“Oh my Goddd . . . so cool . . . so extra . . . so fresh . . . so fashion!”
That assessment of this Alessandra Rich show echoed up the red-carpeted stairwell as the hairspray-suffused, client-heavy audience poured forth down from the marble-walled private apartment that was again her venue and into the clot of Mercedes that waited on Avenue President Wilson below. The vibe in the room was certainly pumped as Rich’s crew considered a collection that contrasted the apparently prim with the purportedly provocative. These ingredients were presented at an approximately 1:3 ratio of Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman before she goes shopping on Rodeo Drive, against after.
The prim spanned ’40s-cut sweetheart dresses, mid-length, in feather print and polka dot, to tightly fitted but immaculately cut jersey jackets and skirts with ornate buttons and multiple pockets. These came accessorized with sparkling drop earrings, necklaces, and headbands of white marabou. The worm began its turn via four-button bouclé blazer miniskirts cut so high the runway photos will look borderline downskirt. There was a hot-strumpet bridal look halfway through. Swarovski body stockings were paired with French maid shirting and G-strings. Bettie Page–inspired body chains, lace slips, chokers, and cuffs completed the equation as the audience whooped and bench-danced to Cardi B’s “I Like It.”
Afterward, Rich said: “I need to sit down; it’s too hot.” These clients, she added: “always like to have everything in our wardrobe: so something that is very ladylike. But when you put the choker on, you send that sort of message which is that, for you, you want.”
But isn’t there an implication of submissiveness in the chokers and the body chains?
“No! It’s very much about control. My women are always in control. They are dressing for themselves, absolutely. They like being able to wear something very proper but also being able to wear something like one of my body chains underneath. I don’t know if you have seen my body chains?” Alessandra, they were impossible to miss: extra.