Color us biased, but New York Fashion Week has ended, and that means it’s time to check in with our favorite sartorial contender: Rodarte, the high-fashion label founded by Pasadena sisters Laura and Kate Mulleavy.
Once again, Rodarte racked up solid praise from fashion’s top critics for their fall 2011 ready-to-wear collection. Dominated by bucolic, creamy neutrals, the showing was a nice departure from some of the more somber palettes they’ve favored — albeit, to dramatic success — in the past.
After the jump, more photos, and some choice quotes from the critics:
- SHOWstudio | Indigo Clarke: “It was nouveau prairie all the way at Rodarte and I was in love…”
- Vogue | Hamish Bowles: “… It is in the unexpected juxtaposition of textiles, and in the handcrafted effects that evoke the chic hippie fashions of designers like Bill Gibb — geometric insertions that recall overscale log-cabin patchwork-quilt designs; blossoms scattered on diaphanous lace; an embroidery of alpine flower sprigs — that they excel.”
- Refinery 29 | Nadia Nawaz: “Hand-spun Amish-quilted sweaters and Nicholas Kirkwood’s art-deco beaded lace up boots gave the collection a distinctly crafty feel that was offset by lush green Edwardian floor-length coats that sported precise, surgical cut outs … In a show that took place just after Valentine’s Day, the audience, which included Kirsten Dunst, Sofia Coppola and Karen Elson, certainly fell even deeper in love with Rodarte, walking out in an enamored dream-like haze once the designers took a bow.”
- WWD: “The message seemed to be one they have touched on before: There’s no place like home(spun). … Dresses, with their slight bishop sleeves and prairie vibe, looked Laura Ingalls chic, while the floor-sweeping coats (the collection’s highlight) featured the occasional cutout and crisscross straps for visual intrigue.”
- Style.com | Nicole Phelps: “… The show’s longer silhouettes jibed with the current fashion zeitgeist. … Commercial is the wrong word for it, but there’s no debating the fact that Kate and Laura are steadily getting savvier about the business end while maintaining their singular vision.”
Read more quick-hit reviews of Rodarte’s collection at the New York Times Magazine’s scorecard for day six of Fashion Week.
