Tonight's Alexandre Plokhov show marked the designer's return to the runway after a hiatus of several seasons. Attendees who have been following Plokhov's work since he was heading up Cloak, the brooding menswear label where he made his name, would not have been surprised by the cyber-gothic tone of Plokhov's latest collection, or by the fastidious cut of his clothes, or by the regular references to military regalia. What undoubtedly raised a lot of eyebrows, however, was Plokhov's use of color. Color! Bright, primary colors, like red and yellow! Granted, most of the collection erred on the side of Plokhov's signature neutrals, with lots of looks in white, olive drab, navy, and most of all, black. But the expansion of his palette gave a different charge to the dystopian Plokhov atmosphere.
Credit the novel The Mongoliad for Plokhov's sudden interest in color: In the book, he explained, clans are marked out by the colors they wear, an idea he translated into monochromatic looks. The fact that the looks were monochromatic made Plokhov's textures come to the fore—his patchwork mesh, for instance, with its disintegrating, wabi-sabi appeal, or the surreal puckered effect of the rib on his woven yellow sweats. Plokhov's aesthetic can come off a touch overbearing, so these grace notes of tactility worked a charm. Ditto the unexpectedly feminine elements here, like the long, nearly-sheer jersey tees that cinched at the sides, or the poncho-shaped tops that opened and closed the show, which were so lightweight and airborne they came to seem ethereal as they floated back and forth along the length of the runway. It was nice to see Plokhov pursuing a dreamy tone, for once, as opposed to putting a lick of polish on a nightmare.
