Tibi 2010 Swimwear

Kicking off Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Swim was Tibi who has shown down in South Beach before. The collection is a wash of color with many suits done is a sixties inspired acid pattern. It’s a bit of a throw back in time but with her color scheme it works very well. The vibe of the collection is relaxed and not stuffy high end. High points to the collection where the Hot Lava Bikini which we view as her editorial suit as well the Roulette Bikini which had that bandana pattern feel. The only problem we had was at the very end where the last three looks we felt were not needed. The very last suit was a solid gold cut out Mailot which completely played against what we had seen in earlier looks. 

Overall the collection is worth the investment and was well executed with beautiful gold cuffs adorning the models, but in past seasons we have seen more cohesive collection from Tibi. 

Ports 1961 Fall 2009

First off we'd like to thank whomever yet again for giving us a seventh row seat (the last row) for this show. We got the same row and same seat last season, and when your in the last row you can't see anything at all, so we walked out of the show. But thanks to the wonder of images we can give comment on the Ports 1961 fall collection. According to our other editorial colleges this was a collection inspired by India and the color that celebrate the country and looks which where over 45 pieces, a little to much for our taste. But back at the showroom we would bet that there is well over one hundred.

The collection has it's strong points which are the solids and the slacks, this was the main focus years ago used to get fashion editor gaga over this line, their first show which was a presentation only showed fifteen pieces and made us wanting more, but that was years ago and this is 2009.

Designer Tia Cibani has the ability to produce wonderful clothing which we have seen time and time again over the years but at times we feel that she has faced intense pressure from the owners of Ports 1961. The Spring collection last season in total was 350 pieces, know any designers who crank out those numbers? In short we feel Tia Cibani tries to hard to drive her design direction and she does not need to. We feel the strongest pieces are in her solid fabrics and colorways, the prints might be your thing but in the final analysis a designer has to know their customer.

Photos: Dan Lecca for Mercedes~Benz

Pistol Panties swim 2009

The Pistol Panties 2009 swim collection can be best described as “hit & miss”. On the hit front we really liked the graphic print suits they sent out but for the misses we found the polka-dot suits dated and the jewled adorned suits bringing us back to the Fall season of New York fashion week 2007. It seems they took the current jewlery trend of chunky crystal stones and used it on the suits and it just didn’t seem to work. The over-sized hats were a distraction and not needed. Never the less we feel its a company to watch and see how they evolve over time.

Photos: Corinna Lecca Mercedes Benz

Zimmermann Swim 2009

“life is so strange when you don’t know. How can you tell where your going to?”~Missing Persons

Zimmermann’s 2009 swim collection seemed like a shot in the dark design wise. Once again we see that they are still trying to find the zimmermann girl offering many choices in their suits. As for the styling of the models the jewlery was way to heavy and seemed thrown on. We feel that no woman would go out to the pool with 10 pounds of necklaces and heavy stones.

The one suit we did like was look #23 a Black Kaleidoscope 1 piece. But with only leaning on this one piece it seems like this collection is destination unknown.

Photos: Corinna Lecca Mercedes Benz

Vix Swim 2009

We had never heard of vix swim wear before but for a first time on the Miami runway this design company is certainly one to watch. There seems to be nothing outlandish going on here but just really well constructed suits done in simple patterns. The white enamel details on a few of the suits adds a touch of class not seen by other designers. The color choices as well are vast, allowing a wide degree of selection, the one piece black suit we loved. Yet again we see another swim suit line playing it safe and delivering a great collection for 2009.

Photos: Corinna Lecca for Mercedes Benz