Spring 2010 New York Fashion Week Day 5: Better Off The Runway With J.Mendel, Barbara Tfank &A New Look At Gottex

It's Day 5, and time management has become a priority.
We made an early tent trip to pick up our Daily and WWD and to see Carlos Miele's well received show, but we skipped Jill Stuart around the corner at the New York Public Library because after two seasons of basically not being able to see anything at her show we decided to save ourselves some hassle, and checked out what was happening on Fifth Avenue instead (more on that later)
We had a cluster of downtown shows Monday afternoon, and we planned to quickly zip in and see J. Mendel's presentation on West 26th Street and then skibble on down to M·A·C & Milk to see Rad Hourani, and then perhaps pop into Barbara Tfank's presentation going on at the same time before we went back to the tents for Gottex.

Of course, there would be no quick zipping into J.Mendel at the Lehman Maupin Gallery which was mobbed. The drawback of being a gracious host and serving wine at some of these presentations is that people will just hang around and drink like it's a cocktail party completely oblivious to the  line of people waiting to get in and actually see the clothes. Once we fought our way through to see the models (including Aminata Niaria, our latest model crush after her winsome cameo on Sundance Channel's recent 'The Day Before' series), it was particularly delightful when they would give us a few seconds of posing or a look that we knew was directed at our camera. For Mendel, whose runway shows we miss, the format works well because a closer look reveals the remarkable workmanship and intricate fabric treatments the house is known for. This season it was all lightness and ice cream colors, and they quickly ran out of the folders that would have told us what everything was actually made of.
Of course, by the time we were done, Rad Hourani was out of the question (Sorry, Rad. We tried), Luckily, Barbara Tfank was doing at the same time (finally an advantage for M·A·C & Milk). The designer has raised her profile a bit this year by dressing singer Adele for the Grammy Awards, reportedly at the behest of Anna Wintour herself. Tfank's collection had a retro "Betty Draper out for cocktails" look and her presentation had single models (including Pat Cleveland's daughter, rising star Anna) taking turns on a white seamless backdrop, creating an open photo shoot so we could play Irving Penn for a few minutes.

We finished the day at Gottex, where a new designer, Molly Grad, was making her début. Swimwear shows usually don't get the kind of attention that ready-to-wear will at Fashion Week, but Grad's show could easily have been titled "Not Your Mother's Gottex." There was the requisite beading details and coordinating cover-ups, but the show looked sexier and more modern than it has in years. Clearly, Gottex is looking to give the Brazilian swimwear masters some extra competition. We have to admit that as good as it all looked, we kind of missed the old Gottex shows with their old time-y sections and themes, and the fantasy accessories and headpieces. These are the sacrifices we have to make for progress, but Grad did her best to make up for the loss by putting her collection on the best models like Eniko, Abbey Lee, Sessilee, Arlenis and Aminata (showing up in three shows we saw today).

More pictures after the jump