The Row.

Mon. 09/09/2013.




The Row.

Just Like When Victoria Beckham decided to throw her Hat into the Ring of Fashion design, Many Snickered and Sniggled that the two little Poor Rich Girl Bohemian Urchins, Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen were just play acting as they had done for years in role after Saccharine Mind Numbing role in Pathetically Misguided Forays of Teenybopper TV/Straight-To-Video/DVD Fluff! It made them Rich in Money beyond anyone's Wildest Possible Dreams, but it couldn't have enriched their Obviously Nomadic, Bohemian, Eclectic Souls. So when the Dynamic Duo Showed their first collection it didn't take anyone much convincing that these were some... BAD BITCHES! They had the precocious chops that they showed as Virtuoso Child Actresses and now as Fashion Designers. They have cultivated a Style of Eccentric Bohemian influenced Deeply Luxe Minimalism that one could really say never existed before they conjured it up from their own imagining. One that has been Deeply Influential in the Halls of Fashion and made them true Forces to be reckoned with, And Rightfully So!

The Spring 2014 Collection saw that Nomadic Spirit of the Olsen Girls Flitting about to The Dry, Desert Caravans of Africa and Arabia. Fearlessly and Flawlessly, as is the Boho Girls want, Plucking and Picking from whatever fruit on whichever tree that caught her eye that was the most Visually Arresting and bending those Elements into an Assemblage That bordered on the Genius! In what the COLLECTION Wanted to say... it was Without Peer or Flaw. That however, isn't to say that the mixing and matching didn't sometimes get away from them and one too many things existed in one outfit. It wasn't Youthful Exuberance in that case, no, it was just perhaps a love too much of the things designed with an eye perhaps to be more judicious with the edit of some outfits. Was it to the Detriment of the collection, Hardly.

To Go into Detail about the clothes, even the details of the clothes in this kind of collection seems useless. The Message is in the mix... Tiny pleats, multiple layerings, one Standout piece was on Ajak Deng, Exit No. 24 in gleaming Ultra Black Perforated Leather that look like it was gleaming with Paved Sequins was a Trompe L'oeil Masterpiece that didn't even aspire to be such a thing.

The Tiny Sylphs of Couture are never less than Supremely Assured in their clothing and presentation. They think of every single detail from top to bottom. Everything has the Feel of the Artist and Artisan about it and makes one quiver with that secret Frisson that only the truly worshipful of the fashion flock feel at such brilliance. I have always been a convert, just not always the devoted Acolyte... mainly because it must be said, that until this season and Bethann Hardison's Treatise on Inequality and lack of diversity in fashion shows... The Row was one of the prime offenders of This bias. Until this show they have never had ONE model of Colour in their collection, This is an Egregious error that now with the Accent on Models of Colour in this Show only feels like pandering to the public as to not seem Racist. Am I Convinced that this will continue on at The Row? Frankly... Not at all. In a season or two they will be back to casting the colourless shows of old. It will not make the clothes any less beautiful but it will make finding the beauty in such clothing much more difficult!

Setting that Hoary Chestnut aside, This collection shined with an Inner Light and Soul that was hard to Refuse and Chillrens... even as hard ass as I AM About Diversity, That can Transcend All and Leave just The Glow and Radiance of Beautiful Clothing.





That's All.





Bye4Now!