Style.com

Ruffian

NEW YORK, February 2, 2008
By Nicole Phelps
Brian Wolk and Claude Morais have closed the book on Madame de Pompadour, their Spring muse. For Fall, they said their inspiration was boarding-school girls with serious rebellious streaks. Yes, they still did ruffles: You can't have a Ruffian show without them. But any frills were tempered by biker-boy belt buckles, graffiti prints, and lots of curve-hugging Japanese denim, designed in collaboration with Earnest Sewn. And that's not to mention the ultraviolet lipstick or killer sandals made by Christian Louboutin.

Reinterpretations of prep-school uniforms—the schoolgirl dress, the fitted jacket worn over a white oxford with a narrow tie, the oversize boyfriend blazer—go with this territory, of course. It was the designers' clever take on off-campus attire that stood out: a Baja jacket in French bouclé that topped a black mini, shirtwaist dresses in a print from a 1939 Vogue listing of boarding schools, and a bustier minidress with you've-got-to-see-it-to-believe-it graffiti needlepoint circling the waist. In sum, this was Ruffian's most youthful and imaginative collection to date.

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