Catherine – Mary Jane Denzer

The polished designs of Lela Rose

*This gown exemplifies Lela Rose’s gifts for sculptural shapes, rich fabrics and bright palettes. Courtesy Lela Rose.*

Lela Rose once said that she was dedicated to the idea that you should always be dressed, and with her designs you always are.

Think Renée Zellweger on the red carpet for the Sydney, Australia, premiere of “Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy,” in a strapless, peony-pink column dress with a singular, folded bodice from Rose’s Pre-Fall 2025 Collection. Or Elizabeth Hurley in a long-sleeve, off-the-shoulder midi dress in Barbie pink with buttons down the front. (Other celebrity admirers have included Jessica Alba, Selma Blair, Jessica Chastain, Claire Danes, Laura Dern, Selena Gomez, Anne Hathaway, January Jones, Karolina Kurkova, Olivia Munn, Gwyneth Paltrow, Zoe Saldana, Uma Thurman, Olivia Munn, Chrissy Teigen, Sofia Vergara, Catherine, Princess of Wales, and former First Lady Michelle Obama.)

Or consider the strapless gown seen here with its slightly bell-shaped skirt, an evocation of the late 19^th-century’s Gilded Age, and an oh-so-modern palette of electric blue on black. Whether her color schemes are boldly jeweled or flirtatiously pastel, Rose’s eye for the sculptural always delivers a flattering silhouette, including distinctive bodices and necklines that draw the eye upward.

Rose honed that eye in her native Dallas, Texas, and at the University of Colorado where she graduated in 1991 with a degree in painting and sculpture before going on to the Parson’s School of Design in New York City, now her headquarters. She worked with designers Richard Tylor and Christian Francis Roth before debuting her Lela Rose Collection in 1998 and gaining attention by designing Barbara and Laura Bush’s outfits for their father George W. Bush’s 2001 presidential inauguration. The debut collection was followed by Lela Rose Bridal in the fall of 2006 and, 12 years later, Pearl by Lela Rose, a more casual ready-to-wear line.

Today, Rose’s work also embraces clutches and jewelry to complete your ensembles as well as tablescapes, because, well, your entertaining should be as well-dressed as you are. It’s not surprising, then, that she would name her 2015 home entertainment book “Pret-a-Party” or that this Westerner — who lives in Jackson Hole Wyoming, and has a ranch in Texas, as well as a home in the Catskills — would follow up with 2023’s “Fresh Air Affair: Entertaining With Style in the Great Outdoors.” It dovetails beautifully with her Lela Rose Ranch Collection, with its hand-embellished seed beading, chambray and poplin fabrics and prints like her Rey Rosa “Western Toile.”

In a 2023 interview with Veranda magazine, Rose credited her mother for her love of entertaining with flair: “She was always in the kitchen cooking and dreaming up something spectacular,” Rose says. “For my birthday parties growing up, she would wrap up little trinkets and put them insidethe cake batter, so when you were served a slice, you’d find a little surprise. It was so magical and unexpected that I’ve passed this down to my own children – for any occasion there’s a cake.”

Whether it’s fashion or home design, for Rose the divine is always in the details.

Tags: Lela Rose, Jessica Alba, Selma Blair, Jessica Chastain, Claire Danes, Laura Dern, Selena Gomez, Anne Hathaway, January Jones, Karolina Kurkova, Olivia Munn, Gwyneth Paltrow, Zoe Saldana, Uma Thurman, Olivia Munn, Chrissy Teigen, Sofia Vergara, Catherine, Princess of Wales and former First Lady Michelle Obama, Lela Rose Ranch, Pearl by Lela Rose, Leila Rose Collection, New York City, Jackson Hole, Wyoming, Catskills, Dallas, Texas, Barbara Bush, Laura Bush, George W. Bush, Renee Zellweger, Elizabeth Hurley,

Couturier of duality and bewitching line: Karl Lagerfeld feted in Met show

Image courtesy The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Photograph by Annie Leibovitz / Vogue /Trunk Archive.

“Karl Lagerfeld: A Line of Beauty” – at The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute in Manhattan through July 16 – celebrates the designer who transformed the houses of Fendi and Chanel and, with them, himself and the idea of the designer-impressario.

