Since launching Cerre in 2005, L.A. husband-and-wife duo Clayton and Flavie Webster have developed a following for lambskin biker jackets that are handcrafted in their Melrose Avenue atelier. In recent years, the West Coast brand has been tapped by A-list costume designer Trish Summerville to create hundreds of custom pieces for Hollywood blockbusters The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo and The Hunger Games: Catching Fire. But if it’s Cerre’s perfect Perfectos that continue to draw new customers, it’s the increased focus on tailoring that keeps them coming back. This season, the Websters focused on a comparatively relaxed silhouette with high-waisted, wide-legged trousers and slouchy suiting separates that gave off a confident, androgynous vibe à la Katharine Hepburn. Elsewhere, they cut more feminine pieces from menswear-inspired materials that didn’t feel too precious. A one-shouldered black dress and circle skirt—both of which featured flattering, asymmetric cascades—came in a luxe felted wool that was also used on a windowpane-check poncho. As usual, outerwear was a particular strength here, with standouts including sumptuous wrap coats accented with subtle architectural pleats around the neckline. In terms of leather items, a swingy trapeze dress and tough pencil skirt with a zipper that curved around the hip felt fresh. Ditto went for the oversize, buckled hobo bag. Instead of models, the latest short video stars real friends and supporters of the brand, such as fashion editor Annina Mislin and Natalia Bonifacci. “People always ask us, ‘Who is your woman?’ We have her and decided to show her off this time around,” they explained.
—Brittany Adams
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Vika Gazinskaya has a small fear of tattoos, but that didn’t stop her from positioning them throughout her Fall collection. They appear as vintage emblems, with both “Vika” and “Viktory” on scrolls wrapping around hearts or held up by multicolored swallows. Last week, the Russian designer learned she’s among the finalists for the generous LVMH Prize (which will be awarded for the first time in May), so the motif could prove self-fulfilling. But in any case, she staggered them judiciously enough—here on a gray felt baseball cap, there as a trompe l’oeil effect on a stretch bodysuit—that they didn’t steal attention from the collection’s other strong elements. Strongest of all: the almond-shaped shoulder cutouts that transformed a high-necked sweatshirt or blouse into a vaguely 1950s look. Think Roman Holiday redux. Gazinskaya extended this sensibility to a soft-washed wool dress and pleated tapered pants. Then she pushed it from nostalgic to new with an oversize, ruffled gingham placket tunic dress and a bell-shaped shearling vest hand-painted an ombré surf green.

The tattooed “Vika” lettering, by the way, has one additional meaning: a nod to the influential Russian rock artist Viktor Tsoi, who died in 1990 at the age of 28. Gazinskaya said she kept returning to his Soviet poetry on love and death. Such overarching themes were barely obvious in her nuanced collection—although the shimmery, champagne-hued tattoo dress did signal a certain desire to lay everything bare. It conveyed the sophisticating of an ingenue.
—Amy Verner
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What’s the philosophy behind Crippen? No one speaks to the brand’s ethos better than Susie Crippen herself. This season, the Los Angeles-based designer, who launched her namesake collection in 2012, went in front of the camera to articulate her credo. “I love making things for women. I love that conversation I get to have with them. I love creating something for women who were too busy to do it themselves,” she said. “I do not want to give up ease and comfort for style. Everything that I do comes from a very strong place of logic and how women think.”

Keeping this in mind, Crippen aims to create understated, everyday clothes that will take her customers through the entire week—from the office to after-work events to a soccer game on Saturday—and there’s an underlying emphasis on functionality. Denim has been a core category from the beginning (which makes sense, given Crippen was a cofounder of J Brand), but in addition to premium jeans, the collections have evolved to include tailoring, knitwear, and lots of leather. Themed “Winter Gatsby,” the new lineup reinterprets traditional menswear elements in a casual, feminine way. A sharp suit with slim, cropped trousers came in a flecked tweed with just a hint of sparkle, while a graphic bouclé topcoat nicely balanced tough with soft. Crippen ramped up her sweaters this time around with engineered ribbing, discreet notches, and side vents that took them from basic to beautiful. Other highlights included a snug, slightly cropped biker jacket boasting utilitarian patch pockets, as well as a standout shearling originally inspired by the one worn by Anouk Aimée’s character in the 1966 film A Man and a Woman. At a showroom preview, Crippen explained, “Ever since I first saw that movie twenty years ago, I’ve been searching for one just like it. Finally, I was like, ‘Let’s just do it, let’s just make it ourselves.'”
—Brittany Adams
Runway Feed

For nearly a decade, Jasmin Shokrian has been quietly creating thoughtful clothes that reflect her interest in the arts. This season, she reported that sales of her Spring ’14 collection are up by 300 percent—all thanks to a white T-shirt that read “Je pars habiter a Los Angeles.” The success of that relatively simple, Instagram-able top (in English, it says, “I want to live in Los Angeles”) got the designer thinking about the split-second attention span that social media fosters by bombarding us with thousands of images a day. At a Fall preview, Shokrian wondered, “How do we differentiate our own memories from things we’ve visually absorbed now?” She addressed that idea with a cerebral video starring Malu Byrne that strings together fragmented quotes such as “People’s memories are maybe the fuel they burn to stay alive” from Haruki Murakami’s novel After Dark.

