness, movement, and fluidity,” saidCarolina Herrera backstage at her airy-as-thistledown collection.

With this idea in mind, Herrera showed langorous thirties-length dresses in soft chiffon, crepe, and organza, cut on the bias so that they fluttered prettily around the wearer. A blouse bristling with ruffles of knife-pleat aqua organza,

worn with a drifting chiffon evening skirt, evoked Adrian’s much-copied dress for the 1932 Joan Crawford movie Letty Lynton, and a romantic ballet-length tea dress of orange organza, pin-striped in gold, owed a debt to Schiaparelli. Playful high-waisted tap shorts kept the collection in the ultrafeminine zone of the silver-screen fashion plate, and entirely replaced pants—“something a little flirtatious,” as Mrs. Herrera put it, “and nothing to do with the masculine look.” There was a further nod to Hollywood Regency in the rococo scrolls that fastened the belts, their shape mirrored in the giant Dorothy Draper plaster whorls that formed a background for the show.

But the retro chic was leavened with graphic color-blocking, and the modernist edge of abstract prints that were echoed in embroideries on dark tulle over dresses that veiled the soft pastel evening dresses beneath, and Mrs. Herrera ignited the palette of soft dove grays, melting pinks, and eau de nils with a dash of citrus-orange and yellow.

Mrs. Herrera also brought her evening statements down to earth, showing a billowing ball-gown skirt of printed ivory faille with a short-sleeved sweater in rib acid-yellow knit, for instance, or the enchanting finale dress of tea-rose crêpe de Chine with flat sandals—an attitude that reflects the insouciant style with which her chic daughters wear their Herrera originals.

by Hamish Bowles

Stylish Dresses

Perfect Combination - tees+long skirt; shirt+short;jacket+mini

Great Accessories - Heels,Flats,Envelope and Thin Belts

Top(s) Chic

Donna Karan for DKNY

Sure, New York might be one of the most colorful cities in the world—speaking both graphically and in terms of the colorful personalities that make up its inhabitants—but did you ever ask yourself what the most ubiquitous element in the patchwork of color that blankets the Big Apple might be?

If you’re Donna Karan designing your spring 2013 DKNY show, you’d probably say taxicab yellow. Even though she’s built a 25-plus-year career around clean, black silhouettes, the designer has long been obsessed with cabs and the frequent smashes of yellow they scatter throughout the city. (Although there wasn’t a cab parked at the top of the runway this season, like the past two DKNY shows, the models did walk in front of a large backdrop that depicted bustling New York in an imposing gray scale, except for, you guessed it, a couple of bright yellow taxicabs.)

The clothes displayed this same conceit: There was a tidy array of white cotton shirts and slouchy jeans, which felt fresh on their own, but mainly provided a nice base for the flashes of almost-neon lemon yellow making an appearance in the form of silk shirts, and neoprene jersey dresses. (The designer even took a bow in a pair of black skinny jeans, topped by a yellow anorak.)

It’s probably no coincidence then that for her sound track Karan opened the show with Nena’s “99 Luftballons,” a song about another swarm of color popping out in front of a dreary background—99 red balloons floating between Cold War–era East and West Germany—and inadvertently sparking a third world war. Let’s hope New York and Pittsburgh don’t befall the same fate, especially once they find out Karan is making a grab for their black-and-yellow color scheme.

by Freddie Campion

Urbanity - Suits, Shirts and Trousers

Sporty Accessorizing

Denim 101

The Ups and Down of Dressing

Donna Karan for her name label

Even, it seems, Donna Karan cannot live by fast and furious urbanity alone. She dubbed her spring 2013 collection “Sunrise, Sunset,” a paean to those quiet, reflective moments that strike even the great dirty heaving metropolis that is New York City, when dawn casts a gradually warming glow over the skyscrapers and gently tugs it away at the end of the day, only to repeat the whole process all over again twelve or so hours later. (Given that the models were, to a woman, sporting vermilion eye shadow, perhaps they’re coming into New York off the red-eye from LaGuardia.) Anyway, this was essentially Karan’s romantic and wistful vision of the isle of Manhattan, one unabashedly played out in the clothes: Empire-line dresses that spun away from the body with spiral-cut skirts; jackets cut on the bias to cleave to the body, somewhat Asiatic in feeling, and denuded of any visible fastenings; and artfully folded and draped full skirts that fell in overlapping planes of fabric, not unlike the way the Hudson River glistens in the morning. (To fully take in this poetic experience, I am not saying you won’t have to screw up your eyes a little, thus diminishing the sight of the police boats scudding by at all hours of the day and night.)

