Costume National Fall 2011 Ready-to-Wear Collection on Style.com: Runway Review

Costume National

PARIS, March 6, 2011

By Meenal Mistry

The punchy minimalism of Ennio Capasa's last collection was clearly well received. (No less than Anna Dello Russo showed up in an Yves Klein-blue suit from it at today's show.) It makes sense that the designer built on the same clean-lined and colorful foundation for Fall. If it ain't broke…

Capasa maintained the exact structure of Spring with its four chromatic groupings, but instead of pure doses of solid color, he set it against black. But that wasn't really the problem. The pairing worked nicely against ivory and lipstick red, but the other two hues in Fall's rainbow were of the wishy-washy, muted sort. That lemony yellow in particular is a color no one's ever dying to wear, particularly when blocked with black.

Backstage, Capasa's inspiration board was covered with images of Twiggy and David Bowie. But while there were Paco Rabanne-esque square paillette shifts and a few Mondrian nods, for the most part he actually went beyond the sixties-era cliché. That included a genuine look to the future. The best idea here was the new technique of thermo-welding three fabrics—a black and color sandwich—to create a single piece of material with the texture and heft of neoprene. When cut into a sharp coat or suit jacket, the material's edges were left unfinished to expose the fabric's inner workings. The resulting soft fringe at the raw edge gave slick pieces a crafty warmth. Capasa called it new couture.

Whatever the term, a detail like that gives you a reason to buy designer over high street. The worst idea was in the very heavy double-folded cut on those Mondrian gowns, best described as what Twiggy would wear at a monastery. In other words, much less than modern.

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A.F. Vandevorst	Acne	ADAM
A Détacher	Akris	Alberta Ferretti
Albino	Alexander McQueen	Alexander Wang
Alexandre Herchcovitch	Alexis Mabille	Alice + Olivia
Altuzarra	Andrew Gn	Anna Sui
Ann Demeulemeester	Anne Valérie Hash	Ann-Sofie Back Atelje
Anthony Vaccarello	Antonio Berardi	Antonio Marras
Aquascutum	Aquilano.Rimondi	Araks
Azzaro

Badgley Mischka	Balenciaga	Bally
Balmain	Banana Republic	Band of Outsiders
Barbara Bui	Barbara Tfank	Basso & Brooke
BCBG Max Azria	Behnaz Sarafpour	Bensoni
Betsey Johnson	Betty Jackson	Bibhu Mohapatra
Bill Blass	Blumarine	Bodkin
Bottega Veneta	Brioni	Burberry Prorsum

Cacharel	Calvin Klein Collection	Carlos Miele
Carolina Herrera	Carven	Celine
Central Saint Martins	Chado Ralph Rucci	Chadwick Bell
Chalayan	Chanel	Charles Anastase
Charlotte Ronson	Chloé	Chris Benz
Christian Cota	Christian Dior	Christian Siriano
Christophe Lemaire	Christopher Kane	Christopher Raeburn
Clements Ribeiro	Collette Dinnigan	Comme des Garçons
Commuun	Costello Tagliapietra	Costume National
Creatures of the Wind	Cushnie et Ochs	Custo Barcelona
Cynthia Rowley	Cynthia Steffe

D&G	Damir Doma	Danielle Scutt
Daryl K	David Koma	Dax Gabler
Dennis Basso	Derek Lam	Diane von Furstenberg
Diesel Black Gold	DKNY	Dolce & Gabbana
Donna Karan	Doo.Ri	Douglas Hannant
Dries Van Noten	Dsquared²	Duro Olowu

Edun	Elie Saab	Elie Tahari
Elise Øverland	Emanuel Ungaro	Emilio de la Morena
Emilio Pucci	Emporio Armani	Erdem
Erin Fetherston	Etro