The German-born Lagerfeld (1933-2019) was an exacting, somewhat controversial figure known for his rigorous work ethic.

“Please don’t say I work hard,” he famously – and amusingly – once told Susannah Frankel of The Independent. “Nobody is forced to do this job, and if they don’t like it they should do another one. People buy dresses to be happy, not to hear about somebody who suffered over a piece of taffeta.”

The Met perhaps wisely eschews psychobiography for an exhibit that plumbs Lagerfeld’s gifts as a bewitching linesman – he saw sketching not as a means to a fashion end but an end in itself – and the connection among drawing, designing and presenting his creations in shows that became theatrical extravaganzas.

A fabulous example of this is a spring-summer 2019 haute couture strapless, appliqué cocktail dress from the House of Chanel that looks like a garden come to life. In the show we see the sketch, the dress and an image of the dress on a runway model.

That dress encapsulates Lagerfeld and the exhibit’s dual aesthetic, in which the straight line of the fitted bodice gives way to the serpentine line of the bell-shaped skirt. The straight line represents the Lagerfeld who was a classicist and modernist, the man known for angular black and white outfits that were not only a hallmark of Chanel but of his own personal appearance, which would become as iconic as any bouclé Chanel suit.

But there was also Lagerfeld, the romantic, as the garden-infused cocktail dress illustrates, the art history buff whose goddess gowns evoked ancient Greek and Rome; patterned dresses, the works of the medieval period and Renaissance; and pink, rose-appliqué creations, the Rococo of the 18^th century. (In this, he was creating “a better future with enlarged elements of the past,” a phrase from the poet Johann Wolfgang von Goethe that he liked to quote.) The exhibit captures this duality with complements of its own – high and low pedestals in black-and-white galleries of angular and curving spaces.

Dress, House of Chanel, spring-summer 2019 haute couture. *Courtesy Patrimoine de Chanel, Paris. Image courtesy The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Photograph © Julia Hetta.*

The son of a businessman and a mother who encouraged their son to get about the business of being brilliant, Lagerfeld took himself off to Paris as a teenager, honing the drawing skills that were as natural as breathing in fashion illustration classes taught by Andrée Norero Petitjean at her school, Cours Norero.

While studying there, Lagerfeld submitted sketches with fabric swatches to the 1954 International Woolmark Prize, a fashion illustration competition organized by the International Wool Secretariat in which he took first place in the coat category. (Yves Saint Laurent won the dress division while Colette Bracchi triumphed in the suit section.)

This led to Pierre Balmain offering him his first official full-time position in 1955 as design assistant for Balmain’s “Florilège” boutique line. It was at Balmain and at the house of Jean Patou, where he became artistic director three years later, that he refined his style of sketching, which married technical drawing to the more playful fashion illustration.

But it was at Fendi, where he became creative director in 1965, and Chanel, where he became creative director in 1983, that his gift for transformation blossomed. At Fendi, he anticipated the trend to faux fur by using reclaimed pieces as fabric. As he once said, “You cannot fake chic, but you can be chic and fake fur.”

Dress, Fendi, spring/summer 1997. *Courtesy Fendi.Image courtesy The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Photograph © Julia Hetta.*

At Chanel, Lagerfeld reinvented the classic stateliness of the legendary but at that time moribund house, founded by Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel in 1910 – turning the interlocking Cs into a logo; revamping ready to wear, accenting accessories and giving the signature tweed suit a brighter palette and shorter hemline that has extended its life to everyone from Catherine, Princess of Wales to singer Olivia Rodrigo.

Along the way, Lagerfeld created an eponymous brand (in 1984) and transformed himself – dropping 90 pounds; writing a book about it, “The Karl Lagerfeld Diet” (2002); dressing in white Hilditch & Key shirts, offset by black – suits, fingerless gloves and glasses; and creating a private haven for himself and Choupette, his beloved Birman and an Instagram star with her own maids and diamonds, in a Paris apartment said to have contained 300,000 books.

Indeed, as The Met Store demonstrates, so iconic are Lagerfeld and Choupette that they are known through a line of T-shirts and accessories that have nothing to do with his couture.

