It's always good to end on a high note, and you can't get much higher than the masterful Chado Ralph Rucci collection that hit the runway this afternoon. Rucci has the most skilled atelier in New York, and possibly the world, and he invites an audience that is ready to applaud spontaneously for a particularly impressive feat of workmanship, or just for a startlingly beautiful dress. It's full of loyal customers and retailers who expect technical marvels from him, and he didn't disappoint.
Like most designers this season, Rucci wisely stuck to what he does best, which is unapologetically luxurious clothes. His customers would want nothing less. This time, he abandoned his usual U-shaped arrangement for an extra wide runway with three ramped platforms. This allowed models to pose on a pedestal in an old-school sort of way, and also gave the audience and photographers a few extra moments to absorb the details of each exit. It was a clever way of speeding along a whopping 59 look show that often brought three models to the runway at once.
Rucci couldn't dispel the underlying tension of the season. Most of the retailers in the audience were surely quaking at the thought where their next customers would come from, but Rucci's show was inspiring enough to remind them, for at least a moment, of why they are in the fashion business in the first place.
CHADO • RALPH RUCCI
MODELS: Rucci loves an elegant, aristocratic Russian amazon. Katia Kokoreva opened the show which featured veterans Colette Pechekhonova, Milagros Schmoll as well as emerging favorite Georgie Badiel. Muse Anastassia Khozzisova closed, but where was graceful house model Coco Mitchell? Has she retired?
MUSIC: Somewhat incongrously, Rucci also loves a rave-y trance soundtrack.
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