Karan isn’t the only designer engaged in thinking about exactly what “urban” clothes should—and need to—currently look like. There has been a general consensus these past few days that “tough” and “hard” have played themselves out—unsurprising, really, given that for 99 percent of us tough and hard would describe our day-to-day experience of living in the world, especially nowadays. Karan’s more languid, ethereal, and loosened-up approach is where we seem to be heading. Of course, become too soft and dreamy and things, ironically, can only get tougher and harder when it comes to the prosaic act of getting dressed day in, day out. So, Karan’s best move was to render much of this collection in the papery, crumpled Japanese-style cottons that have been making an appearance this New York; they look lived in, that they’ve been around the block, but still pretty and poetic, especially, as she did, colored pearly gray or blush pink. This time around, Karan had no recourse to black. That would have been another fantasy of New York, and a whole other collection.

by Mark Holgate

DJ - Dresses and Jackets

The Art of Bagging

Romanticism

SW - Sexy Wedges

Diane Von Furstenberg a.k.a. DVF

“It really is so much about me when I was a young princess,” announcedDiane von Furstenberg after her insouciantly glamorous show, “a rebel princess. When, yes, you go to the Roman palaces, you go to Jaipur, you go to Marrakech, and you look the sophisticated aristocrat, but you take off the tunic and the layers and you are ready to go dancing all night.”

Thousands of smiling mirror lips hung from the rafters or were buried into the creamy carpet underfoot, reflecting the feel-good vibe of the show, which played out to a front-row lineup that included a generous helping of billionaires amongst the glamazons.

Those exotic destinations of the late sixties and early seventies were reflected in the billowing palazzo pants and the geometrically detailed Cardin-esque tunics (in the hypnotic colors of Slim Aarons’s café-society portraits), fashioned for flitting between the ballrooms of Italy’s stateliest mansions, and in the airy djellaba coats and sarouel pants for tuning out in a Moroccan riad, and in the sari draperies, spangled embroideries, and silver baubles garlanding neck and hemlines for a Rajasthan pilgrimage.

Diane and her creative director, Yvan Mispelaere, have continued their adventures in highly sophisticated color combinations: a pale mauve crepe caftan coat over a halter top of carrot crepe and pants the color of Morocco’s red earth, say, or an A-line tunic in teal, eau de nil, and brick. And beyond the fantasy there were plenty of real-life clothes, many with the sportif accent and attitude that permeates the current fashion mood after the London Olympics (which Diane attended in full force)—including a slouchy sweat pant and shirt in electric-green sequins.

Diane may have been looking back to her giddy youth in this collection, but this Thoroughly Modern Princess has her Louboutins firmly planted in the present—and allows her mind to soar into the future. She took her finale victory lap with Mispelaere wearing a pair of Glass by Google glasses that had a tiny built-in camera set in the frame to record a Diane’s-eye view of the show—and she led Google cofounder Sergey Brin from his seat to join them.

by Hamish Bowles

Whether it's dress, skirts, shorts and office suits, "Short is In"

Top-ping on Detailing

HC - Handbags and Clutches

Color-citing Chic-ness

Heels and Toe

White, Black and Print

Sexy is just a Word

Marchesa's duo, Georgina Chapman and Keren Craig

Those with long memories might care to remember that Marchesa’s debut collection, unveiled if I am not mistaken on Renée Zellweger at the London premiere of Bridget Jones: Edge of Reason in November 2004, had a distinctly Southern Asian theme, all Rajasthani sari silks and Jaipur jeweling. Many baubles and beads have been strewn across the cutting room floor since Georgina Chapman and Keren Craig launched their label, which has impressively grown to encompass big-night glamour, red-carpet dressing, and all manner of fantasy-fulfilling dresses for girls who just want to have fun. Revisiting that Indian theme showed how far this twosome has come. And their trip down memory lane—guided, swami-like, by the Beatles’s guru Maharishi Mahesh Yogi—resulted in a collision of the rarified and time-honored beading and embroidery skills of India, not to mention its wildly vivid color palette (chartreuse, garnet, fuchsia, coral, and, of course, pink) with the groovy countercultural swing of I-just-want-to-find-myself sixties London.

