Alessandra Rich likes to tell a story alongside her clothes, and the tale she unfurled for spring today at the Hotel Montana was one that’ll likely sound pretty familiar. Her collection—dubbed “MISSTAKE”—played on the idea of happy accidents. Its heroine, the titular “Miss Take,” grabs anything she wants and throws caution to the wind—and style advice out the door. The press notes were a list of what Rich called "basically bad ideas" that Miss Take had deliberately disobeyed. Among them: “Dress for the beach and end up on a dance floor," and “Wear a vinyl coat on a hot day because it’s cool.” Another read "Flash the label," and to that end skirts had thick, sporty elastic printed with her name, in riffs on the Calvin Klein staple (a trend that also popped up today at both Alexandre Vauthier and Christian Dior). The models wore oversize costume jewelry and turbans, or track suits that were cropped and ruched on top, to bare the majority of their midriffs. Gowns were either the brand's typical frenzied, feminine ruffled lace or a new (to her) minimalist silhouette rendered in neutral tones of jersey, because, Rich said, those tracksuits had gotten her in a ’90s mood.
More important, among all of her fun and folly—and Rich’s clothes mostly work purely because they are such exquisitely frothy fun—the designer had stumbled upon the very real heart of what’s going on in fashion today: There are no rules. The Vetements effect is real, and its influence—unlikely florals, unwieldy fabrics, strange silhouettes—across all aspects of the industry has been staggering. These days, a head-to-toe designer look tends to come across as somewhat stodgy on the street: It’s too polished, too perfect, too lacking in real personality. It wasn’t all hits, but what Rich is attempting to do is create the random discord of a real wardrobe within her own collection, making her label a one-stop-shop for an outfit with character. Or as she put it in her notes, “In beauty there should be something wrong. Nothing fake, nothing false. Like a diamond in a sea of glass.” That’s called style.
