A model walks the runway during the Michael Kors 2008 Fashion Show.
The star of New York's spring fashion shows this weekend was American sportswear. And although the notion of regional fashion is quaint in this day of global luxury conglomerates and consumers, the designers here who stuck close to their American roots produced standout collections. Ralph Lauren laid down the gauntlet Saturday night with his glorious Belle Epoque-inspired 40th anniversary celebration. And on Sunday, the trend continued with Michael Kors alluding to the Virginia Slim look of the late 1970s on his runway — all sherbet colors and sporty dresses worn with disco flashy metallic footwear. Some of the models even carried tennis bags, an allusion certainly to that day's U.S. Open finals.
There's a new crew of American designers breaking into the sportswear game and, surprisingly, it's the youngest in the group who has shown the most sophistication. Thakoon Panichgul, in business for only three years, embraced preppy American style and added a twist of Japanese aesthetics with Shibori printed fabrics. Derek Lam, a one-time assistant to Kors, paid homage to his former boss with brightly colored knits and swingy dresses in khaki tones. The most difficult thing, it seems, for this new generation of designers is to navigate the onslaught of influences coming at them from European designers and to stay true to their own American roots.
Nobody does that with more technical bravura and singular vision at this point than Narciso Rodriguez who celebrates 10 years in business this year. Now that he has new owners — the Liz Claiborne Group bought his company for $12 million earlier in the summer — Rodriguez can focus on his truly outstanding cutting technique. He also now has the money to add more expensive flourishes like embroidery, which came as firecracker-like bursts on draped deep violet cocktail dresses that were also folded over kimono-style.