Cherry, melon, plum, cobalt, and Barbie, the show notes promised. Sies Marjan designer Sander Lak thinks in color first, shape and texture later. He showed his fall/winter 17 collection yesterday in a ballroom at the midtown New York Hilton with walls (and a chandeliered ceiling) the color of a Tiffany box on a gray day, or salty mint taffy.
Those matte sherbert walls provided a perfect backdrop for Lak’s own rainbow of shades, which ranged from searing neon fuchsia (on an undulating silk shirt dress and an asymmetrical origami-folded velvet top) to a soothing range of caramels — soft and pale on a mid-calf cargo-pocket skirt or rich and dark on a pair of bell-legged pants.
Look by look, Lak built in textures too. Camel wool shawls hid beneath shaggy highlighter-orange scarves, and a dark plum-on-plum situation juxtaposed shimmering Studio 54-worthy lurex and velvet. The genius is that it all still looks effortless. Because nothing could ever feel too forced about a naturally flowing silk skirt worn under a cable-knit sweater — even if they both happen to be insanely amazing shades of turquoise. Lak keeps his shapes firmly based in reality, even if his colors are unlike anything you’ve ever seen.
The model who wore that turquoise tuxedo even had sea-green hair and eyes to match. And turquoise shoes from Sies Marjan’s debut footwear collection. They were crocodile-embossed flared-platform mules with a curved heel like a baroque table leg or a Louis XVI slipper. But more than anything they felt cool and modern, like all the women you can imagine wearing (and could see everywhere at yesterday’s show) wearing Lak’s clothes.
Related: Sies Marjan is the rainbow-colored future of New York fashion
Credits
Text Alice Newell-Hanson
Photography Mitchell Sams