Be calm, Barbara Bui fans: This veteran Right Bank crafter of cacophonously powerful ready-to-wear has not demurred from showing a full fashion show this season for anything but pragmatic reasons. “We are working on a rebrand with a new logo and a new Internet store,” she reported as we walked to the door. “These projects need a lot of attention, so we decided to show the collection here in the showroom instead.”
Bui gave us an upside to this, explaining that the 360-assiduousness of her lookbook allowed potential buyers fully to appreciate her kicky biker pants, often in differently colored panels of leather. Plus, they could get up close and personal with her oversize ponchos—the nude knit version was especially lovable—her bikers, her strong-shouldered sporty rib knits, her velvet hoodies and smoking jackets entwined with coiled snake embroideries in crystal, pin, and paillette. The embroideries were—the designer said firmly—a theme of hers since way back when.
I suspect that any woman purchasing a pair of those pants—especially in all-black—would quickly become enamored. They were light, built right, not too tight, and ideal to strut in by day or night. Other pieces here felt either a little dated or a little meh, but in her boot-flashing kicky leathers, Bui looks, to me, to have a minor classic on her hands.
