The HONORable Fifties

Giovanna Randall‘s collections are consistently representative of the empowered modern woman, yet retain the grace and elegance of old world femininity. Her latest offering—shown at Mercedes Benz Fashion Week yesterday—was heavily influenced by fifties styling, with dainty cupcake dresses, lace detail and traditional wool suits. However, it was Randall’s impeccably styled runway and satirical critique of the era that earned our applause and admiration from the get go.

“I was looking at house books and design books—both terrible ones and great ones,” she told us, backstage after the HONOR show, of where her ideas for the collection came from. “I was renovating my house and picking out things and I had to stop and think, “When am I my things and when am I me?”…When I started thinking about that, I thought of a woman blending into her wallpaper and her stuff. After that, I saw some images of jellyfish randomly and I was like, “This is great! I love this shape!” So the style of the dresses and skirts wasn’t so much about being traditional, but more about that shape and the movement of that skirt.”

The opening model Marilyn Monroe’d the audience with a theatrical blow of the skirt, prompting immediate applause and leading the way for an array of traditional styles in a subdued palette. However, it was the unexpected bursts of color and unconventional styling that won the show. A champagne blazer was teamed with fluorescent yellow loafers and patent leather brogues worn with dainty silk dresses. Both outfits playfully demonstrating Randall’s honorable eye for design.

On the model’s wide-eyed, Twiggy-esque eye make-up, Randall told us, “I was imagining a woman who feels like an object, alone in a house—she would be a doll. I was thinking about those superimposed collars and those faded and plastic elements so I wanted them to have doll eyes. And [when they were walking down the runway] I told the girls to think, “You’re a doll in a box!”

Honor's Giovanna Randall. Image Credit: Brodie Lancaster for Portable.

Image Credit: Fashionista.com

Details

• Production Company

  Portable

• Designed by

  Giovanna Randall

• Label

  HONOR

• Event

  Mercedes-Benz New York Fashion Week 2011