Alexandre Herchcovitch

NEW YORK, February 3, 2007
By Meenal Mistry
It's not often that a designer can send a bona fide garbage bag down his runway and make it work. But such was the curious beauty behind Alexandre Herchcovitch's fall show. The designer drew his inspiration from the highly resourceful manner in which the indigent plantation and mine workers of his native Brazil dress themselves. It could easily have devolved into parody, but Herchcovitch's third look out—a white pointelle shirtdress crafted out of Tyvek—made you believe that he could pull it off.

The theme played out in clothes that were pieced together from different materials, ostensibly found scraps. Jumpsuits-cum-overalls came in a mélange of satin, vinyl, and wool, with the back pockets of a former pair of pants falling somewhere around mid-calf. That garbage bag came in a few variations, one smartly fashioned into a paper bag-waisted skirt topped with a floral jacquard jacket.

While the above-mentioned items were unabashedly "high concept," Herchcovitch also managed to work in wearability in pretty, printed sack dresses, especially one in a diamond patchwork. And who knows—as the designer is opening his first boutique in fashion-obsessed Tokyo next month, he could well have a customer for that Hefty frock.