l'etoile magazine blog: MNfashion Week in review: "Little Black Dress"

Wednesday, October 5, 2011

MNfashion Week in review: "Little Black Dress"

Text by Jahna Peloquin
Photos by Amy Gee with Patrick Kelley

Little black dresses don't a runway make. That is, unless they're one-of-a-kind dresses that aren't all that little or basic. Leave it to local designers like Emma Berg, George Moskal, Max Lohrbach and Danielle Everine to make the classic closet staple into statement pieces. The dozen LBDs walking the runway for the "Little Black Dress" fashion show at St. Paul's Amsterdam Bar and Hall on Thursday evening ran the gamut, from vintage-inspired (see: Moskal, Everine) to sex-on-a-stick edgy (see: Raul Osorio, Sarah M. Holm, Laura Fulk), and from cocktail-ready (Amanda Christine) to gala-ready (see: Berg, Maritza Ramirez). Though a group show at the heart, some of the evening's standout pieces included Everine's silk chiffon overdress with a beaded high collar, embedded with lace applique and paired with an underdress in a printed lace motif, as well as Berg's silk gazar bodice with a woven polka-dot ballgown skirt. It also served as a return to the runway from Fulk, obscure since her F/W 2010 collection showing in spring of that year, as well as the introduction to Nicole Larson, a young designer already showing a strong point of view. Though the additional segment showcasing a non-LBD look by each designer seemed a bit tacked-on and unnecessary, slickly-produced event as a whole (which featured stunning Vision models and styling by HAUS Salon) offered a clear, easily-accessible theme that seemed to point to a increasingly sophisticated aesthetic within MNfashion and the local fashion community in general.