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Oscar de la Renta Does Oscar for Pre-Fall
Reprinted from Yahoo News - ( http://news.yahoo.com)
- Renata Espinosa Renata Espinosa – Tue Dec 9, 10:08 am ET
Fashion Wire Daily – FWD101 Model walks the runway at the Oscar de la Renta Pre-Fall 2009 show in New York on Monday, Dec. …
- New York – When you've been in the business as long as Oscar de la Renta has - he's been designing under his own name since 1965 - you don't need external references in your designs. You can be self-referential.
"The collection is about...the collection!" he said post-show at his Pre-Fall 2009 showing on Monday, Dec. 8 in New York.
Indeed, it was very much about de la Renta's tried and true formula of stately clothes for Upper East Side grande dames. Those customers don't need trends or fancy explanations - they just need Oscar.
"Not surprisingly, Oscar knows his customer backwards and forwards and presented her with plenty of new ideas to tempt her this coming pre-fall season," said Michael Fink, women's fashion director at Saks Fifth Avenue, who cited the daywear series of lightweight tweed knits - dresses, flirty gathered skirts and in particular the tunic shape, which de la Renta layered over wide-leg "Mikado" silk pants - as his favorites. "It's easy, it's timeless but it all looked brand new."
Beyond the tweedy looks, de la Renta offered punchy florals in basic sheath dress shapes and brilliant metallic embroidered coats - a sharp motorcycle jacket version looked fresh and would work equally well for day and night, and thus had potential for a wise recession splurge.
For evening, doses of Dynasty-era glamour peppered the ambitious 53-look collection, such as sapphire blue strapless or a black "liquid" gazar gowns, but the most successful dresses - the kind that might tempt a younger, "Gossip Girl" generation of Oscar de la Renta wearers - were a passage of four exquisite multi-colored feather dresses in shorter cocktail lengths worthy of a bird of paradise.
Still, as the economy leaves retailers anxious about how to turn their recent losses into gains next year - Saks Fifth Avenue, for example, posted a net loss of $42.8 million in the third quarter that ended Nov. 1 - Fink looks to Pre-Fall collections to provide a bit of temptation to shoppers.
"This is the biggest fall buy of most stores, so what's presented here is really the bulk of the business," said Fink. "It sets the tone, it sets the fashion message, there's nothing basic, so it really gets her to come into the store and look and see what's new."
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