back beauty

This above dress that sums up why Narciso Rodriguez appeals to me - it's spare, sexy, sophisticated, subtly innovative. The rest of the collection is pretty good - he's done tailoring that manages to look soft, but not slouchy. It's smart but not in that hard-as-nails way, and this season he's also managed to add a somewhat street feel to some of the looks. Some soft dresses in feathers and safety-orange chiffon also kept things unexpected -








I wished I had more photos of the looks from the back, the lovely surprise to all these deceptively simple looks are there -




I'm glad Liz Claiborne bailed this guy out when his business was on the brink of going bust - lots of designers went for grown-up tailoring this fall but personally, I think his designs are the only ones that really pushed the concept.

Pictures from www.style.com; full body picture of dress from back from www.nytimes.com