The iconic portrait paintings of Tamara de Lempicka were the jumping-off point for Carolina Herrera’s Pre-Fall collection. It’s rare for Herrera to cite a reference; she’d rather talk about modernity, relevance, the future. This year, for example, marks her 35th in business, but it’s a milestone she celebrated not on her runway, but by publishing a Rizzoli book. The point is that the Lempicka references were subtle. A strapless dress in a chartreuse dévoré velvet captured the spotlit quality of the Polish artist’s canvases, and the supercharged teal of a satin tie-neck blouse and floor-length evening skirt looked lifted from Lempicka’s Self-Portrait in the Green Bugatti.
Lempicka, whose most productive years were the 10 or so before and after the crash of 1929, was a rare female star in a field that was still essentially a man’s game. Perhaps that’s why Herrera’s first look was a mannish pantsuit paired with fingerless gauntlets and patent oxfords, but then again, perhaps not. Herrera is naturally forward-looking, and having noticed that tailoring had more or less gone missing from contemporary fashion, she made a point of resurrecting it for Pre-Fall. She isn’t the only designer thinking along these lines this season, but her pantsuit looked particularly convincing. Ditto a maxi coat in bordeaux windowpane check, the nipped and natty elegance of which made a leather coat with a built-in Art Deco fur capelet look slightly anachronistic. Even when she cut a fit-and-flare day dress, she did so in a menswear plaid. All in all, a smart Herrera collection.
