Fashion Shows: Laura Siegel
The stereotypical free spirits in movies are always hippy-dippy and wound with scarves, and have names like Ariel and Summer and Naomi. They reek of patchouli (organic!) and make their own yoghurt and you're never sure what, really, they actually DO for a living.
The models in Laura Siegel's show are a lot like those women. You'd be sulky too, if you had to go barefoot and walk around salvaged-wood boards, then lean on crates and pallets that have been styled with rope. But then you 'd smile, wanly (because you're vegan), because the clothes? They're beautiful.
Clingy sheer-ish jersey with cutout shoulders, fluttering apricot chiffon, hemp hems and tie-dyed pale aqua silk cloaks are embellished with elaborate breastplates and fringes of celadon and mint seed beads Miles Austin Jerseys
- thousands of them. They're accessorized with wood bead ankle bracelets , tight fringed legwarmers and miniskirts dotted with bits of yarn, thread and fabric, a bird's nest in progress.
Some of the faint prints are from hand-carved blocks that Siegel - whose mantra is sustainable fashion - created working with a traditional Ajrakh block-printing family in India, along with batches of naturally-dyed fabric. Alternating shrugs of vanilla gauze and cheesecloth get tucked, pleated and generally haphazardly tacked into place. The draped and wrapped pieces are dishabille - ethereal and versatile to the point of indistinguishable. Is all that cantilevered gauze a cape-cowl, a gown - or both?
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