Viktor & Rolf Haute Couture Fall 2014
There are certain designers whose designs live on the red carpet. Daywear? Elie Saab girls only come out after dark, like high fashion vampires covered in embroidery and bugle beads. Marchesa is for brides to be and girls who want to catch the attention of the flashbulbs. Viktor & Rolf? Well, aside from Tilda Swinton, we don’t think that the duo make appearances on the red carpet very often, which might be why the pair decided to take the red carpet into their own hands and create an entire collection using it. The result? Couture, naturally, but also one of the design team’s most wearable collections to date.
Any fashion savant can predict red carpet fare with the accuracy of a clairvoyant. At any given movie premiere or awards show, there will be a sweetheart neckline or two, plenty of strapless princes gowns, all-black dresses and jewel tones a’plenty. A few celebs are known to buck the expected (Tilda included), but for the most part, girls will be girls and when the cameras are on them, girls like to look like princesses. And while there’s nothing inherently wrong about that, Viktor & Rolf’s collection showed us that there’s more than one take on red carpet dressing.
Viktor & Rolf Haute Couture Fall 2014
Viktor & Rolf Haute Couture Fall 2014
Dubbed “a meditation on a contemporary obsession,” the collection ripped up the red carpet and slapped it right onto the models. It sounds like a Project Runway challenge, but the designers proved that they’re masters at what they do — after all, they’ve done entire collections in rubber and played with 3D motifs in the past. The high-pile fabric resembled bath mats and might lead you to believe that it was rigid and tough, but V&R showed just how soft and flowing it could be. They knotted and tied the fabric it into bows, draped and pleated it into gowns and even sheared it into animal patterns such as zebra and leopard.
The dresses came in all shapes, including cocktail frocks with plunging necks and exaggerated bows (a carryover from last season) and in longer midi-length dresses. Each was paired with flat shoes and natural hair, another way of turning red carpet staples on their ear. The dresses made a statement, especially since each model walked on a red carpet towards a pool of photographers — there’s no irony there — but the collection lacked the magic of V&R’s balletic collection last spring and the technical skill of the Swiss Cheese collection. And while we’re sure she’d get a chuckle out of the entire collection, we don’t think Tilda will be wearing any of these frocks when she steps out onto the carpet any time soon.
Images courtesy Style
