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16-02-2012
Before the Dresses, the Ideas
The high-fashion designer, known for his pricey gowns, is launching a digital inspiration board and opening it up to the masses. For the next three months, anyone can upload an image or a video to appear on a 27-inch screen in Mr. de la Renta's office to inspire his resort collection."The Board," as the brand is calling it, will be open after its runway show Tuesday evening through May, when the collection will be shown to retail buyers and editors."We like the idea of trying to collaborate with our fans," said Alex Bolen, chief executive of Oscar de la Renta LLC. "There are people who love our brand and have ideas about what would be beautiful."
That said, fans won't get paid for anything they submit, even if their ideas are found useful.The move piggybacks on the surging popularity of Pinterest, an online pin board where users swap photos. It also is the latest chapter in the increasingly intertwined worlds of fashion and technology. Once-secretive design houses are using social media to let the masses peek into their exclusive circles, cultivating fansand would-be shoppers.At New York fashion week, happening now, dozens of runway shows are streamed in real-time online. And brands are posting behind-the-scenes photos, with glimpses of makeup application, model rehearsals and even full ensembles shared before the show starts.
The new Oscar de la Renta initiativewhich will be found online at TheBoard.OscardelaRenta.commakes the designer-fan relationship one step further, giving outsiders a potential say in the creation of a collection.Most designers use an inspiration board for a collection, typically just a bulletin board pinned with photos, swatches or even phrases. In this case, the inspiration board will be digital and interactive. At the beginning, everyone will be invited to upload anything they choose. Submissions need only be visual in some waymaybe a painting, a vintage photo, a graphic design or advertisement, a beach sunset, a dog, a chair fabric.
Barbara Tfank shows lush feminine frocks fit for Betty Draper and 1st lady too at Fashion Week
Barbara Tfank wants to correct all those "Mad Men" references to her clothes after all, the designer says, "I was doing this five years before the show came on."Point taken. But it was still hard not to imagine Betty Draper truly rocking the delicate, feminine, and yes, seemingly 60s-inflected dresses on display at her fall/winter 2012 presentation Monday in a Manhattan art gallery.One creation in particular, a luscious pleated frock in blush embroidered jacquard with a tulip motif, seemed perfect for Betty, but also for anyone wanting to look seriously pretty and just a little retro.
For evening, there was a luxurious satin-lined fox jacket with a blush skirt, an outfit that Tfank seemed particularly fond of as she wandered among her models.Posh & Pink dress sale back this year.Asked her goals for the collection, Tfank, whose designs have been worn a number of times by Michelle Obama, replied simply: "To find enchantment and beauty."She was inspired, she explained, by what she called "the magic hour" "that moment that happens every day when the sun sets, and the lovely colors come out there's a lot of glow and sparkle, and a sense of joyfulness."
There was certainly joy in Tfank's own home when she turned on President Obama's recent State of the Union speech and saw Mrs. Obama enter in a shiny cobalt blue dress from her 2012 resort line. The dress won raves."It always comes as a great surprise," she said of the first lady's patronage. "It was a thrill to see."One dress in the new collection seemed ideal for the first lady AND Draper: an emerald green number with cap sleeves and a balloon skirt.But back to that "Mad Men" thing Tfank does not see her designs as connected to any particular time period. "They're not vintage," she said. If anything, "They're futuristic. They're an amalgam of all periods of time."
