Last season, this appointment was one-on-one with the designer and a few models in a lovely private apartment. This season, it was a salon show in the same lovely apartment. We sat and watched as Alessandra Rich’s angular, feminine ’40s curlicues emerged to circle the sofas and pass the poufs, mostly serenely.
It was very satisfying to wonder—and later have confirmed—whether the early nurse dresses followed by shawl collar, crystal-buttoned blazers with military caps were a reference to Alfred Eisenstaedt’s wonderful 1945 image of a sailor smooching a stranger in Times Square. Rich presented a series of lace-collared printed dresses with buttoned fastenings and soft pleated skirts that were totally on target for the demure-versus-devastating dialectic. Less effective for their obviousness were the well-made but oh-so-flimsy floor-length crystal-lined dresses. With one turn at a sofa, the pavé crystal earring on a model’s left earlobe flew off, just as her right breast popped out—she walked on serenely, a pro, but still. Bouclé blazers and hot pants, more military blazers and greatcoats, and then a joyful embrace in more paillette-studded pieces ended this assignation. Rich is worth attention.
