NEW YORK -- Spring 2005 Fashion week has been full of surprises -- supermodels walked in the shows of unknown designers, and the lights went out before one of the biggest shows of the season. \nAs Fashion Week continued, designers surprised their fans with a blending of clothing inspired by palettes of rose, soft yellow, lavender and white with brown and black. It resulted in a strong yet feminine mood. Sass & Bide, Jenna Rivers, William Quigley and Lloyd Klein presented unique looks that were bold with a soft sexuality. Donald Deal and Zang Toi presented more elegant looks with a modern edge of sleek sophistication. \nAmid the sparkling jewel-like clothes of spring, Ivana Trump and her entourage were doused in champagne by another guest. They were present at both the Toi and Klein shows. Trump said she enjoyed the edge of both shows.
The Zang Toi Show\nZang Toi, a designer known for making clothes for curvy women, showed his collection in the Plaza at Bryant Park's tents. He wooed the crowd with his 1950s glamour-styled clothes inspired by a weekend in Jamaica. Calypso music set the mood for the show as male models sported denim hip-hugging soccer jeans and wool brown and black sequined soccer jerseys. \nColor burst onto the runway as women strutted in hot pink halter tops with red trim and sequined party dresses. A Jamaican red silk island gown featured a West Indian pink-pleated tulles ruffle and cascading bougainvilles, or small flowers. The exuberant yet demure show also featured a brown cardigan with hot pink sequined trim and mini pouf sleeves and a brown silk organza skirt that had a pink sequined underskirt bows and cascading ruffles.\nAs the show relaxed into a palette of black and white, there was a white silk organza pouffed sleeve evening shirt with beaded black pinstripes, paired with a black satin front slit skirt with a bow around the waist and beaded English rose medallion lining. \nMen's clothing featured black sea island cotton trousers, long sleeve polos with Swiss cotton checked and striped collars and French cuff shirts paired with white cotton trousers. \nToi's final dress, named "The portrait of a bride at Round Hill," was a white silk organza with green bougainvilles as a strap and down the back of the dress. The crowd cheered as the model came down the runway.\n"I liked the entire collection," Trump said. " I like it because it is sophisticated with edge."\nToi will be making Trump's wardrobe for her upcoming Fox television show "I Want Men."
The Lloyd Klein Show\nThe Lloyd Klein fashion exhibition, titled "Reflections of Madame Gres," looked as though it was inspired by mythological goddesses and warriors from Ancient Greece. As people entered the plaza at Bryant Park, they were taken to a modern Athens with male models wearing black togas and sitting on glass platforms with scattered pink satin pillows. The show started off with modern style as models wore antique denim jackets with pouffed/slashed sleeves paired with denim mini kilts, abundantly pleated cocktail dresses and other denim pieces paired with mini kilts.\n"I liked the denim pieces, but you have to have a nice body to go with them," Trump said.\nThe second half of the show was dominated by ivory and black jersey dresses of varying lengths that draped on the body like togas. Models wore long-sleeved ivory togas that tied at and exposed the shoulder and cinched at the hip atop another layer of floor-length fabric. \nKlein then added a surprise to the show with halter dresses made of pink and black beads. The beads draped and sparkled down the dress made with black leather bustiers and corsets. The show was eye candy for anyone wanting to live out a strong, yet alluring fantasy.\nTrump, who is a friend of Klein, said the show was very beautiful.\n"I liked the beaded dresses," she said, "but you have to have a really good body because some of the stuff you can't wear a bra with."
The Sass & Bide Show\nSass and Bide, designed by Heidi Middleton and Sarah-Jane Clarke, is a newer company that is only five years old. This is their second season showing at the tents, and they put a creative spin on their mixture of hard and soft. Models came down the runway wearing feather Mohawk hair pieces and chiffon blouses in rose, orange and peach with silver and gold sequins on the front. The look could be described as upscale grunge. The fabrics, consisting of suede, chiffon and leather, were made into boots, tiered mini skirts, mini dresses and shirts that draped in the front. Many of the outfits were paired with brown boots that exposed the sides of the calf with feathers sticking out of the back.\n"I wanted to show fluidity versus. strength," Middleton said. "I wanted to get across 'Don't follow rules. Rules are out the window. Make your style your own.'"\nBoy George attended the show and said he thought it was great.\n"I loved the mixture of sequins, it was really quite beautiful," he said.\nThe pair is launching their new line named "Wolf Nation" and included some of the pieces in the show.\n"The suede and more highly embellished pieces are from our new line," Middleton said.
The Jenna Rivers and William Quigley Show\nThis off-site show, designed by the duo William Quigley and Jenna Rivers, took place at Crobar, a club in lower Manhattan. Guests filled the club as they took advantage of free drinks and awaited the new-comers show.\nThe show, which consisted mostly of satin, had white mini-skirts, bikinis and halter tops colored with paintbrush-like strokes.\nThe color palette consisted of blue, yellow and maroon which added a flair to the simple designs. William Quigley said the pattern was inspired from his work as a painter.\nThe show featured a mini party dress in satin with strokes of red, maroon and green. There were also multi-colored cropped jackets paired with matching bikini bottoms and mini-skirts. Halter tops were highly utilized in the show, keeping in rhythm with other designers who chose the back as the erogenous zone for Spring 2005. \nOmahyra Mota, a Brazilian supermodel said she didn't mind walking an unknown designer's show.\n"I like the clothes, it was a hot show," Mota said. "I liked the jacket I wore."\nThe show was put together in two weeks by Rivers who is a student of the Fashion Institute of Technology.
The Donald Deal Show\nDonald Deal's simple but elegant collection excited audiences without overpowering them. The show, a series of flowing dresses in chiffon, was a breath of fresh air made up of simple designs. Deal surprised audiences with jade plaid dresses with green sequins serving as the green stripe. \nThe "Mozart Dress" was a flowing white chiffon with barely-there black musical notes. It was well-suited for the remixed classical music in the background. A primrose print georgette bustier gown with ruffle trim and open front looked as if it belonged on a princess. The white crepe shirt-tail gown with a beaded lace underskirt which tied in bows off the shoulder looked perfect for an elegant party. \nMany of the dresses had seams embellished with ruching or sequins, which helped classic cuts stand out. The last dress, an ivory pearl beaded lace V-neck with a shirt tail hem and slits on each side, glistened down the runway on a glamorous note.\n-- Contact arts editor Patrice Worthy at pworthy@indiana.edu.
