Spring Trends I'm Sporting: The Cold Shoulder

Ok, confession time: I haven't owned anything with one-shoulder since this obscenely ostentatious and bedazzled Baby Phat club top from my first year in college (better known as: my last and most shameful year as a mid-priced "label ho"...all that money, yeesh). I know they've been popping up on runways for the better part of the decade, particularly in Greek Goddess form. That's all well and good, but not too many things I attend call for such glamour, so I typically ignore them. That is, until this year. I have to admit, my infatuation with the designers' collections (RTW, mostly) is fairly recent in my life...as much I've loved beautiful, expensive clothes, and thumbing through Vogue most of my life, for a long time, all S/S meant to me was short-sleeved. So anyway, I'm loving one-shoulder dresses and tops and their asymmetrical necklines. I know NY Fashion Week for F/W '09 is upon us, but spring isn't here yet, so technically, I'm not late at all.

My favorite portrayal of this look by a collection (of the ones I saw) had to be Erin Fetherston.

Hmmm...why is this my favorite? Well, I loved (most of) the one-shouldered looks. And, I appreciated the variety Erin Fetherston gave; rather than just dresses, there were tops with skirts and pants. It looks a little more true to life, especially with the colors she used, adding her own bit of edge with bows, ruffles and sequins. I would definitely wear any of these in a heartbeat. Plus, I love her and the fact that Zooey Deschanel is her current face for her high-end brand.

Luella's color scheme was much brighter and absolutely dead-on for spring. Some people abhorred this collection, but I love it. I especially loved the hot black gloves being paired with these colors. I'm having a hard time deciding which is my favorite of these. I'm torn between the two lavender dresses and the floral coral (haha) pink one.

Catharine Malandrino stuck with the elegant dresses, and I am a huge fan of the dress in the middle. I love everything about it: the simplicity, the girly ruffles, the sheerness, all of it. It's definitely in my top three favorites. The other two dresses made me love them because of the great draping and beadwork, plus she went for a creamy, ivory-ish nude color (I'm such a great writer) I wasn't seeing in other shows.

I really like these dresses, especially the beadwork on the right sleeve of the dress on the right, but I mostly posted this because I had NO idea La Perla showed clothes. I honestly thought a La Perla runway show was the high-end equivalent of the Victoria's Secret Fashion show. Haha, color me embarrassed.

Looking at Monique Lhuillier's collection, my first thought was that it was "dated" and didn't look unique, which is weird, because how many ways can you make a one-shouldered dress? But the more I looked at these flowy gowns, the more I liked them. If you can't tell by now, I'm a sucker for intricate, non-tacky beadwork. And then, I saw the gown on the right. I love the full, sheer sleeve, not sure why. All I know is I let out a squee of excitement when I saw it.

I loved these primary-colored gowns and the way they flowed, even in a picture. My favorite is probably the blue gown, with the sheer yellow bow on its side: gorgeous. All of these colors are bold and amazing. It makes me feel like a child seeing colors for the first time, or something similarly strange and hard to describe.

Marchesa was my favorite collection overall. What can I say? At the end of the day, I fall for dangerous, romantic dresses, every time. The dresses speak for themselves, I think, but the black ones are my favorite. The champagne colored dress on the left seems incredibly unforgiving to any girl who isn't shaped like a prepubescent boy, but it sure is flawless to look at.

Calvin Klein was kind of disappointing. I look forward to his basics and monochromes, but the dresses in the show looked like bags from the front, which is deceiving because they are fabulous from the back. I do still love the sleeve of this dress, but I was hoping to see more waist than architecture.


These were my favorite dresses from Celine. If I recall correctly, they were the only two that were asymmetrical at the shoulders. The black is my favorite, naturally, another top 3 winner, but the blue of the other dress is amazing, as well as its cut. It looks kind of baggy in motion but like it would hit all of the right spots in pose.

Dsquared surprised. I really thought their dresses would look more like the topmost black dress from my Marchesa picture or like the Lacroix dress below. But they kept it simple with a white sheath, which I could take or leave. My ADHD demands busy patterns. The belt and cuffs are killer, though.

Last but not least, the daring Christian Lacroix. There were other dresses, but this one I loved immediately. I felt it was the only one worth showing. It's the right amount of edge, and that arm cuff is so great! Sigh, I wish I was rich.

Also: Happy Valentine's Day, to anyone who cares to hear it. ;)

pics courtesy of: style.com, a fashion novice's best friend.