New York Fashion Week: At Narciso Rodriguez and Calvin Klein, magestic minimalism

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In a week that was all about paring down and cleaning up, Narciso Rodriguez and Calvin Klein’s Francisco Costa were in their element. Their collections also happened to be two of New York’s best.

Rodriguez’s clothes were all about curving lines and shadowy effects. Short dresses sliced over the collarbone to reveal flashes of bare skin had an understated sexiness. So did a draped ombre orange, black and gray silk dress, the colors of an L.A. sunset, with a front zipper tracing an S-curve.
An asymmetrically cut, bronze-studded bolero, worn over a black textured silk dress, totally transformed a basic look. What a great idea! He should make little jackets like those a staple in his collections. Rodriguez had some terrific coats, including a sharply cut black shearling with seams up the back, and an angora coat in an intriguing smudged gray and white color. (Some of the coats were reversible, too -- a neat trick.)

At Calvin Klein, Costa made minimalism majestic. Nowhere more so than on the simplest of dresses, cut just away from the body -- a white glazed and boiled wool and cashmere shift with 3/4 sleeves was pure perfection. Another shift -- sleeveless and dark gray, had an elegant draped panel in back.

Jackets in doubleface wool had a longer length, and coats came oversized with raglan sleeves, but still flattered the female form. Here, there was a very cool-looking ivory shearling coat with an asymmetrical front that wrapped to close.

For evening, Costa found a way to do sparkle in a quiet, interesting way. An ivory column gown was embroidered ever so judiciously with white sequins, and a silver lurex gown with a subtle cross-hatch pattern. Let’s hope one of them makes its way onto a red carpet soon. Lord knows when it comes to awards show dressing, we could use a little restraint.
-- Booth Moore in New York

Photos of Calvin Klein’s fall 2010 runway

Photos of Narciso Rodriguez’s fall 2010 runway

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Top photos: Portions of Narciso Rodriguez’s fall/winter 2010 collection. Bottom photos: Portions of Calvin Klein’s fall/winter 2010 collection. All credits: Peter Stigter & Jonas Gustavsson / For The Times