Yigal Azrouël recently created ballet costumes for choreographer Emery LeCrone, which debuted at the Guggenheim as part of the museum's Works & Process series. The cultural collaboration found Azrouël contemplating the human form and complementing the dancers' fluid movements. The designer's new Cut25 collection reflects a different approach to the female physique. Instead of tracing the figure, Azrouël focused on covering it with sharp, sculptural silhouettes. Still, he managed to keep the overall look sexy and consistent with the DNA of his brand.
Azrouël opened his Fall lookbook with a structured bomber coat that merged panels of regular tweed and "reflective glass finished tweed." He also incorporated bonded neoprene treatments into sporty sweatshirt dresses, and played up exaggerated volumes with enveloping outerwear items such as a draped, funnel-neck topper cut from a textured bouclé jacquard. Elsewhere, Azrouël reinterpreted his linear preoccupations in more streamlined ways, featuring a graphic brushstroke print on soft crepe de chine separates and showing slim sheaths with asymmetric cutouts. Meanwhile, a cocoonish, blanket stripe wrap teamed with coordinating, relaxed trousers was a definite standout, as was a cozy, color-blocked cardigan styled with herringbone denim stovepipes. Overall, there was a lot going on in the conceptual mix, but it ultimately came together and felt like a considerable step forward for Azrouël's diffusion line.
