After winning the Festival d'Hyères prize, Anthony Vaccarello was recruited by Karl Lagerfeld to Fendi. Two years later, he launched his own collection, which has been quickly snapped up by Colette in Paris, Kirna Zabête in New York, and Maxfield in L.A. "It's always black, always sexy," the designer said backstage of his look. Vaccarello's super-short dresses for Fall (his third season) are an interplay of opaque and sheer. The front panel might be sculptural felt and the sides draped knit made from a metallic thread. Or the felt panels might be suspended geometrically from a metal bar at the neck to create bold cutouts on the chest. Vaccarello said he was inspired by Mondrian and the contemporary artist Pierre Soulages, but the girls buying these dresses couldn't give a fig about highfalutin references. What makes them desirable is their edgy sex appeal.
For the woman who likes to show a little less than her entire leg, the designer added a pair of below-the-knee knit dresses as clingy as hosiery. The long-sleeved version looked particularly right for the season. A jumpsuit was also more discreet, but it still had plenty of cool factor. But perhaps most impressive were the fitted, vaguely military coats. With their matte snaps and scalpel-sharp lines, they signal the arrival of an exciting Paris talent.