Keep that in mind, and it explains why some of those sari silk dresses had a fluttery cape overlay, or a Mod-ish shift shape to them, and were layered over capri pants. These were partnered with the shoe seen pretty much throughout the entire show, a brocade or jewel-encrusted low skinny-heeled Christian Louboutin sandal. (Yes, it finally looks like it’s curtains for the towering platform at night, but then I’ve written that before, and subsequently been proved oh so very wrong.) Elsewhere, this collection was at its best when the sari-folding was integrated into the silhouette itself, showcasing the rich diversity of shapes that can be conjured by this elegant draping of fabric onto the body—viz a fuchsia cocktail dress with a cascading hem, or a bordeaux tulle dress appliquéd with gold painted lace. Other times, the Indian theme was little more than a fragrant reminder—such as a peacock blue and turquoise paisley evening look that came embroidered with crystals, and which could swish through the night wherever it’s worn on the globe.

Richness in Shortness

Amazing Braids

Pointed, Strappy, Heels and Flat

Stylish Treasures

Dressing the Part

Rodarte's, Mulleavy sisters

God bless the maverick Mulleavy sisters; they certainly bring a uniquely idiosyncratic blend of crazy inventiveness and a perversely sophisticated loving-hands-at-home passion (think macramé, patchwork, quilting) to the New York collections that sets them apart from anything else to be seen here. This season their imaginations ran wild.

“Medieval fantasy world,” said Kate backstage after the gloriously quirky Rodarte show. “Fantasy role-playing games,” chimed Laura. What roles did the sisters have in mind? “I think it could be anything,” said Laura, but then reconsidered and added, “being who you imagine your best self could be.”

There was certainly a hint of a sci-fi Galahad in the armorial silhouettes, often built up with a variety of unexpected fabric combinations—horsehair, leather, iridescent synthetics, geometric-pattern perforated lace, filmy chiffons, and heavy-bodied silks—in a wintry palette of pastels un-prettified with black and jewel tones. Like eighties Flash Gordon heroines, the opening looks featured strapless dresses with short, triangular-shaped skirts with complicated built-in breastplates (sometimes created by origami-pleating the fabric) worn over printed second-skin turtlenecks. Matelassé brocades stiff as samurai armor were used for cuirass bodices, peplum flaps, and even molded epaulets. And there was a hint of an arcade-game Guinevere in the drifts of chiffon printed with flowers and ivy tendrils, and in the belts garlanded with ropes of steely chain.

Tina Turner’s striking costumes from Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome may have been an inspiration too, and if yours is a Hell’s Angels fantasy, there were some fantastic black leather biker jackets with a vague hint of eighties Claude Montana, overscaled and reproportioned, and bristling with leather fringe and inset with fiery licks of shantung—and leather pants slashed and cross-laced from here to eternity.

In a season where footwear is sobering up, the Mulleavys opted instead for elaborate high-rise shoes with molded (laser-cut) heels and complicated strap treatments in a patchwork of fabrications and colors. But then again, with sensory overload on the brain, why stop at the ankle?

by Hamish Bowles

Sleeve-less Dressing

Strong Sleeves

Accessorizing from the TOP

Heels anyone?

View from the Top

Evening Glamour

Sophie Theallet

Of all the observations to be made over this last week of shows—consider the new short haircuts, pointed toe flats with dresses, lots of lingerie layers—one element has stood out for its absence: there just hasn’t been a lot of tricksy styling. None of fall’s enormous, outrageous headwear or coats worn over dresses worn over pants (at least not yet). Even the beauty has been fairly accessible, save for one or two instances of red eyeliner, a look that still baffles. It’s not that everyone’s gone minimalist; it’s more that you wonder whether the sense of ease that was so strong for resort has held over to spring. At least that was true for Sophie Theallet, who presented a straightforward spring collection of crisp, pretty dresses and light sweaters that refreshingly didn’t take a Ph.D. in Russian literature to appreciate.

