story by Freda Henry and Charles Beckwith
photos by Freda Henry and Adrianna Favero
For last fall, Carolina Herrera produced an array of stylish looks that seemed inspired by the leisure of English hunting parties and 60’s uptown girls. Models paraded out onto a bright runway with feathers literally in their caps, clad in double breasted power vests, and wearing riding boots obviously meant for strutting.
This time, no such affectations. Clean lines, elegance held close to the body. Braiding and silk cascade gracefully to a far more conservative tune, with elegant embroidery providing inborn detail.
Standouts in the collection included several elegant evening gowns, but the sculpted green numbers, one with long partial sleeves that seemed to plunge from a formidable scarf, and another in silver-green with aggressive crop cut seams around the waist and shoulders were extraordinarily representative of an artist at the top of her craft.
The times they are a-changin’, and appearing confidently in her trademark simple white blouse at the end of this year’s long black runway, Herrera seems to be telling last year’s carefree girls to grow up a bit and brace themselves for what is coming.
