Spring & Resort Fashion Preview
Rena Lange sees the light with art-inspired collection that's a little mod
NEW YORK — Most fashion designer showrooms are located in stuffy midtown Manhattan towers. But Rena Lange is in the center of the trendy Meatpacking District, in a second floor corner of a brick building with large windows that allow sunlight to flood in.
If visitors didn't know better, they might think they are in a new boutique, not in a space open to store buyers only.
Turrell's cool colors and vivid shapes are instantly noticed in a white silk sheath with floating red and pink panels.
Perhaps the sunny surroundings have rubbed off because the Rena Lange resort and spring 2015 collections have a bright attitude, with graphic sheaths, dresses in abstract floral patterns, spiffy crop jackets with magnetic snaps, eyelet dresses and tailored tweed jackets in a blue, white and black weave. "We're known as the House of Tweed," says James Fletcher, vice president of sales.
The design team for the German label, a big seller in Houston for its feminine yet classic styles, looks to the work of artists James Turrell, Francois Morellet, Kazimir Malevich and Steven Naifeh as influences for the new collection. Turrell's cool pastels and vivid shapes are instantly noticed in in a white silk sheath with floating red and pink panels or a shift in strips of black, white, purple and blue.
Parts of the collection also have a '60s mod feeling, particular in dresses emblazoned with Morellet-inspired black and white test pattern images.
Look for even more changes in fall when new creative director Ludwig Heissmeyer unveils his first collection for Rena Lange. As the former design director at Carolina Herrera, Heissmeyer is expected to put his sophisticated stamp on the brand.
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A trunk show of the Rena Lange resort and spring 2015 collections continues at Elizabeth Anthony through Oct. 24.