Vena Cava

NEW YORK, September 5, 2007
By Laird Borrelli-Persson
Lisa Mayock and Sophie Buhai have been reading Hollywood Babylon. Inspired by Kenneth Anger's lurid history of scandal, California-style, as well as by the industrial designer Achille Castiglioni, they threw a "fake Hollywood party," placing 30 models among larger-than-life cutout images of Marlene Dietrich, Rudolph Valentino, and—less obviously—Woody Allen.

Although Mayock and Buhai said they were attempting to view film noir and MGM-era glamour through a "darker, twisted lens," a light—occasionally slightly silly—mood prevailed. Beer-can print, anyone?.

The collection had both thirties polish and seventies languor (with a touch of kitsch—that typewriter print was a bit gimmicky, wasn't it?). Babylon-glamorous were the screen-siren gowns, like a chartreuse number named Ziegfeld. But it was the unexpected menswear styling and the sportier looks—slim trousers, a cropped leather jacket—that really deserved top billing. Those rakish pieces suggested a brand known for lovely dresses in lovely prints has more range than previously suspected.

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