Benjamin Cho

NEW YORK, September 8, 2007
By Laird Borrelli-Persson
Ben Cho, a nerd? Mmm…not quite. But it was interesting to learn that he is "really into nature and rock collecting." That's not the first thing you'd expect to hear from a designer with such a cool following. (Today we spotted the MisShapes, Ryan McGinley, Chloë Sevigny, Jeffrey Deitch, and Jack McCollough and Lazaro Hernandez, who joshed about wanting to recruit their competitor to work for them.)

Spring was conceived as an extension of Fall. So last season's mirrored hearts and butterfly zippers were succeeded by a top in the shape of an orchid, and twisted ropes and geodes lashed to and suspended from garments. "It's a basic idea I could have come up with when I was five years old," Cho told Style.com, "but [until now] I never thought of making into something more beautiful."

However, this wunderkammer of natural rarities was a bit too rarefied, the scope too limited. The silhouettes were mostly restricted to minidresses and narrow pants. Essentially, Cho's "rolling stones" were one-offs that probably would have been better served by an intimate showroom presentation than a full-on runway show—even if half of downtown did turn out to applaud.