At the last minute, Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen had to cancel their New York show due to late-arriving samples. But they feel the setback made them come up with something better: an intimate salon presentation in Paris, where they could talk editors and buyers through the collection, and an exclusive arrangement with Mircrosoft's Bing to premiere a virtual show online. You can log on at 7:30 p.m. EDT on Monday, October 4, to watch the clothes in motion, as well as see behind-the-scenes clips and hear an interview with the sisters about the origins of the collection.
"We wanted to keep it consistent, but change the silhouette a bit," Mary-Kate said about the Spring lineup. That meant Fall's corsets were out, and in was bias draping on chiffon slipdresses and silk gowns. One particularly fetching look featured a shrunken cashmere V-neck and a long silk dress worn as a skirt, its bodice pooling at the hips. Pantsuits were still front-and-center and still just as smartly cut, thanks to the New York tailor who makes them for The Row by hand. What surprised was the color palette: baby pink and a peachy foundation shade, in addition to the expected white and black.
Models wore squared-off, pointy-toed crocodile mules by Manolo Blahnik. Mary-Kate demurred when asked about a potential shoe collection, but said she and her sister do "feel strongly about underpinnings." They spent six hours getting a triangle-cup bra right for the show, and almost as long on the matching panties. It's that kind of attention to detail that can make you forget that the Olsens were celebrities before they became designers to be taken seriously.
