Sea New York turns towards tailoring

ApparelMagic client Sea New York is known for their cotton ruffled dresses and resort wear fit for the most Instagram-worthy trips to the Greek isles or Brazilian beaches, but for Fall 2018, they’ve tried their hand at clothes for the cities.

The designers, Monica Paolini and Sean Monahan, have proven themselves when it comes to peasant blouses and bohemian skirts, but this time around they showed that they know a thing or two about outerwear and even pants, that trickiest of fashion categories.

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The outerwear this season includes an oversized sherpa parka that looks like one turned a military surplus jacket inside out. Combined with contrast sleeves in burgundy, it’s a clever idea that will resonate with those looking for new iterations on the deconstructed trend. More classic though, Sea also proposed gorgeous wool checked overcoats. Huge lapels and hitting below the knee, these are the statement pieces you want on your feed.

And down below, Monahan and Paolini have taken a side against the skinny pant. Instead they’re offering wide trousers cuffed high above the ankle. And if short’s not your speed, an even more exciting option was a pair of baggy tuxedo trousers that pooled on the ground.

With clothes like these, Sea is fast becoming the contemporary market’s best-suited label for 2018.

Jonathan Simkhai’s Edwardian Beauties

This season at New York Fashion Week, ApparelMagic client Jonathan Simkhai went way back to the first decades of the twentieth century for inspiration. With an era of bustles and bustiers, lacy drapery and thick velvets to capitalize on, Simkhai made the most of it in the way only he can.

Simkhai, a truly twenty-first century designer, put his own west coast spin on the theme, making his ladies part Gibson Girls and part SoCal starlet. For daywear he proposed something between a saloon girl and a boardroom girlboss with tailored, pinstriped suits with puff-sleeves dropping off bared shoulders.

For evening, Simkhai’s slipdresses hit just the right note in lustrous velvet with lace sleeves and hems offering a sultry mood and extra coverage. Other dresses continued on with his lingerie-based theme, like a black lace gown that goes sheer at the midriff, showing off corsetry-style seams. A showstopping coat even used delicate hooks-and-eyes instead of buttons as a closure. Simkhai is an old pro already when it comes to the art of underthings as outerwear, and as usual, he can always take it to the next level.

A Seventies Time Warp at Jill Stuart

ApparelMagic client Jill Stuart’s show during New York Fashion Week was a seventies fever dream.

Wrap dresses. Bell sleeves and bishop sleeves. Handicrafts. If there was ever a time to dig deep into the past for inspiration, Stuart was spot on. Updating Victorian style cotton dresses with strips of chintzy florals and sequins is a bold move, but in this designer’s hands, it hit the mark spot on.

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Using rich fabrics like color blocked velvet and metallic brocade, the collection was as sumptuous in texture as it was decadent in mood.

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Stuart’s signature rocker chicks wore every one of the era’s best looks, but this was no historically accurate time capsule. This was 1975 by way of 2018, hitting all of the biggest trends of the moment with panache.

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More, More, More at Naeem Khan

No one does over-the-top glam like ApparelMagic client Naeem Khan, and this season at New York Fashion Week, he did not disappoint.

Embracing a whole world of cultures, Khan flipped between kimono-style wrap tops, ponchos with heavy embroidery, and bohemian-style sequins. When the world has so many treasures, he asks, why be confined to any one style? Khan’s propositions are truly a melting pot.

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With a nod to the growing athletic-wear and athleisure markets, Khan bookended his show with a few tracksuits elevated to the nth degree. Look one, a full-on paisley fantasia dripping with sequins from head to toe. Following that, a more restrained version, this time in white and trimmed in bold black lace. And his final look? A chic black velvet tracksuit with a maribou feather trim along the hood and tearaway pants falling open, reading as up-to-there slits. A perfect synthesis of evening elegance and pure fashion fun.