For Fall, Shokrian revisited the wordplay of her popular T-shirt on pullovers and tote bags splashed with “Arte Povera,” a tribute to the mid-century modern art movement that partially inspired her this season. She went on to cite Persian architecture and the particular black-blue shade of caviar from the Caspian Sea as additional influences. All of this played out in a range of sculptural navy pieces (many of which were cut from a terrific silk faille that resembled technical nylon), which articulated Shokrian’s fascination with shapes. Highlights included a slightly retro swing coat, wool wrap skirts, and dressy culottes that would look nice at a cocktail event. Compared with recent outings, there was a sportier vibe here exemplified by organza sweatshirts, sweatpants trousers, and a windbreaker jacket. Many of the looks were finished off with a statement-making bucket hat (watch out, Pharrell) that doubled as a daytime clutch. Only time will tell whether it will become as popular as Shokrian’s Los Angeles tops.
—Brittany Adams
Runway Feed

There’s a personal narrative behind each of Rachel Antonoff‘s idiosyncratic collections and their creative, correlating videos. This season, the spunky designer referenced one of her favorite novels, Marijane Meaker’s 1972 queer coming-of-age classic, Shockproof Sydney Skate. Antonoff paid tribute to the book’s female protagonist, whose pockets and handbags are always full of matchbooks, with a scratchy matchbook plaid found on casual cotton separates, and a pair of brushed-wool overalls featuring “No Smoking” embroidery. Other playful touches included a dashed-off tic-tac-toe motif that turned up on feminine silk wrap dresses and the lining of vibrant wrap coats, as well as an illustrated print depicting a cast of eccentric ladies, which ties into the Fall film.

In the short flick, Antonoff portrays a group of oddball women getting ready—each in her own peculiar way—for a night out. It’s a celebration of their various primping routines and such “mundane secrets” as draping stray hairs over house plants to interpretive dancing. All of the preparation leads up to the characters playing in an orchestra led by renowned contemporary artist Laurie Simmons. In general, there’s an offbeat humor about everything Antonoff does. Her novelty items may have the most immediate appeal, but the rest of the retro-preppy range shouldn’t be overlooked. Other highlights from the new lineup included color-blocked miniskirts, trompe l’oeil knits, and schoolgirl jackets. Antonoff also whipped up several nice trouser styles; one pair was pleated with ultrawide legs, while another fit like sweatpants with an elastic waistband. With the latter, Antonoff wanted to address “how to feel your absolute most comfortable and still be presentable enough to leave your house.” Surely, her customers will appreciate that emphasis on ease.
—Brittany Adams
Runway Feed

Dior in Brooklyn. Who would’ve ever imagined those two proper nouns together in a single sentence? Alexander Wang broke the outer-borough barrier back in February when he showed at the Navy Yard’s Duggal Greenhouse. But Dior, the storied French house and LVMH bigwig Bernard Arnault’s baby? It happened tonight, and the likes of Rihanna, Marion Cotillard, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Leelee Sobieski, Allison Williams, Margot Robbie, the artist Sterling Ruby, and designers including Christian Louboutin and Proenza Schouler’s Lazaro Hernandez and Jack McCollough arrived by water taxi and town car to witness fashion history in the making. Bureau Betak spent nearly a week constructing an elevated floor at Duggal that situated the show’s 1,000-plus guests at window level. The Manhattan views vied for attention with the LED light display at the opposite end of the warehouse space.

Neither could compete with the clothes. This was another lively, smart, lovely collection from artistic director Raf Simons, one that married the practical realism the designer says he sees among his new American clients (he’s been at Dior only two years) and typical French chic. Simons took up the silk scarf—le carré, as they say in Paris—as the show’s leitmotif. It meant that these clothes were more fluid than the sculpted and molded silhouettes of some of his previous collections for Dior. Softer and breezier but without sacrificing the clean, modern look that is so identifiably Simons, or skimping on the wearability factor. Despite the show’s laser focus, Simons had propositions for all occasions.

The feminine silhouette was ultra-high-waisted with long, lean trousers and flaring, knee-length skirts (including at least one in sheared fur) scraping the rib cage. On top there were torso-limning, backless silk camisoles in graphic, abstract prints or draped and layered tops with a boxy, geometric fit. Simons explained he found some of the prints in the house archives; others were created for the show. “I wanted to explore print without being too romantic about it,” he said. “I was surprised by how raw and artistic some of the archival scarves were.” You’d never call the prints and patterns in tonight’s show dainty, not when they were boldly juxtaposed three against each other, as in the case of a cocktail dress that combined multicolor sequins with embroidered flowers with chevroned stripes. Simons’ January couture sneaker evolved here into a sport sandal with scarf straps; it gave printed tunics and long silk evening skirts a fresh, zippy attitude.

There were sixty-six looks in the collection. When Dior president and CEO Sidney Toledano made notice of that fact before the show, he told Simons, “Did you know? This is the sixty-sixth year that Dior Inc. U.S.A. exists.” A total coincidence, Simons asserted, but one that had a special meaning for him. “Christian Dior was a bit superstitious, and I am too.” And, more important, “There was always a strong relationship between Mr. Dior and U.S. clients. It makes sense for us to come here now.”
—Nicole Phelps
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