After a Fashion

Your Style Avatar, Stephen MacMillan Moser, is taking a break. This week, enjoy recent posts from our style blog, Chronique, with guest editor (Avatarette?) Anne Harris.

FUTURE'S SO BRIGHT The cocktail crowd was well-heeled and out in force at Spazio last Thursday night for Austin-born clothing designer Sergio Guadarrama's fashion show to present Celestino's 2009 collection in support of Dell Children's Medical Center. Rave reviews at New York's Fashion Week notwithstanding, one doesn't always expect to see inspiring, collectable clothing at a benefit show. It's almost always about a good cause and a bit of theatre. So after two glasses of the bubbles and a spin through the treasures in Lytle Pressley's showroom, our heads snapped to see clothing we want right now in highly wearable occasion dresses and separates marching down the runway. Celestino's spring/summer '09 line, titled Edo to Grès, takes as its inspiration the Japanese Edo period, reinterpreted via the 1930s-era glamour and drape characteristics of Madame Grès, the often-overlooked but hugely important French designer who dressed the Duchess of Windsor, Jacqueline Onassis, and many in between. Considering the proliferation of pleats and angles evident in so many spring and fall '09 collections, this makes eccentric but perfect sense. Jewelry from Puerto Rican designers Mima accented much of the collection.

The success of the line hangs on keen proportion in sumptuous, sometimes unpredictable juxtapositions of fabrics and trimming, such as satin bordering prints, geometric shapes, and understated hardware for evening. While the Japanese influence subsides and resurfaces, references to Grès were evident in every garment, from the liquid swank of a blushy silk satin shirtdress to the gravitas of an inky silk crepe and satin, matte-on-slink, floor-length gown worthy of Joan Crawford's best entrance. A graduate of New York's Fashion Institute of Technology, Guadarrama has maturity and versatility that provided the second surprise of the evening: options for both the gamine and more seasoned customer in equal measure. To wit, the heavy, black, scalloped beading covering a pencil skirt and dress returns in the form of a clever yoke on a younger number, an authenticity which is refreshing at a time when the term "age appropriate" means Juicy Couture strollers. We expect Guadarrama's future to be as bright and sassy as his clothing, so remember: You heard it here.

SPEAKING OF BRIGHT FUTURES The best young designers that the Austin Independent School District has to offer will be sending their precocious sophistication down the runway at this weekend's Thread Fair (see Community Listings, p.64). This annual event started in 2007, when organizers Rosie Rittenberry, Faith Barksdale, and Erin Park-Markert were dismayed by the absence of local events showcasing student designers. This year finds Wet Salon as a benevolent host, and we can see why. Celebrating young talent is obviously a worthy endeavor, but when we found out that Sugar Mama's Bakeshop cupcakes and a clothes swap start at 3pm to kick things off, we marked our calendars with a big, red Sharpie. There is a $5 suggested donation, but remember, "you'll get $1 cash back [in love money] if you dress extra flossy" (according to the website). The fashion show starts at 8pm.