“I wanted to make clothes that were chic, nonchalant, and full of sensuality,” the designer said backstage. Her interpretations of those characteristics looked like this: a clean, white, one-shoulder dress that was more daytime garden party than goddess; a turquoise knit sundress with a flouncy skirt and crocheted panel; thin-wrap cardigans worn over shirts and tucked into full skirts, which looked impressively uncumbersome. She also created several iterations of effortless sundresses in a simple dragonfly print. Most notable was her last exit, a diaphanous, one-shouldered evening number with a sweeping skirt swarmed with artfully winged insects. “The dragonfly means mystique and maléfique,” Theallet said. In this case, mystique won out.

by Emily Holt

CD - Cardigan+Dress

CC - Casual Comfort

OS - Office Styling

CH - Colorful Heels

FD - Feminine Dressing

Mary Kate and Ashley Olsen for The Row

Just when you thought that’s it for the trench, there is absolutely nothing left to be said, along come Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen of The Row, wielding their cutting shears and magically transforming it. Actually, wielding is entirely the wrong verb here; it’s far too aggressive and physical and forceful. For what the Olsens did was take the most workaday of coats and imbue it with some lyrical romanticism; softening and sizing up its shape, and adding artist smock sleeves, all rolling volume through the arms and hand-dusting cuffs. Perhaps this isn’t surprising. They’d been looking to the work of eighteenth-century Japanese painter Ito Jakuchu, and his bird-and-flower etched scrolls. His sense of gentle artistry clearly struck a chord with this duo, who’ve long intelligently articulated ideas about femininity which don’t confirm the worst possible stereotypes, but instead advance the cause of quiet empowerment.

There were more quasi antique-Asiatic meanderings, fused with what the Olsens called “American folk minimalism,” ergo: billowing tunic/slip dresses over wide pants; delicate shirts atop long undulating skirts; and coats with all the wrapping and draping qualities of a dressing gown. As a collection, it was the distillation of the four tenets of how to dress next spring—longer, looser, lighter, and layered. Most of this was rendered in the palest parchment-like shades of white, ivory, and cream, and in that papery Japanese cotton that crumples and collapses in the hand, and has become the ubiquitous fabric over only a matter of days. A recurring theme here was also their use of pleating, and not just for tops and dresses, but pants, too, which more often than not appeared under some long top layer.

Of course, all of this made for a particular look, and one for a particular woman. When it comes to The Row’s myriad devotees, drawn to the precision of their natty blazers, mannish pants, and cashmere sweaters with all the comfort and ease of T-shirts, it may not even intersect much with what they choose to buy from the label next year. There was nothing obvious or status-y or typically (or even untypically) sexy in this exploration of ways to envelop the body. And, on reflection, sometimes the use of layer-upon-layer lightness got complicated, viz a pant that seemed to have a bi-length apron overlay, that turned out to be not an overskirt but part of the pants themselves. Still, stripped back, to the likes of a rich regal red lean jacket and just as narrow skirt, or a deep inky-blue Empire evening dress, this collection could conjure up a serene elegance.

by Mark Holgate

Pants, Tops, Jackets and Coats, altogether in ONE

Long and Evening

Tory Burch

Should you have been following the various developments of the look of spring 2013 in New York over the last few days, you might be viewing it with a feeling pitched somewhere between curiosity and trepidation. Thus far, we’ve been awash—or adrift is perhaps better—in long, languorous layers, all pale, pale, pale delicacy, with a few lingerie pieces on show (in every sense of the word) for good measure. Truth be told, some of it has been quite beautiful, but clearly how all this will transition into real life where you have to dress to go to work, date, run around after the kids, etc., etc., is another matter entirely. Bravo, Tory Burch, then, for brilliantly flying the flag for sparkling newness without forgetting that great clothes should feel joyful and uplifting without being entirely devoid of practicality. “It’s remixing American classicism; about a girl who travels the world, and takes something from every place she goes,” Burch said backstage of her preppy globalism for spring. “So there is guipure lace and tie-dye or making a polo shirt into an evening dress, and then pairing it with Moroccan slippers.”

That was the final look, a white crepe, collared column dress graphically embellished on the sleeves and the waist with silver and red beading, worn with those aforementioned flats, resulting in a youthful, easy idea of elegance. But let’s quickly rewind, because there were plenty of good things in this collection from the get-go. Most appealing was Burch’s take on that longer line that has been causing the eye to drop downward when looking at the runway of late. Her trick was to tailor it to keep it under control, meaning A-line skirts rendered in lightweight ombre tweeds or in hand-dyed bazin (no, me neither—bazin, apparently, is a kind of African damask) were worn with neat blazers and high, block-heeled loafers.

