Type in "Anja Rubik + hip" on Google's image search and up pop 88,000 pictures of the Polish model in the leg-baring white Anthony Vaccarello gown she wore to last May's Met Ball. 88,000! In a very short time Vaccarello has developed a big reputation for tiny clothes—sexy and fearlessly body-baring. Rubik opened and closed his Spring show today, and her finale look was very nearly as revealing as the dresses that put him on the fashion map a year ago. This time, her gown was billowy up top instead of clinging, but that famous hip bone still drove the photographers to distraction. We heard catcalls.
Vaccarello's main idea for Spring, he explained backstage, was to mimic the way a woman's clothes might cling to her legs and hips if she went into the ocean fully dressed then walked out again. Above the waist the shapes were boxy; below it, shirred lamé clung to the models' backsides, with the wrapped silhouettes splitting in the middle, directing all eyes to the upper inner thighs. One black dress made it look like the model had been shipwrecked and came up for air wearing just her heels and an old sail draped from a cord above her bust. It was all too much. Or maybe we should make that too little.
But if his vision for evening remains as provocative and niche as ever, Vaccarello is also expanding his daywear offerings. Silk camp shirts with matte silver buttons were paired with satin shorts or pants, and he cut a pantsuit from holographic animal print. Those looks won't garner him tens of thousands of Google hits, but they are the kind of things that a solid business is built on.
