Christian Siriano Fall 2015

According to Siriano's show notes this collection was inspired by the Congo jungle and the home of silverback gorilla along with plant life that surrounds the environment. Now all designers need inspiration, but for the client Mr. Siriano is aiming for; he may have missed the mark at least in his evening wear. As for the day it's strong consistent and works perfectly for the season. His opening Tiger wool cashmere leaf collar coat set the African tone as did his safari textured crepe open-back dolman sleeve blouse. In short the daywear shines but when evening came it seems his design hand did a dramatic shift. I do not know if he's shooting for red carpet looks but the opulence and drama was lacking which is something we have seen in previous seasons.

Teen Vogue University 2012

The Millennium hotel in New York City played host for a three day seminar for young men and women seeking to gain knowledge in the fashion industry and learn more about there craft. Over 1600 applications were submitted to attend and only 500 where chosen for this important life changing event.

This seasons speakers included Grace Coddington, Olivier Theyskens, Chris Benz, Prabal Gurung, Nicole Richie, Nicole & Michael Colovos of Helmut Lang, Peter Som, Erin Featherston, Christian Siriano, Phillip Lim, Rachel Roy and Bryanboy & Rumi Neely.

This is by far one of the great fashion gifts Teen Vogue has offered young aspiring fashionistas which is now in it's seventh year. The classes covered most if not all aspects of the industry and allowed students a first hand view on how the industry functions.

Overall, Teen Vogue University is an important program for young people to find direction and confidence regarding a ever changing business. For more information head over to http://teenvoguefashionuniversity.com/

Teen Vogue University Logo: courtesy DKC PR
Event photos: R. Spiegel

Christian Siriano S/S 2010

We won't talk about Project runway since that's old news but what we can say about Christian Siriano is that this young new designer has a future! Mr. Siriano fully demonstrates that he is comfortable working in color and shows a level of consistency in his designs. More so his control in using a restricted color palette makes this collection more pulled together and allows more options for women. The standout pieces we loved were the washed silk linen flounce top with diagonal two toned striped skirt and the leather and chiffon motorcross jacket in blush cotton slim fit trouser in blush. We feel these as well other looks have strong editorial appeal for future photo shoots. At the end of his show he showed two "red carpet" contenders which were a satin-faced organza draped strapless gown with beaded bodice in blush and the second a chiffon and tulle-layered ombre gown in blush and volcanic. Our only knock is we feel the collection could have been better edited, but Christian sat the perfect trip and delivered a worthy collection. The real question with the economy in its current state is will the buyers be placing orders?

Photos: Frasier Harrison