Spring 2014 is about transformative clothes. It’s about boiling down everything that was on the runways to the one thing (or 75-plus things) to buy next season that will instantly update a look. And the statements are simple: Try a longer skirt, one that hits midcalf or the upper ankle. Feel the power of flowers, whether they’re rendered as South American embroideries or giant South Pacific hibiscus. Take cues from your favorite gallery and wear something artful. This season, there is fashion for every personality.
1/121Pictured: Marc Jacobs, Christian Dior, Proenza Schouler
Photo: Yannis Vlamos/Indigitalimages.com2/121**Kors’**s beautiful show radiated the happiness and confidence that is the soul of American fashion.
Photo: Fabio Iona/Indigitalimages.com3/121**Jacobs’**s gloriously embellished, Victorian-era skate-surf punks emerged from a dramatic backdrop of black sand dunes, moored pirate ships, and an abandoned bus bound for Sleepy Hollow.
Photo: Monica Feudi/FeudiGuaineri.com4/121Metallics, pleats, and a cool, seventies vibe characterized Jack McCollough and **Lazaro Hernandez’**s stellar collectsion, which drew from the interiors of architects and designers like Joe Colombo and Paul Rudolph, the monumental organic furniture of the Brazilian Sergio Rodrigues, and the North Californian J. B. Blunk.
Photo: Courtesy of Christopher Kane5/121You have to love the way Kane describes his collectsions. Spring, he said, was “sex ed, biology textbooks, and Jean-Léon Gérôme’s paintings of girls being sold in a marketplace in Roman times, with all this drapery and hands plucking their clothes off.”
Photo: Yannis Vlamos/Indigitalimages.com6/121If any further proof was needed (and we’re not saying it was) as to how firmly Burberry believes in its fantastic creative director Christopher Bailey, consider that the British house just named Bailey CEO. But before that announcement, the designer turned out a collectsion of clothes for the dream-girl-next-door in one of the most desirable palettes of the season.
Photo: Gianni Pucci/Indigitalimages.com7/121Whether you see art, feminism, or both when considering **Miuccia Prada’**s bejewelled, bra-implanted coats, dresses, bags, and furs, there’s no failing to notice the designer’s mastery of pushing fashion toward bold, new territories.
Photo: Yannis Vlamos/Indigitalimages.com8/121**Peter Copping’**s almost all-white collectsion merged ideas borrowed from menswear with moments of lace, fluttering silk, and whisper-fine knits.
Photo: Yannis Vlamos/Indigitalimages.com9/121**Marco Zanini’**s final collectsion for Rochas—“a big love letter to [the house],” as he described it, “joyous and cheerful and happy”—summed up the whimsical and charming femininity that he has summoned in his five years at the design helm.
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Phoebe Philo took everything we’ve known about dressing, flipped it on its head, and made a bold, vaguely African-print top pulled over an accordion-pleated silk skirt with an asymmetric hem feel like the simplest thing to throw on this spring.
Photo: Yannis Vlamos/Indigitalimages.com11/121Raf Simons set his Dior show beneath a hanging garden of thousands of lianas and orchids and wisteria, creating an extraordinarily beautiful, layered setting that seemed something of a metaphor for a collectsion that was jungle-dense with a mash-up of ideas.
Photo: Monica Casa/Indigitalimages.com12/121Spring was a tour de force of modern elegance that moved **Riccardo Tisci’**s Givenchy image forward from the power of his aggressive urban silhouette and his now relentlessly imitated prints and into a gentler, but no less alluring, world.
Photo: Fabio Iona/Indigitalimages.com13/121Marc Jacobs’s astounding exit collectsion summed up not just what he can achieve as a showman and designer, but why fashion is worth being part of at all.
14/121Rick Owens stole the season, hands down, with his exhilarating show featuring four American step troupes—and the clothes were great, too. Owens’s sporty, gladiatorial looks were a counterpoint to liquid metallic skirts at Altuzarra, graphic embellishment at Alexander McQueen, artful ideas at Aquilano.Rimondi, and gilded, global wanderers at Dries Van Noten.
Pictured: Altuzarra, Dries Van Noten, Aquilano.Rimondi
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Photographed by Kevin Tachman32/121Florals are a mainstay for spring, but this season brings new growth like the beaded, Victorian Hawaiian-looking varietals at Marc Jacobs and the dangerous-looking vines at Christian Dior.
Pictured: Dolce & Gabbana
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41/121Midcalf to upper ankle might initially look challenging, but becomes slimming worn with longer, leaner pieces on top like the layering at Theyskens’ Theory.
Pictured: Bottega Veneta
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Photographed by Victoria Will50/121Alber Elbaz went lamé all the way for Lanvin, while the slinky silver looks at Rag & Bone and Altuzarra make great options for evening from designers who don’t typically make black-tie-ready clothes.
Pictured: Lanvin
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Photographed by Taylor Jewell60/121Wear lace, whether its crocheted, Chantilly, or leather that’s been laser cut.
Pictured: Stella McCartney
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Photographed by Kevin Tachman70/121Spring is about playing with only an accent of athleticism—mesh trim at Gucci, the dressed-up Teva at Prada, or tennis sweaters at Rag & Bone.
Pictured: Prada
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Photographed by Kevin Tachman80/121Given that spring clothes hit stores before warm weather hits at all, it’s little wonder there were so many wonderful ways to cover up.
Pictured: Burberry Prorsum
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Photographed by Kevin Tachman89/121Isolated ideas like embellishment and fringe are taken from global cultures and refiltered through a completely modern lens.
Pictured: Alexander McQueen
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Photographed by Taylor Jewell98/121Now that clothes cost as much as a masterpiece, why not combine the two? Chanel is ready for the world’s chicest art students, while Aquilano.Rimondisplashed Gauguin right onto skirts. Consider it a portable investment.
Pictured: Carolina Herrera
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Photographed by Taylor Jewell105/121Want an immediate dose of spring in your wardrobe? Two words: pleated skirt.
Pictured: Proenza Schouler
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Photographed by Nina Westervelt113/121White goes anywhere these days, which is especially lucky for anyone heading down the aisle. Buy the look now; worry about the man (or woman) later.
Pictured: Erdem
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