NEW YORK, Mar 29, 2009 / FW/ — Since Tuleh was launched, Bryan Bradley has chosen Bryant Park to unveil the label’s latest collection. But, last February, for the Fall 2009 season, Bradley chose the Roubini Casa showroom at the New York Design Center to hold his catwalk show.
To most, the reason for the change in venue for Tuleh was obvious. Designer Bryan Bradley and Roubini Casa had collaborated to create several new rugs and the rectangular rugs with geometric patterns in a churn that the models walked on were the result of this partnership.
Yet, there is also another reason and it is not commercial in nature. For Fall 2009, Bryan Bradley was inspired by the late White Russian émigré turned hat designer Tatiana Liberman. Immortalized in the book ‘Them’, written by her daughter Francine du Plessix Gray, Tatiana Liberman, together with her daughter Francine and her husband Alexander fled occupied France in 1941 for New York and easily became part of the city’s social life until Tatiana’s death in 1991.
Tatiana’s exotic pronouncements on style, literature and life, which delighted her friends, were said in drawing rooms like this – intimate, full of art and plush armchairs. Bryan Bradley used the atmosphere of Roubini Casa to the fullest, sending fur capes worn over chiffon mini dresses, brocade coat dresses and tiered skirts.
There’s poetry in the collection, the uptown girl was no longer just another metro girl; she is also part of Old Word France, when ladies were belles and vice versa.
The atmosphere at Roubini Casa became a value added element to the collection, and thus Bryan Bradley leaving Bryant Park for a more intimate atmosphere was a brilliant move. Of course, some fashion grouse would say that it is because of the recession. But, was it?
During New York Fashion Week, it was announced that the iconic tents would move to Lincoln Center from Bryant Park. Though this move was anticipated, there was still a collective gasp when it became official.
So, perhaps, Bryan Bradley was just ahead of the curve, several very recognizable names on the Fashion Calendar, who were showing off-site, their shows not even listed on the Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week calendar, but nevertheless they are part and parcel of the hyperactive New York fashion scene.
[MARI DAVIS]
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New York Fashion Week Fall 2009
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