Defiant Design

Amid a torrent of floral confections that have fashion forecasters predicting a return to ladylike silhouettes, a veteran designer and a gritty upstart staged defiant collections this week. Designer Anna Sui, who presented her collection yesterday under the tent at Bryant Park, is like an old friend from whom you always want to borrow. Season after season, her closet is lined with all of the garments she is too much of a clotheshorse to discard. Her collection was inspired by a deluxe-bohemian meets punk-rock sensibility that has earned her a rarefied place in the fashion cosmos — where the glimmering stars are typically on a first-name basis with followers.For fall, Ms. Sui dipped into her batik shoulder bag and served up an homage to the 1960s, a decade which brought such dubious fashions as earth shoes, beads, and caftans. On the runway, models sported sequined bands across their foreheads and locks that fell to their waists — delivering hippie chic with a soupçon of downtown. Ms. Sui skillfully mixed prints as only she can, sending down the runway voluminous blouses and tunics layered under bouclé yarn capelets and jet-black goat-hair coats. A floorsweeping dress in a watercolor print was heavenly, as were paisley-print apron dresses done in reds and teals, paired with pale tights and glam boots.But the collection took a psychedelic turn — and not for the better. In the coliseum-like setting under the tent, where tomatoes (or food of any kind) are scant, some may have been tempted to throw bottles of Red Bull onto the catwalk. Among the missteps were vast iridescent capes, multi-striped velvet smocks, and crocheted cardigans buried under swirling prints that proved too literal a reference to the flower child that inspired Ms. Sui. The designer seemed to have stumbled on a velvet gold mine and then overloaded her fall pieces with it. Still, a series of shorts ensembles topped with structured wool chambray jackets in a dark palette of black and violet hues were winning combinations.If the Anna Sui girl rests her head in the East Village, then the moody rebel fashioned by Rodarte, which had its runway presentation on Tuesday, is emphatically Lower East Side. Both the Anna Sui and Rodarte labels are informed by what can most easily be described as a downtown worldview; the lines between music, fashion, and art are nearly indiscernible. But Tuesday’s show was magical because sisters Laura and Kate Mulleavy know when it’s time to retire a smock or simply shred and reinvent it. The Mulleavys, whose Rodarte label belies their Pasadena, Calif., roots, presented a collection that merged punk and feminine flourishes to perfection.Frayed cocktail dresses in fairy-tale prints that seemed almost to float off the runway, were matched by aggressive versions in black and red prints for after-hours. The wearer could find in these pieces a way to embrace girlish designs without abandoning one’s edge. Models (coiffed in slick ponytails dipped in platinum dye) came down the runway balancing on precariously high, white Christian Louboutins to the tune of the Cocteau Twins’s heavy-lidded “Lorelei.” With their feathery 3/4-length coats slung over arched backs, the models had the appearance of lithe gazelles. Multicolored knit sweater-dresses so delicate they seemed in danger of disintegrating were a marvel to behold for their craftsmanship and detail.

Defiant Design

Defiant Design

More from the New York Sun

Dolly Parton’s Gifts in Song and Storytelling Arose From an Upbringing Steeped in the Ethic of Self-Reliance

Matic Makes the Home Robot a Reality

A Riveting Film on John Boorman’s Doomed ‘Exorcist’ Sequel Shows the Devil Is in the Details

Trump Administration Pushes for Swift Implementation of New Mail Voting Restrictions After Initial Supreme Court Win

Trump, Scaling Back South Korea Drills, Threatens To Unravel ‘Kill Web’ Defending Pacific Allies From Communist China

Canada Retaliates Against Trump With Dollar-For-Dollar Tariffs on American Imports

CIA Director Makes Mysterious Trip to Moscow

A Comedian’s Weighty Legacy

More from the New York Sun

Dolly Parton’s Gifts in Song and Storytelling Arose From an Upbringing Steeped in the Ethic of Self-Reliance

Matic Makes the Home Robot a Reality

A Riveting Film on John Boorman’s Doomed ‘Exorcist’ Sequel Shows the Devil Is in the Details

Trump Administration Pushes for Swift Implementation of New Mail Voting Restrictions After Initial Supreme Court Win

Trump, Scaling Back South Korea Drills, Threatens To Unravel ‘Kill Web’ Defending Pacific Allies From Communist China

Canada Retaliates Against Trump With Dollar-For-Dollar Tariffs on American Imports

CIA Director Makes Mysterious Trip to Moscow

A Comedian’s Weighty Legacy