Each season, Gabriele Colangelo chooses an artist's work and builds his collection off it. Sometimes the referencing is just glancing, other times it's quite literal; his Fall show belongs in the latter category. Anyone familiar with Bandau's grayscale watercolors of geometric shapes could make a quick connection between them and Colangelo's clothes. A shift dress featuring panels of sheer gazar layered at askew angles looked as if it could have come from the hands of the artist himself. Colangelo approached many of the pieces here as if they were a canvas for his minimalist embellishment. Well-executed though they were, it gave them a two-dimensional quality that left the show feeling emotionally flat, a quality that wasn't helped by a black-and-white palette. Bright chartreuse and baby-pink leather accessories provided the only hits of color.
You wanted more soul from Colangelo, or at least a bit more heat. Without it, he'll have a difficult time breaking through to a wider audience. Before the end, there was a glimmer of promise in a group of black pieces inset in a gridlike pattern with small studs and beads.
