Naeem Khan

NEW YORK, September 11, 2007
By Laird Borrelli-Persson
"I have to stick with what I know best," Khan told Style.com. "I love this collection. It's happy and beautiful." The designer, who spent three weeks in his native India this summer, has been pondering ways to take Indian luxury and merge it with American glamour. The answer? Ethnic decoration applied to Western silhouettes, of course—a solution that's served him well before. Khan's kind of fashion isn't about being a smarty-pants or pushing any big envelopes; it's about sparkling dresses for sparkling women.

Queen Noor of Jordan was watching. Paisley-embroidered caftans channeled Talitha Getty, the sixties pioneer of Moroccan heiress chic; short shantung dresses conveyed Jackie O. White-on-white embroidered shorts were very Palm Beach, palazzo pants very La Dolce Vita. If you still think diamonds are a girl's best friend, take a second look at Khan's clear-beaded nude chiffon Marilyn Monroe gown. And it would be difficult not to feel like a queen for a day in one of the entirely jewel- and bead-encrusted, yet airy, dresses that came toward the end of the show.

Allover beading in tribal patterns had fistfuls of glamour, which is what keeps the cadre of women who gave him a standing ovation coming back for more, more, more. But for all of their ooh-la-la dazzle, the encrusted collars and necklaces seemed rather passé.