Proving that among Lagerfeld’s greatest creations was himself.

Tags: Karl Lagerfeld, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Fendi, Chanel, Pierre Balmain, Yves Saint Laurent, Catherine, Princess of Wales, Olivia Rodrigo, Choupette, Jean Patou

The return of Fashion Week (and the passion for fashion)

Fall has marked the return of live events for the various Fashion Weeks, or as the blogosphere put it, Fashion Week has gone from URL to IRL (in real life).

The ultimate, of course, is Paris Fashion Week, which just wrapped with the usual boldface names and cityscape spectacles presenting their Spring Summer 2022 collections and more than a few twists.

After 18 months of yoga-panted lockdown, sexy was back. Bare midriffs, minis, cutouts, cutoffs, unitards and bathing suit-style outerwear claimed creations ranging from Chanel’s classic bouclé to Stella McCartney’s eco-friendly midis. If the divine is in the details, this was the place to find it, including helmet-style headgear and 3D-style glasses at the Louis Vuitton show and sandals by Loewe that featured heels in the shape of cracked eggs and bottles of brightly colored nail polish. Talk about making the most of a pedicure.

Last month, as the Big Apple welcomed the in-person return of New York Fashion Week, the vibe was similarly fun and flirty. Designers were ready to let their creations party with romantic, cutout midi dresses in floral silks and silk brocades, sequined ginghams, embroidered linens, tuxedo wool jumpsuits, vibrant suits and animal prints, figure-hugging space-dye knits, ruffle necks, sequined pencil skirts, and crepe maxis.

Fashion hasn’t been confined to just runway or the gallery. It has returned to the red carpet with a vengeance, perhaps most strikingly in Jenny Packham’s inspired collection celebrating the last appearance of Daniel Craig as Bond, James Bond in “No Time to Die.” Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge – no stranger to Packham’s creations – wore the collection’s gold mosaic cape dress, a goddess moment that was simply to die for to the London premiere. Royal watchers have anointed this appearance – a homage to Diana, Princess of Wales’ silvery turn at the 1985 premiere of Bond film “View to a Kill” – as the moment when Kate revealed herself to be truly a future queen. In a word, “magical”.

Tags: Paris Fashion Week, New York Fashion Week, Jenny Packham, Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, Diana, Princess of Wales, Daniel Craig, “No Time to Die”

Ruth Bader Ginsburg

“To pay attention to what a powerful woman wears is often dismissed as a way to denigrate her. But not to pay attention in this case is to disrespect the attention to detail that marked Justice Ginsburg’s work in all its dimensions.” – Vanessa Friedman, The New York Times, Sept. 23, 2020

Many are called icons. Few deserve the designation. Ruth Bader Ginsburg was truly an icon.

It wasn’t just what she said and did, championing equality for women’s rights as a way to champion equality for all. Or the withering dissents that earned her the name “the Notorious RBG,” after the rapper “the Notorious BIG.” It was the way she looked. Without that, she would’ve been no less eulogized. But her image would not have been emblazoned on everything from magnets to T-shirts. Little girls would not be dressing as her for Halloween.

As Vanessa Friedman – fashion director and chief fashion critic for The New York Times – noted in a Sept. 23 appreciation, the Armani-loving Ginsburg saw no contradiction in being a stylish jurist. In part, this was probably because of an innate theatrical sense. As Chief Justice John Roberts observed in his remarks Sept. 23 as she lay in repose at the Supreme Court, she had wanted to be a singer and ended up a rock star.

She adored the theater, the ballet and especially the opera – which she shared with her friend and intellectual opposite on the Supreme Court bench, Antonin Scalia; was the subject of an opera with him (Derrick Wang’s “Scalia/Ginsburg”); and appeared in the non-singing role of a lawyer in the Washington National Opera’s production of Gaetano Donizetti’s “The Daughter of the Regiment” (for which she rewrote her lines to stress the power of women. Clearly, Ginsburg was something of a Method actor.)
The word “courtroom” is often associated with the word “drama.” In the heightened theatrical arena of the courtroom, Ginsburg combined her aesthetic flair with the insight that a woman didn’t have to dress like a female man to succeed. She realized that there are few things more empowering – and unsettling, particularly to a man – that a traditionally feminine woman whose smart appearance is the calling card for her smart words and actions.

