Mirko Fontana and Diego Marquez presented their take on fashion’s current fixation with the ruffle-heavy simper of nu-Victoriana today put through an Au Jour Le Jour zhuzh-er. That was the main takeaway from a collection that gently riffed on the idea of sororities, membership of which was signified by Greek lettering plus emblems and florals stamped with giraffes, lions, ladybugs, and dolphins.
The ruffle stuff was prettily executed, as either long shirt dresses slit high or halter neck aprons in gingham or animal retro-florals. Any hint of Little House on the Prairie–ness was roundly confounded by the insertion of one-shouldered sequined sashes or varsity-Harrington hybrids in nylon micro checks with those for-the-hell-of-it crests, sometimes cinched at the waist with Japanese-influenced belts. These designers are also very keen on two-thirds skirts that allow one leg to flash forward.
There were three menswear looks (two longer-at-the-back hoodies worn with shorts and a pink-fades-to-gold sequined sweatshirt with shirt cuff). Cuffs became a signature detail in the womenswear with a closing series of sequined dresses and sweats, sometimes worn under aprons, with unraveled extra-long french cuffs in contrasting colors or florals. You wouldn't wear any of this to a job interview—unless you really didn’t want the job—but for a scatty night of partying hard, this collection did very nicely.
