Fashion Week: Vera Wang

Love Vera Wang? Here’s a story from the Associated Press.

NEW YORK (AP) — Vera Wang is likely to make a big splash with her water-influenced fall collection, which debuted on an intimate runway at her SoHo store Thursday morning.

The obvious reference was the scuba-suit fabric that literally molded futuristic pieces, including a (too-wide) hip-barrel skirt and corsets that slimmed down and jazzed up more traditional dresses. The best use was on a short-sleeve coat that mixed the fabric with black broadtail fur.

More subtle — and more beautiful — though, was the moire organza that Wang used for her signature artful dresses. As the light hit the models wearing a series of graceful dresses, ranging from shirtdresses to off-the-shoulder gowns, the image was of gentle water ripples dappled with sunlight.

One bottle-green cap-sleeve dress made of pieced vertical swaths of charmeuse was a feat of its own.

In her notes to editors, stylists and retailers attending the New York Fashion Week event, Wang said the use of varying textures and materials “provides the tension and sophistication of the collection.”

Meanwhile, the mood came from the late modern-art collector and philanthropist Peggy Guggenheim and her life in Venice, Italy, after World War II.

Wang concentrated on small details, such as the just right loosely tied bow on the front of a coat or the rumpled-tissue effect on a voluminous skirt. But the result was a look that oozed easy elegance.