Perched elegantly atop a stool, where most would stoop uncomfortably, Carolina Herrera motions toward the perimeter of neatly-lined clothing racks backstage.
“I started the collection in a very light way,” says Herrera gesturing to one end of the 'U', “and then,” she continues, turning her body clockwise, “it goes in crescendo, like in the music.”
“Capriccio for Carolina” she means, her fall show’s classical score, purposely composed well before the clothes even existed. A more modern take on Beethoven’s Kreutzer Sonata, Herrera chose to design in correlation to the music, not the usual other way around. It was this intentional inverse—using runway music as the muse—that gave Monday’s show an invigorated, cinematic weight.
Blush and sandstone mimicked delicate opening piano notes, and even the models seemed to adjust their speeds to the lightness. Whimsical, oversized blue bursts dappled silver, floor-length skirts, and generous fur capes tipped covered shoulders. Day gloves would not have looked out of place on almost all the tweed offerings which appeared early on.
As the violin intensified, ruby, sapphire and emerald emerged in evening silhouettes, many with nipped waists and gently-puffed sleeves. Two dresses bore black ‘X’ designs on either side of the torso, cleanly framing the figure while giving one pause as to whether or not the front tips would reveal a larger pattern. They did, and it was exquisite.
And then there was this finale of a look, with staccato to match—
—emphatically recalling something Herrera mentioned earlier backstage, before it all began.
“Music has drama, romance, it has melancholia—it’s something secret that is there but when you listen to it you just transport yourself to another place,” said Herrera. “It’s like fashion.”
To go backstage and see highlights from the show, watch the June Eleven Films video above.
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