NY Fashion Week blends celebrity, sophistication
NEW YORK (AP) — Nicki Minaj will go from the front row to front and center at Fashion Rocks.
And Britney Spears takes the leap to fashion designer as she rolls out her first lingerie line.
New York Fashion Week is expected to be equal parts celebrity and sophistication Tuesday, with runway shows the include collections by red carpet favorites Badgley Mischka and Vera Wang, as well as the annual Fashion Rocks concert, featuring a host of performers from Pitbull to Duran Duran.
A day earlier, Ralph Lauren Polo presented a show in 4-D in New York's Central Park. And Thom Browne brought fashion to life through a play.
Here are some of the highlights:
____
RAG & BONE
The Rag & Bone girl of spring just rolled out of bed after a long night.
She couldn't find her pants or locate her bra. She misplaced her top so she threw on her boyfriend's vest, found some judo pants and headed out.
"There's quite a lot of skin," acknowledged David Neville, half the brand's design duo with Marcus Wainwright.
In a warehouse space at a long-closed post office Monday night, the two shifted gears a bit from seasons past. They pared down looks for a sexier feel in customer-friendly colors that included light indigo, creams and white.
The menswear and work wear influences were apparent, "but at the same time it's all very feminine," Neville said.
—Leanne Italie and Nicole Evatt
____
RALPH LAUREN POLO
If you came out for Ralph Lauren's spring 2015 fashion show to get a close-up of the designer's new Polo brand for women, you might have been disappointed. The clothes quickly disappeared in the mist.
The show Lauren presented Monday night on a 4-D runway in Central Park made already willowy models look four stories tall, projecting them onto an enlarging water screen measuring 60 feet tall and 150 feet wide. Then the catwalk began along different fast-changing iconic New York landscapes, from the Brooklyn Bridge to the High Line.
Lauren, who was at the event in real life, showed up as a water hologram, too. He did a dance, or at least his mirage did, drawing laughter from the audience of several hundred.
While it was hard to see the details of the clothes, the urban chic vibe was clear. There were ripped jeans, a lineup of neon-colored dresses and bikinis.
—Anne D'Innocenzio
____
THOM BROWNE
Walking into a Thom Browne fashion show often feels like walking onto the set of a Tim Burton movie, with the most fabulous and chic costumes imaginable.
And the designer didn't disappoint Monday evening when he presented his spring 2015 collection in a runway show that felt more like a fashion designer's dream version of "Alice in Wonderland."
The soundtrack was actually a bedtime story for the audience, read by a familiar voice that Browne identified in a post-show interview as Diane Keaton, a fan of his clothes. "Good evening, everyone," she began, promising "a short story, a simple story, a timeless story."
The models brought life to the story, appearing in truly wondrous combinations of fabric and color. Much more than his spookier February show, for which Browne created a church and dressed his models like strangely robotic nuns, these clothes, many of them suits, were outfits you'd want to pluck off the runway and wear to a party.
Browne said Keaton was the perfect person to read the story he had created.
"She is SO my girl," he said.
—Jocelyn Noveck
____
Follow AP fashion coverage all through Fashion Week at http://www.twitter.com/AP_Fashion