Early reviews from the spring 2010 shows are mainly positive, with a few sharply worded low points.
Jason Wu
Most critics heaped fawning praise on Jason Wu’s confident, feminine collection of demure tweed and tulle day dresses and feathered frocks, with the exception of Cathy Horyn. “WOW,” gushed British Vogue. WWD saw “greater surety and sophistication” than in past collections. “The clothes – they’ll sell,” predicted the Wall Street Journal, owing to easy wearability and luxe fabrics that “look like a million bucks.” (Although “maybe they’ll cost that much.”) Fashion Wire Daily praised Wu’s creative use of feathers and crystals to flatter the “shape and motion of the female form.” But grumpy Cathy Horyn felt the collection had a certain “banality” and found the clothes too prissy, comparing them to fussy truffles: “Have you ever become completely irritated by a box of chocolate? You know the kind: concept chocolate, artfully arranged in a just-so box, flavors exotic and trying.”
Watch a slideshow of the Jason Wu collection.
Charlotte Ronson
Charlotte Ronson’s eclectic mash-up of tulle, acid-washed denim, studs, and shoulder pads won raves from the critics. Fashion Wire Daily deemed the collection “deliciously downtown,” and “well in step with the current edgy, moody lady zeitgeist.” “This was Ronson’s strongest collection yet,” declared the WSJ, and full of clothes fit for a “take-no-prisoners pretty girl.” From the “cotton-candy tulip skirts” to a “hell-bent leather bomber … it all worked seamlessly,” lauded Fashion Week Daily. (“These ballerinas are downtown girls,” agreed Style.com.)
Watch a slideshow of the Charlotte Ronson collection.
Luca Luca
The critics came down hard on Luca Luca’s seventies-inspired spring collection. It was “riddled with ruffles, force-fed with predictable cuts, and staged with little real enthusiasm,” groused Fashion Wire Daily, calling the show “a poor advertisement for American fashion.” The seventies isn’t a decade that is “currently trending in the fashion world,” noted Style.com, complaining that the clothes “didn’t offer a clear new way of looking at the reference.” WWD offered faint praise, admiring “glimpses of strong workmanship” in a yellow pleated skirt and matching jacket but calling short, bright blue and yellow jersey dresses the “weak link.” Style.com called out “costumey” wide-leg jumpsuits and high-waisted trousers, as well as “awkward” and “out of place” funnel-necked suits. “Where great collections can soar, this one stumbled around.”
Watch a slideshow of the Luca Luca collection.
Nicole Miller
Nicole Miller’s “streamlined, sporty, and sexy” spring collection was deemed a success by the critics. Style.com loved the “marketable idea” of “body con that wasn’t too ‘body,’” with admirably restrained graphic cutouts and sheer paneling. The pieces fused “nighttime sparkle with athleticism” Fashion Week Daily declared, lauding a collection that was “at once delicate and bold.” Miller went “full throttle” with an urban, slightly aggressive aesthetic, sending out a lineup for “ladies who are lean and mean in the best possible way,” WWD said. On the downside, British Vogue voiced a common sentiment: “The fashion envelope was far from pushed.”
Watch a slideshow of the Nicole Miller collection.