The smallness of the top contrasted with that midi (as they used to say, back in the day) length that was also used for a series of charming dresses in everything from yellow honeycomb-eyelet lace to a blue-and-white Indian floral print on linen, to mesh embroidered with paillettes. Of course, like all those diaphanous layers, longer can also be challenging for mere mortals. What would, ahem, the more petite Burch recommend? “Making them shorter,” she said, laughing. “No, it’s all about keeping the length tailored. Do that, and you can wear it with heels—or flats.”

by Mark Holgate

Casual Outdoor

Spring Suits

Sunny Jackets

Spring's Heels and Flats

Skirting Issue

Top Detailing

Extravagant Cases

Dress to Impress

Vera Wang

“Does anyone even remember Jawaharlal Nehru?” Vera Wang calls out backstage minutes before her show, then answers herself in the next breath because the half-bare models and hectic dressers are otherwise engaged. “He was the prime minister of India.” For the better part of the twentieth century, to be exact, not that you’d really need to recall the political figure (let alone be able to spell his name) to appreciate what Wang was getting at with her stunning spring collection.

Yes, the starting point was India, but Wang’s interpretation was loose. (Anything more literal, she said, “wouldn’t really be me.”) She seems to have, for the moment anyway, put aside her athletic-inspired tendencies and chosen instead to focus on the kind of sophisticated, embellished sportswear that is inarguably her sweet spot—and exactly the kind of real options for day that are what women want from her. It started with gorgeous white cotton looks that appeared clean but were far from minimal. Sleeveless tops were heavily embroidered and swishy skirts (cut short or below the knee) were made with almost 20 yards of canvas each. From there, things got slightly dressier in dazzling colors: vibrant turquoise, emerald green, bright purple. Wang handles jewel tones better than anyone, and it was nothing short of exciting to see her play with them again after seasons of acerbic neons and muted shades. This was especially true when she used them for short, silk faille cocktail dresses that looked as if they were seductively falling off the shoulders and ladylike Chantilly lace sheaths with crystals at the waist and neck.

Then came the gold: a gorgeous gold lace sheath with an embroidered back, a cool hammered bullion tank with an almost-racer back, and a deep V-cut evening dress that would work as effortlessly on the red carpet as it would at a summer wedding.

So the collection overall could be described as Indian in its opulence and rich palette, but that’s where the line is drawn. “It’s not a sari, it’s not a sarong, and it’s not Bollywood,” Wang said. No, it’s Vera—and it was spectacular.

by Emily Holt

Games of White

Yellow in the Know

Rare Blue

Green with Envy

Little Blacks

Hunting for Gold

Victoria Beckham

With a graphic, clean, and focused collection that introduced new proportions and elements to her characteristic body-conscious line,Victoria Beckham continues to grow her brand with quiet assurance and intelligence.

“There’s not one single thing out there that I would not wear myself,” she explained backstage. “I always design what I want to wear, and I want to wear more than a dress.” With this in mind, she introduced separates, including crisp white cotton blouses (often with geometrically pieced eyelet and lace elements), flirty short skirts, and deftly cut pants, seamed like her signature second-skin dresses, that reflect the mantra of a designer who is always very much in the camera’s sights: “Everything’s got to look good from every angle.”

Beckham opened the show with lean, bias-cut midi skirts, worn with poet’s shirts or camisole tops that signaled the lingerie theme weaving through the collection. Paired with Stephen Jones’ slouchy black felt scarecrow hats, and mannish flats designed with Manolo Blahnik, they signaled a refreshing new direction for the designer. Those celebrated Beckham dresses made an appearance, but were softened this season with bodices in translucent fine knits veiling structured brassieres beneath, or with delicate camisole straps and lace trim.

Front-row guest Maria Sharapova admired the trim little tennis dresses and skirts that were either cut A-line stiff, or combined various textural elements, such as cotton canvas, those graphic laces, and pleated chiffon flounces. The new geometric broderie anglaise cottons reflected the perforated trend of the season, with its discreet revelations of the body beneath, and were subtly mirrored in the honeycomb belts and open-work satchel bags. And the lingerie details brought a thoughtful modern edge to the chic Beckham sheath.

by Hamish Bowles