Paging Joan Crawford. Viktor Horsting and Rolf Snoeren revisited old Hollywood today. There was a black and white tile floor straight out of the Regency period, and the models stepped onto the runway via an antique mirror, like visions from the past. For clothes they wore long pleated gowns in black, white, and silver lamé almost as reflective as that mirror, or pastel georgette draped and swagged from necklines and waists embellished with ropes of crystals. Shoulders were big and waists were tiny.
There's just about nothing more classic than the era they were channeling. The surprise, this being a Viktor & Rolf show, was how normal, how reasonable the collection was. That doesn't mean the designers completely laid off the visual puns, of course: We think we saw Lauren Bacall's face rendered in patchwork leather on a sweater, and we're certain the designers' first names were picked out in sequins on two others. For other decorative motifs, they turned to bows and roses and three-dimensional tulle embroideries, all details culled from their own archives. The column skirt in shaved tulle ruffles embellished with cut-Plexiglas roses that were much, much bigger than life-size won't bridge the runway-reality divide, but the eveningwear will: Most of it will end up on the backs of Crawford and Bacall's silver-screen descendants. That's gotta be a kick for Messieurs Horsting and Snoeren.
