In the throes of NYFW, the line between reality and the runway blurs — days feel like weeks, hours go by in seconds. But “wait, that’s it!” piped Christian Siriano as his fall show was about to get underway. This liminal space of fashion fantasia is precisely where he thrives and, boy, was he in his element.
“I think this is about true escapism, and this idea of surrealism — what’s conscious, what’s subconscious,” he emoted. “So we’re doing things that feel dream-like, but bringing them into your world to live in and wear.” It’s a nice idea, but not likely.
Siriano said his primary influence was Salvador Dalí, whose paintings “were so strange, they had no meaning.” Just as Dalí and his cohort of fellow Surrealists played tricks with the eye, so too, the designer got crafty with slights of hand.
A floor-length coat and cropped peplum jacket worn over nothing but legs, for example, looked like they were made from bird feathers, but were actually trimmed faux fur. Meanwhile, organza boning draped in tulle formed several tuxedo jackets with wing-like arches, giving solid shape to what’s typically worked as a fluid. The opposite could be said for a strict column gown embellished with waves of jet black and silver sequins. Spliced at the hip with a meshy bodysuit underneath, it allowed the model to sashay as if she was wearing two pieces.
The illusions didn’t stop there. To create a fabric where there wasn’t one, Siriano wove individual flower appliqués together for a cropped matador jacket. Kicky mermaid hems for dancing the flamenco also pointed to Dalí’s Spanish heritage, but the most direct link came with the closer.
Worn by Coco Rocha (because, who else?), it was essentially a massive bubble tucked just above the knee. Bleeding from green to teal toward cobalt at the floor, the colors closely resembled Dalí’s sky in “The Persistence of Memory.” And like the clocks in that piece, time suspended as comedian Lesley Jones whooped and egged Rocha on, soaking up every moment.