Daily Front Row

2013 February 14

NYFW Fall 2013: Zang Toi, threeASFOUR

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Zang Toi Fall 2013
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(NEW YORK) Zang Toi
Russia is having un moment, apparently: Les femmes russes made for an elegant element of Zang Toi’s runway this season in emperial-style looks like a long, patterned gold, brown and rust embroidered gown with a long matching evening coat slimly lined with mink at the color and cuffs.  Fur found its way onto shawls, capelets, and jackets like a grey pantsuit with a mink-lined swing jacket.  For day, there were tailored pantsuits and short suits in checked grey, paired with copper silk blouses sporting exaggerated neckties. On the day-to-eve front, perhaps: a sexy black pantsuit avec revealing diamond cutout on the chest and big fur muff-like cuffs. How about the finale? A sublime velvet kimono coat with gold Asian embroidery over a floor length black gown looked straight out of Russian artist Erté’s '20s illustrations. And did we mention the glorious hair? Big curls were piled asymmetrically on the crown in a modernly glam ode to 19th century Czarina styles. One big, joyous j'adore. 

threeASFOUR
We’re constantly checking our horoscope for a sign of things to come, which is a bit like checking the runways, isn't it? Quirky trio threeASFOUR always has a creative idea up their sleeve; this season was no different, thanks to a horoscope-inspired collection where each look represented a different sign. What’s more? Ophiuchus, the forgotten 13^th sign of the zodiac, got incorporated as the collection's first look. Known as the serpent barrier, this look took form as an all-white overcoat with the brand’s signature, curving asymm lines with snaking circular mirror details on the left lapel. Pisces, the fish, was repped by a blue mini dress with draped and hanging hemlines that flowed like water.  Gemini, the twin, was a wild contrasting grey pantsuit with skirts around each leg like giant chaps that had a split design with a square pattern design on one side and a solid grey fabric on the other. On went the signs, covering the whole chart, but as wildly imaginative as some of the pieces were (and typically are with these avant-garde artists), many were in fact, quite wearable as well. See: those patchy mini dresses worn by Aquarius and Virgo. We’ll see if you can link these interpretations to each sign’s characteristics, but it certainly looks like the stars aligned in this collection.