Anne Klein

NEW YORK, September 12, 2007
By Laird Borrelli-Persson
"My inspiration?" mused Isabel Toledo after her sophomore outing at Anne Klein. "A collaboration with a husband. A creative bouquet." Indeed, the collection had many stories woven into it, including an "Art Attack" print inspired, Toledo said, by an incident in which her artist husband Ruben accidentally smeared a dress with paint. It also veered between classic Americana in the Anne Klein tradition—exemplified by a striped bathrobe dress, a knit tennis number, and the slightly fifties nipped-waist silhouette—and the more artful dressmaker look that characterizes Toledo's own line. Clearly, the balance between the two is still being worked out.

In the meantime, slick-as-oil lacquered-cotton pieces mingled with silver plissé separates, and transparent-pastel glazed raincoats topped hand-painted haute hippie broomstick dresses. The draped jersey dresses were standouts. If overall the collection was somewhat scattered, Toledo's pleasure in creation and materials was evident throughout.