As much as she’s a groovy downtown hipster, Alice Roi is entranced by the Watergate-era wasp wardrobe, with its proper proportions, clean lines and sporty allusions—somewhere between Tippi Hedren in The Birds and Sigourney Weaver in The Ice Storm.
Roi’s spring collection succeeded in bringing that demure esthetic firmly up to date. Her well-edited show included some brisk dresses and suits in low-key colors—grey, white, houndstooth check—cut from stiff fabrics that stood away from the body (a refreshing change in a week when most garments couldn’t get close enough to the female form). She showed sweetly sexy crocheted cardigans and dresses and some cozy, oversize velour hoodies. And after a rather abrupt group of shiny green and silver spandex bodysuits (scuba lessons at the country club, anyone?), the designer’s sexy little black cocktail dresses closed the evening on a high note.
