Style Fashion Week L.A.: Stop Staring mines Mexican cinema
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Style Fashion Week L.A. kicked off a five-day run at the former St. Vibiana’s Cathedral in downtown Los Angeles on Monday with local retro-chic label Stop Staring.
For her fall and winter 2012 collection, head designer Alicia Estrada turned to ‘Epoca de Oro’ -- the Golden Age of Mexican cinema -- as channeled through the likes of Dolores del Rio, Maria Felix, Marga Lopez and Lupe Velez, whom Estrada described in her show notes as ‘the great beauties of Mexican film noir.’
The result was a range of sultry, seductive and body-hugging dresses that switch up the bold retro prints of past seasons for the kind of subtle houndstooth checks, chevrons, plaids and microdots that wouldn’t have looked out of place in the early seasons of ‘Mad Men.’
Several of the monochromatic pieces were the most memorable, though, including three different takes on the curve-conscious red dress, several fitted black lace dresses with fur capelets, and a silver metallic dress that shimmered like a vintage sharkskin suit. But the standout was the final look, a form-fitting, floor-length gown in shimmering gold sequins that brought the audience members to their feet for a standing ovation.
It was an applause-worthy moment for two reasons: First, because it was a simply beautiful dress that managed to make the model look both smolderingly sexy and elegant at the same time. But it also marked the first time in L.A.’s current fractured Fashion Week lineup that I’d seen a dress truly worthy of the Hollywood red carpet.
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-- Adam Tschorn