Rare Vintage: Best of New York Fashion Week

Fashion has a very short gestation period. We are in the midst of the Spring 2012 shows and before we know it, Resort will be here, then pre-Fall and then Fall 2013 and then before we are dreaming of what will we be wearing next summer, for the next Fall, designers will be dreaming up the Resort collection. Whew! I get exhausted just thinking about it!

Here are my favorite shows from the New York fashion week:

The Row. The ladies know how to turn out a good collection of very wearable clothing.

I always feel like I have 'no middle'. I love glamour and romance for the evening (an evening out that is, evening at home is the most glamorous, the comfiest pajama I can find) and for everyday I love a good soft shirt usually from The Row or Proenza Schouler or a vintage blouse from YSL. You can never be too rich, too thin or have too many YSL blouses! But then there are days when you have, oh, I don't know, a lunch honoring Valentino - just another day in vintage store owner land:) and you need something more 'in the middle'. You know something that will make Mr. Valentino proud. I may love my ever growing collection of Proenza tees but I just somehow suspect, Mr Valentino would not. I am a firm believer in wearing whatever you want, whenever you want but I am also a firm believer in dressing appropriately to the occassion. Rachel Roy recently caused a ruckus when she wore her pajamas out for a screening in New York.

Now I LOVE my pajamas but no way am I going out in them. I am no Julian Schanbel. But I will wear a YSL pajama inspired ensemble or a Dolce & Gabbana pajama inspired outfit out. But actual pajamas? No. Only Julian can pull off that look. I'm sorry Rachel. Besides I am feeling very confused by the heels, the semi brief case clutch. It's almost as if she thought she was

A. Going to a party (the strappy high heeled sandals)

B. Going to bed (the pajamas)

C. Going to a meeting at a corporate office (the brief case clutch)

or D. All of the above

I think it is safe to say, Rachel went for D.

But getting back to The Row. The collection was beautiful, ethereal, wearable and practical. Gorgeous practical. Mary-Kate said that they "wanted everything to float and breathe."

The Row. Spring/Summer 2012

Love all this light layering.

OMG! Pajamas!!

Coming soon on a celebrity...

Sisters are doin' it for themselves! Rodarte Spring/Summer 2012

If Hitchcock was hiring a costume designer for a new film, he would hire the Mulleavy sisters and use their Spring 2012 Rodarte collection. The Mulleavys were inspired by the colors of the 1959 Disney film, Sleeping Beauty and the paintings of Vincent Van Gogh.

The evil Maleficent from Sleeping Beauty

Vincent van Gogh's Starry Night

And the Mulleavys Starry Night

Rodarte's Hitchcock heroines

And my other favorite show was Prabal Gurung. If the stylish, chic and goofy Carole Lombard was alive, I think she would choose to wear Prabal Gurung. And since I inspire to be as stylish, chic and goofy as Carole Lombard, I will be ordering from the Spring collection. There is a very definite 1930s mad cap heiress feeling to the dresses with their fluttering sheer panels.

Prabal Gurung. Spring/Summer 2012

Prabal Gurung was inspired by the artist Araki's Sensual Flowers series. Nobuyoshi Araki is most well known for his photographs of women bound by kinbaku (Japanese rope-tying art) and his lush photographs of flowers.

One of Araki's sensual flowers.