Friday, May 6, 2011

Gail Sorronda

Gail Sorronda is such an exceptional talent that sometimes I wish she would diverge from her signature black and white palette - surely she would have more commercial success that way. Oh well, I suppose I'll just have to let her hold onto that aesthetic integrity. I was pretty surprised (and let's face it, horrified) to see balloon hemlines popping up in a few shows this week. Sorronda was the only designer who made it work:

The weight of the fabric stops the hemline from looking like a rehash of a too-recently passed trend. For me, at their best, Sorronda's designs hint at the monumentality of Renaissance garments:

Portrait of a Gentleman by Giovanni Battista Moroni, 1550

Il sarto by Giovanni Battista Moroni, 1570-1575

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