Ralph travels to the Orient

Ralph Lauren is one of those fashion designers, together with Michael Kors and, possibly, Donna Karan, who always follows a straight line in terms of style. Many could argue that his collections are predictable but I like to make a marked difference between that and creating classic styles. Ralph does the latter and he does it really well. Not one, apart from the other aforementioned designers, epitomise the East-coast look as well as him. We have seen more or less strong nods to the far West, horse racing and colonialism in the past but none as evident and formidable as this one. For FW11 Ralph has travelled to the Orient of the 20's. Instead of the usual tweeds and sandy colours we saw mostly black in jacquard, wool, velvet and sequins. The flapper inspiration was mixed with the oriental motifs of necklaces and earrings, which also introduces the intense reds and jade greens that brought most of the colour to the collection. Alongside this, there was a minor art deco influence made evident mostly on belts and brooches.

I'm off.

[Pictures: Style.com]

an ORIENTAL touch

I am finally back to business. Let me apologize again for my absence, but a few affairs required my attention.

As I have usually narrated, I am specially keen on watching and re-watching runway shows over and over again during the season, scrutinizing every inch of the outfits and fixing my eyes on previously overlooked details and accessories. It was only last Friday when desperation caused by a delayed flight drove me to dive again into a few of the collections I had only so quickly glanced at —Just Cavalli, Salvatore Ferragamo and Alessandro Dell'Acqua. It was the latter which got a stronger hold of my attention. I cannot think of a reason why this collection seemed ordinary at first sight, perhaps for the restricted palette or maybe because of the oriental pin-up looks at the beginning, but looking at it again with a more open mind made notice how Dell'Acqua masterly used rubber on very wide, Asian-inspirated belts giving the perfect touch to the silouettes and bringing to the 21st century an ancient Kimono accessory. Then it came to realization that one of those rubber champagne-coloured belts had come my way not long ago during a visit at one of my favourite Barcelona shops. As I caressed the darker rubber strip I thought: "What a wonderful item, how versatile, how fresh! Who must have designed it?" The answer came that moment.

Now I ask, would you wear it? If so, how?

[Pictures credit: Style.com]

I'm off.