Rodarte Ready-To-Wear Fall 2019

Rodarte Ready-To-Wear Fall 2019

On a drowsy and dreamy Tuesday afternoon in San Marino Kate and Laura Mulleavy redefined couture on the West Coast where they presented their Fall 2019 Ready-To-Wear collection called Tuesday. Within the doors of Southern California’s Huntington Library are streaming collections of ancient art and just beyond its doors is the botanical gardens with fresh and luscious gardens of colorful flowers and luminescent greenery. The indoor show, being housed by an astounding aurora of flowered walls and refined architecture, added a vintage antique radiance to the show. Between the fantastical designs dazing observers, and the erotic sensualness evoked from the collection, this was true Hollywood show sending us back decades to black and white horror films, compelling us to step closer and allow ourselves to be beheld by this collection, lying somewhere between a sweet dream and a a seductive nightmare.

Being the first ever fashion show held at the Huntington, Rodarte represented a new streak for the aged establishment with gowns sweeping across the floor and dramatic silhouettes casting shadows against aged furniture. Thirties, seventies, and eighties theater and musicals inspired this season with garments that touched across several decades into a single fluid collection. Models were cast down the runway in shimmering Flash Dance metallic looks while others made appearances in long, chiffon gowns and full skirts. Other moments of the show featured marvelous silhouettes in a vast array from voluptuous shoulder puffs to wide legged and high waisted pants. Some bold prints were embellished by over the top sewn in bows while others were more dainty and subversive. The black leather and pastel sash belts represented a counterpoint from the lush volume of many of the garments, all the while bringing the diversity of the collection together. Youthful frocks of Victorian classic lace with summer yellows and garden flowers and butterflies blended a childlike bliss into this elegance, ready-to-wear set of garments. White coats lined with faux furs juxtaposed by bounds of doll like bows added a flashy luxuriousness to the looks.

The overwhelming display of mesmerizing oddity that has come to characterize the Mulleavy sisters’ brand has demonstrated force and the utmost mastery of the idea of creating beautiful garments that are the same time wonderland creepy, Brontë gothic, and Austen classic. This was a profound, red-carpet show, not at all subtle in execution but wonderfully exquisite and altogether magical. To offset the extravagance of the garments a nuanced palette of rouge lipstick, and shadows of twilight blues and bubble gum pinks along with floral headdress motifs decorated in the models hair was woven in. This dreamy, jazz-inspired collection, bouncing from one era to another resulted in one overall consensus: unforgettable brilliance. With mounds of glitter, kinky and chunky plastic heels, and knockout statement jewelry this was, indeed, a very Hollywood show, turning heads from us on the East Coast, to take a second look at how fashion is evolving on the other side of the nation, in Los Angeles in particular.