Backstage, Anthony Vaccarello was marveling: "All the models called up, asking to be in the show," he said. When Anja Rubik asks, no isn't an answer. Vaccarello won this year's ANDAM prize, and he used the award money to fund his Spring collection. It was a much bigger production than Fall's, but the Belgian designer's MO hasn't budged an inch. He established it last season: tight, body-conscious, short, and black, with more cutouts than there are covered-up parts on some of the dresses.
For Spring, Vaccarello found his muse in Herb Ritts' early-nineties glory days. Picture Cindy Crawford cavorting in a maillot on the beach in Malibu and you'll get the idea. It was racy, in both the sporty and the suggestive meanings of the word. Dresses were so abbreviated and body-baring, they could have almost doubled as bathing suits. Even the long gowns, in a stretch black jersey and a black-on-white fils coupe, were cut asymmetrically, so one leg was covered up and the other was cut as high as the hip. Karlie Kloss had the crowd agog in hers.
Vaccarello's dresses will make startling images in magazines, but sad as it is to admit, we aren't all Karlie Klosses. Vaccarello made plays for more commercial pieces—the navy trench with the slight sheen that opened the show; the T-shirts that played sheer against opaque, worn with Bermuda shorts; a pair of jumpsuits. He'll have to keep pushing himself in this direction to make a go at the retail level. Still, cling was the thing at this show. For fashion followers, there's nothing sexier than a designer with a strong vision.