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Badgley Mischka masters uptown glamour

ApparelMagic client Badgley Mischka has always oozed glamour, but this time they’ve turned it up to 11. Give them a gown, skirt—even an overcoat!—and they know just the way to cover it in embroidery, drape it in lace, or encrust it in sequins.

In a runway show at New York Fashion Week, their red, pink, and white color story was perfectly timed to the Valentine’s Day spirit. With odes to romance like a full-skirted ballgown in a lush burgundy matelasse and a pink chiffon gown strewn with silk rose petals, Mark Badgley and James Mischka set the mood.

From debutantes to grand dames, the pair had something for everyone. Wool parkas and roomy trousers looked equally as glam as leopard-spotted coats. Sinuous white silk dresses hugged every curve while there were plenty of more conservative little black dresses with high necklines and velvet collars. Women of all ages and styles can fall in love with one of their red carpet worthy dresses. And that’s the magic of Badgley Mischka.

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Zero + Maria Cornejo goes bold on basics

Local manufacturing. Eco-friendly fabrics. A sustainable design ethos. ApparelMagic client Maria Cornejo’s values reflect everything we want to see in the fashion industry. And more than that, they seem totally authentic to her.

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At her latest Zero+Maria Cornejo collection shown at New York Fashion Week, Cornejo pared back her designs to simple, elegant shapes. These are clothes that will last the test of time, with knockout draped gowns, cozy outerwear, and classic separates.

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Minimal doesn’t mean boring, however. A selection of garments from jumpsuit to coat in a tomato red corduroy were bold and camera ready, while her shearling trimmed leather coats are a street style snapper’s dream.

Nicole Miller’s girls are a little bit punk, a little bit rock and roll

ApparelMagic client Nicole Miller keeps her finger on the pulse of the fashion. Hitting all the trends out of the ballpark at her New York Fashion Week show this week, she imbued her vision of the Nicole Miller girl with a hint of borrowed-from-the-boys style.

Her signature cool girls this season walked the runway with a more punkish vibe than usual. Wearing layered leathers, plaids, and sweats, these girls took these menswear standards and recombined them in nonchalantly with classic dresses and skirts.

Patches, a huge trend already making its way over from Europe, were well represented in Miller’s line, with stars and crests and text piled onto velour hoodies, leather jackets, and even eveningwear.

Florals, too, got an upgrade. Mixing multiple grungy flower prints together on the same dresses, she made the girly staple androgynous and edgy. Camo even got in the act when it was overprinted in metallic blossoms.

At New York Fashion Week, Eckhaus Latta puts out its most mature show yet

Just as the fashion world is getting comfortable calling Eckhaus Latta the hot young thing, designers Zoe Latta and Mike Eckhaus showed they are capable of dressing not just über cool clubbers but now arty intelligentsia too.

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This season’s big ticket at New York Fashion Week, the ApparelMagic client showed in a huge industrial space deep in Brooklyn. Beginning their runway show with a cycle of professional wear in creamy eggshells and greys, it was clear this show would be the pair’s most successful foray into the big leagues.

A twenty first century Jackie O suit rendered in thick, color-blocked knitwear, was paired with sheer gloves and worn with just the right amount of irony.

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Another knitted pattern, this time in grey and orange, appeared on a male model in the form of a crew neck sweater in one look, and later showed up sewn as a cocktail dress on a female plus size model, demonstrating Eckhaus Latta’s inclusive philosophy with ease.

Indeed, in a climate where fashion is figuring out how it fits, Eckhaus Latta is disrupting the status quo and bringing the industry into 2018.

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Sea is reinventing stylish staples

Always centered on the target and hitting the trends at the exact right moment, Sean Monahan and Monica Paolini’s brand Sea constantly puts out the kind of clothes that ahead-of-the-curve women want.

Never fussy or attention-hogging, the ApparelMagic client’s prefall collection stood out for the very items that made it blend it: classic styles with of-the-moment updates.

