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| Onyx wool jacket with matching trousers and chalk crepe top All photos: Lieba Nesis |
Narciso Rodriguez held his Fall 2016 show at Stage 37 between 10th and 11th Avenue, on Tuesday February 16 at 8PM. The kind of gravitas one must have to gather Linda Fargo, Ken Downing, Suzy Menkes and hordes of others to a small venue in the middle of nowhere at a late hour cannot be underestimated. Furthermore, the crowd was full of high-end sophisticated attendees, carrying a Birkin bag in one hand and the latest iPhone in another. His clients include Michelle Obama, Salma Hayek and Sarah Jessica Parker. This diminutive Cuban is quite a powerful force in the fashion community and his low key demeanor belies his prominence.
As the crowd gathered to view the 33-piece collection, it was noteworthy that his first garment was a white wool wrap coat with black lace-up flats. The next garments contained both black and white dresses and coats all with onyx lace shoes which were both masculine and utilitarian, an interesting contrast to the feminine dresses.
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| Green wool coat with yellow romy bag and green ankle boots |
Narciso had the models entering from one area and walking up and down different runways often crossing each other, allowing everyone to view the garments; however, the effect was dizzying leaving me baffled as to whether this was a dress I had already viewed. His use of green and sulphur with green and black ankle boots was sultry and desertlike, very “Lawrence of Arabia” meets Soho bohemian.
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| Black slip dress with lace-up shoes |
He is the king of understated chic and his love for black and white and bold geometric shapes is omnipresent in his collections. Tonight, he effectively paired sleeveless dresses with matching trousers repeating this trend that has been shown on the runways for the past couple of years. My favorite look was the black paper silk coat with the stone harness top and chalk wool panel skirt with matching white boots because it was streamlined and edgy with a whimsical asymmetry which was extremely effective.
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| White bronze silk bias dress with white lace-up shoes |
Another winner, was the white bronze paper silk dress with matching white lace up shoes; there are few designers that do bold geometric slip dresses better than Rodriguez. The way he matched the granite jacquard coat with aluminum lace up shoes was sheer perfection-completing the monolithic look with silver earrings.
