Oscar de la Renta does Sorcerer’s Apprentice chic

By

Godfrey Deeny

Published
Feb 11, 2020

They still make clothes for grown-ups in New York, and nowhere more so than at Oscar de la Renta, the ne plus ultra of uptown American fashion.

 
Grown-up glamour, couture-worthy luxury, and several hundred light years away from Athleisure in an impressive show and collection by design duo Fernando Garcia and Laura Kim, staged late Monday night inside the New York Public Library.
 
Bella Hadid opened a procession of models strolling down an 80-meter marble catwalk, in front of the audience perched on a single row of white cane chairs. Hadid in a languid cornflower blue cashmere coat, white silk blouse and flared wool pants, setting the mood of jaunty elegance.

Followed by Somalian-born beauty Ugbad Abdi, in a taiga green cashmere sweater and pink wool pants finished with a ribbed leather belt, her head covered a beige silk hijab.
 
The style was classy yet with a kick – as in a diagonal wool tweed suit done with a flared mini and matching boots.

Then, just when things were getting a tad formal, Garcia and Kim changed gears – with a gorgeous ensemble of an Aran sweater embroidered with a huge floral abstract crystal brooch, all worn over a fabulously billowing faille gown with peony print.

 
For evening, the pair draped and sculpted with abandon, rouching silk faille into wonderfully curvaceous concoctions. A series of looks – giant floral shapes in Yves Klein blue, kissing pink and candy red - underlining the two designers' growing self confidence at the house. 
 
“A meeting of the Truman Capote’s Black and White Ball and the Sorcerer’s Apprentice from Fantasia,” smiled Garcia, seconds after posing for photos with his partner and Hadid.
 
Once again, like many of the best shows in America, the behind-the-scenes experts were almost all French. From the rather divine naturalist pulled back hairstyles, courtesy of legendary hair stylist Odile Gilbert, to the saucy rouge from makeup master Tom Pecheux , adding just the right touch of devil may care.
 
From the bold lighting of producer Thierry Dreyfus to the DJ Sebastien Perrin, who played a mash-up of dance funk like Let Me Go from Sault to, bien sur, the famed Sorcerer’s Apprentice theme, where Mickey Mouse gets into all sorts of bother.
 
“And that was not American music! Don’t forget it was by a French composer, Paul Dukas back in 1897,” insisted Perrin, getting in a final word.
 
All told, a clever juxtaposition of posh chic compared to the duo’s show for their own brand Monse on Friday night, which was an ode to posh punk, and a deconstructed evocation of Vivienne Westwood.