So there was the girlish ponytail, often bound in the flourish of a bow; the button earrings, punctuating the face – distinctive yet not distracting the way chandelier earrings would be; the glasses framing wide, curious gray eyes; the brocaded jackets for speaking engagements; the fishnet gloves; and oftentimes a dazzling pair of heels. The girl could definitely accessorize.

But as Friedman notes, what set the iconography in motion were the collars that not only dressed up her plain, black judicial robe but that she used to telegraph her opinions before she uttered a word on the bench. There was a crocheted beige and yellow affair for majority opinions, a spiky bejeweled one from Banana Republic for dissents, a white jabot, finished in black, for the reception of her honorary degree from Harvard Law School; and a delicate white from Capetown, South Africa, said to be her favorite.

These collars echoed the Usekh or Wesekh, the broad jeweled or metal collar that signified status in ancient Egypt. But as with former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright’s pins, Jacqueline B. Kennedy’s and Melania Trump’s White House wardrobes, Diana, Princess of Wales’ dresses, Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge’s couture – and going back in time, Elizabeth I’s portraits – the collars were an example of gesture politics. They were reminders that women – who like children were once thought better seen and not heard – had to speak through how they looked. But speak they did.

One final thought: Ginsburg’s flash extended to the casual, including a sweatshirt that said, “Super Diva.” “Diva,” associated with the imperious prima donna of opera, has had a pejorative connotation. But “diva” is also Italian for “goddess.”

Styling on the bench and off, Ginsburg reclaimed its wise, compassionate meaning.

Tags: Ruth Bader Ginsburg, collars, Supreme Court, Vanessa Friedman, fashion, opera, Antonin Scalia, Madeleine Albright, Jacqueline B. Kennedy, Melania Trump, Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, Diana, Princess of Wales, Elizabeth I

A designer for our times

If ever there was a designer who speaks to the trends of the moment, it’s Naeem Khan.

Zebra- and leopard-print dresses and jumpsuits? check. Bold, flowing florals? Check. Goddess gowns that reveal even as they conceal with mesh and plunging necklines, low backs and thigh-high slits? Check, check and check.

It is Khan’s ability to marry the demure and the sexy that makes his Spring Collection perfect for today’s woman. Form-fitting, neutral slips peek through diaphanous floral and leafy appliqué shells that cling to the body and finish with a swirling flourish at the ankles. Fitted, jeweled bodices, the armor of beauty, give way to layered, chiffon skirts. Sequined hoodie pantsuits with modified shoulder pads redefine that 1980s staple, another spring trend.

The play between the decorous and the sensual defines India, where Khan was born and raised. Growing up in Mumbai, he was steeped in the country’s textiles – which blaze with color, pattern, texture and life itself – as both his father and his grandfather designed clothing for Indian royals.

But Khan believed his design destiny lay in the United States. He moved here as a teenager and at 20 became an apprentice to Halston (1932-90), who rose to fame designing the pillbox hat for first lady Jacqueline B. Kennedy and whose clean lines helped shape the 1970s. With Halston, Khan learned how to cut and drape fabric to create a classic, elegant silhouette.

Ultimately, he combined his childhood knowledge of textiles with what he learned during his time with Halston to create his eponymous brand, which he launched in 2003 to sell in Bergdorf Goodman, Neiman Marcus and Saks Fifth Avenue. It’s featured in 150 retail outlets worldwide, to say nothing of red carpets graced by Michelle Obama; Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge; Beyoncé; Jennifer Lopez; Rachel McAdams; Noor Al-Hussein, the dowager queen of Jordan; and Taylor Swift.

But Khan, who was inducted into the Council of Fashion Designers of America in 2008, is about more than ready-to-wear. His plated-brass, suede-lined Zodiac clutches, with their Swarovski crystal constellations and mirrored interiors, could double as jewelry cases. (The 21-inch chain strap is detachable.)

There’s also a Deco collection of minaudières that captures the sleek geometry of the Roaring 20s, red-hot as we begin the 2020s. By going back to the future, Khan demonstrates once again that he is a man of the moment.