Behnaz Sarafpour's Fall show—her first on a runway—could literally be described as poetic. Having immersed herself in Byron, Herman Melville, A. E. Housman and Emily Dickinson for inspiration, the designer embroidered lines from each of these poets in gold thread on several of her pieces.
Sarafpour used fabrics that ranged from rich velvets to crisp cotton canvas to light-as-air georgette, and divided her show into daytime and evening looks. Unlike many designers who think their customers undergo a personality change when the sun goes down, Sarafpour's woman starts and ends her day with a sense of easy romance. The varied palette included black, navy, white, pink, plum, gray and lilac, and the silhouette was long but not skintight; Sarafpour's georgette evening dresses skimmed the body like slips. Strong tailoring was also in evidence, exemplified by a snappy blue alpaca trench worn over a black georgette blouse and low-slung velvet pants. Sweet bits of girlishness were added to several looks with streaming ribbons, subtle metal fringe or the odd floral patchwork pocket.
In short, this beautifully edited show (14 looks in all) was brief as a haiku and light as an Elizabethan sonnet.
