NEW YORK, February 14, 2009
"If we were acoustic before, now we're digital," said Sophie Buhai, applying an apt metaphor to the evolution of Vena Cava (which she designs with Lisa Mayock) from pretty and print-strewn to sparkly and somewhat darkly punkish. As if to drive home the point, bedazzling shreds of 30,000 CDs repurposed by the artist Marisa Tesauro filled the inside of a triangular show platform that supported 21 models in specially created Via Spiga shoes and clothes that were all grown-up sexy.
Titled "Crystalarium," the collection was inspired by a neighbor of Mayock's who worked as a "gem huntress" in the eighties. Back were the tough leggings and the signature long dresses with cutouts showing slices of skin; new this season were motorcycle jackets, exposed zippers, studs, holographic sequins, and metallic fringe.
Holographic sequins might sound like a chancy move, but these girls have never played with fool's gold. The CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund award runners-up for 2008 have great sell-through with their "wearable novelties," as they phrase it, so for Fall they focused on adding "never-seen-before detailing" to familiar silhouettes and staples, making the ordinary quite a bit more extraordinary. There were perhaps fewer surprises than some might have liked, but the show was easy to take a shine to.
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