Bryan Bradley is taking Tuleh to a darker place—or at least injecting irony into the line that's become a mainstay of the young, Upper East Side social circuit. Of course, Tuleh's appeal has consistently been its ability to make pretty clothes that aren't cliché. This season, Bradley's throwing some extra bite into that beloved mix—starting with the soundtrack (an antiplastic-surgery rap by Mother Inc., the rock group made up of Yvonne Force Villareal and Sandra Hamburg), continuing with the front-row celebrity (Keith Richards and Patti Hansen, there to cheer on their modeling daughters), and finishing up with the clothes.
Bradley's gifted color mixes are a trademark of Tuleh, and he didn't disappoint: apricot with olive, pink with brown, blue and brown with yellow, and so on. And there was plenty of traditional Tuleh to be found, in Empire-waist chiffon blouses, fluttery dresses, and those famous boxy jackets with the extended cuff and oversize buttons. But he also executed some daredevil moves, like a rubbery gray raincoat over a lace dress, or some unnervingly nubbly gilded frog-skin pieces. How well edgy and socialite will mix remains to be seen, but Bradley's fan base is big and loyal. Which means spring could be darker than usual.
