Rodarte showed a spring collection that was eminently “wearable” — which I guess is fashionspeak for “there were no horror-film-inspired dresses that looked like they were bleeding this time around.” And nothing made of tentacles of black leather, either. Nor any rag-bag collages. What front-row guests like Elle and Dakota Fanning, Tavi Gevinson, Taylor Swift, Solange Knowles, and Her Gravid Eminencé, The Pregnancé saw at yesterday’s show were neat little dresses, many of which followed a 1950s silhouette.
The collection was obviously inspired by Vincent Van Gogh. If there’s something a little doggedly literal about taking a painting you like and printing it on a dress — something a little kitsch, a little gallery-postcard-rack — well, Kate and Laura Mulleavy are clearly making kitsch the point. My aesthetic preference tends towards the outfits that offered a less 1:1 take on Van Gogh. But I kind of appreciate, at least in theory, the smirking quality of a $4,000 dress that looks a little like a blown-up version of a $4 museum gift shop mug.