story by Charles Beckwith
photos by Sandy Ramirez
You know how in Spiderman the ordinary kid gets bitten by a radioactive spider and gets super powers? When I look at Chado Ralph Rucci’s pieces on the runway, I think maybe this was an ordinary clothing designer who got bitten by a radioactive modernist sculptor. There is no point in his shows where one is not thinking a superior artist has been at work.
Every line, every cut, every color, every seam, and every billow of fabric as the models move down the runway speaks of elegance and an inherent balance. In the end that is always what it is about, the great designs are always some manifestation of a state of equilibrium. Some designers you know when you watch their show that they will have a specific feeling. Marc Jacobs is always surprising, Betsey Johnson and Richie Rich are always fun, and Chado Ralph Rucci is always simply a feeling of awe. This collection retains and embellishes the pattern.
