As his legion of red carpet fans can faithfully attest to, Narciso Rodriguez can design a power gown. For fall, however, the designer reinforced and reminded us of his abilities to realize fabulous sportswear. Inspired by “beautiful curved lines and shadows,” the collection featured easily one of the week’s best-executed outerwear and short, color-blocked and ombré dresses combos. The curved lines translated in a number of ways: as a bell-shaped black shearling or in the circular silk mikado inset on the front of his gorgeous wool twill coat. Dresses, for the most part short, were ruggedly paired with cropped jackets boasting nail heads as studs. The shadow effect was slightly more obvious: a wool/angora coat that morphed from chalk white to gray to green. Then there was the update of Michelle Obama’s Narciso dress she wore when her husband won the Presidency in the form of a zip-front dress that swirled from brick red through gray. A literal translation of old Hollywood glamour Rodriguez does not do; rather, this collection represented as maximal as the minimalist gets.
