"There's so much print on print on print on texture out there right now," Mr. Hernandez said. "We wanted to literally have a white canvas with no texture or color, and focus on shape."
The urge to wipe the slate clean is one that many designers are satisfying this season into fall, stripping their collections down to monochromatic looks in muted tones. The silhouette blends ideas of old-fashioned suiting, like those worn by Jackie Kennedy in her early years in the White House, with the clean-cut minimalism that became popular decades later, championed by '90s style icons such as Carolyn Bessette Kennedy and her closet full of Calvin.
Raf Simons's farewell fall show for the Jil Sander label was a cleansing moment, filled with romantic but restrained car coats and dresses in faint blush tones. Hermès creative director Christophe Lemaire's collections for both spring and fall are dominated by coordinated looks of solid color. This idea is not part of the "take my picture" school of dressing that's popular now, documented by an ever-growing swarm of "street style" photographers and their blogs. Nor is it necessarily for their subjects, celebrated for wearing fruity fascinators, Darth Vader-esque helmets and other traffic-stopping paraphernalia to fashion shows. It seems many designers are feeling that the world of fashion has become more about making an attention-getting statement than a good one. Perhaps, they're saying, it's time to let personal style be a bit more personal.
by Alexa Brazilian, WSJ | Read more:
Photo: F. Martin Ramin for The Wall Street Journal, Styling by Malina Joseph and Paula Knight, Hair & Makeup by Lindsay Williams/ABTP, Manicure by Sofia Shusterov/Judy Casey, Model: Alexandra Palmer/Major Model Management