Sticking with a nipped waist and accentuating it with flared skirts and voluminous sleeves, the proportions were as sophisticated as they were flattering.

Balloon-leg pants were cropped at the ankle and hung off a wide waistband. A striped blouse turned professional dressing on its head with its leg o’ mutton sleeves.

Other looks were decorated with folk motifs, like a navy prairie dress banded with ribbons of trims. Worn open at the neck and with a pair of sandals, the look was less pioneer woman and more Greek-isle honeymooner.

The Sea girl, though, is no stranger to a bit of fun, and with pom poms and ruffles on lace tops with billowy sleeves and statement shoulders, she definitely got it.

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Jonathan Simkhai is Fashion’s Renaissance Man

For his Pre-Fall 2018 lookbook, über-romantic Jonathan Simkhai went back to the source material and put out a collection deeply engaged with fashion history. While he might be known for his flamboyant uses of denim and silky lingeries, Simkhai is never confined with referencing just the recent past. Here, he went full-on renaissance with clothes that merged his brand’s glam girls with the aristocratic muses of the sixteenth century.

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Suiting was of the seventies double-breasted variety, but updated with cutouts and slashing not seen this masterful since maybe the Holbein the Younger back in 1540. The slashing, going down pantlegs, was inventively stapled together for a modern take on the decadent look.

Other highlights included a slip dress in an inky blue picked up the light like an oil painting. An ultra-covetable robe coat in rusty satin had sleeves ingeniously tucked into decadent folds like it was just ripped from a Michelangelo.

Simkhai’s jeans were not totally absent however—here he just did it with a nod to the past, like a stand-out denim jacket with puff sleeves. Renaissance man indeed.

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ApparelMagic clients wear white at New York Bridal Fashion Week

New York Bridal Fashion Week designers, including ApparelMagic clients, showed that wedding gowns don’t have to be simple white strapless dresses anymore. In fact, sometimes they don’t have to be white, or even dresses.

Sachin & Babi tried out a range of silhouette options, from classic ballgowns to a white silk track jacket with flared pants. The real excitement, however, was a sequined T-shirt thrown over a simple tulle skirt. Unpretentious and nowhere near fussy, it is the perfect combination for the modern bride.

The eveningwear extraordinaires at Badgley Mischka know how to do a mermaid dress like no one else. They played with this shape in nearly every permutation, ranging from bias-cut shifts from the golden age of Hollywood to versions with long lace trains dripping with embroidery.

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Naeem Khan, undoubtably a maximalist at heart, isn’t afraid of anything. With a luxurious variety of silhouettes on display, any bride who finds traditions stuffy can find a beaded jumpsuit, a marabou feather hem, or gowns in blush and pale pink that will suit her fancy.

Public School knows what’s cool

Public School designers Dao-Yi Chow and Maxwell Osborne have their fingers on the pulse of culture. For these two, it’s not just about clothes. Public School, an ApparelMagic client, is their laboratory for testing advanced fashion and sharing it with the world. This season, that meant midriffs, sheer outerwear, and harnesses everywhere.

Starting with the first look down the runway, an oversize plaid shirt with one side covered over with convenience store plastic bag prints like “Come Again” and safety disclaimers, you could tell this was another of their bids to combine scene-stealing fashion with a political message. The designers combined the fabrics (denim, nylon, and cotton jersey) of utilitarian workwear with the shapes (baggy pants, hoodies, and crop tops) of streetwear and came up with everything great about fashion today.

Heavy on the proletariat vibes, even Public School’s latest collaboration, seen in the collection’s blinding white activewear, was with Air Jordan, much more accessible than the European luxury brands some of their peers have teamed up with. That’s not to say that anything was lacking on the glamorous side of things, however. You can find in the collection a leather corset belt and a green ruffled cocktail dress, but in true Public School fashion, they were styled with a denim Canadian tuxedo and a sweatshirt, respectively.