NEW YORK — Tory Burch isn't the only designer in a Game of Thrones mood. Top designers are in a "warrior princess" frame of mind for fall, creating tough clothes for the woman who wants to kick a little ass and look good while doing it.
Carmen Marc Valvo sent out a lean-and-mean collection to the tune of Pat Benatar's "Love is a Battlefield" and set a take-no-prisoners tone with his opening look: A black chainmail tunic trimmed with calf-hair over tight leather pants and booties with criss-cross metal straps from his fall shoe collection.
Top designers are creating tough clothes for the woman who wants to kick a little ass and look good while doing it.
His daytime shifts and evening gowns combine delicate fabrics like shantung lace and brocade with steel chainmail and gunmetal breastplates. Valvo said he looked to the opulence of the Ottoman Empire for the metalwork and mosaic patterns that created "armour-like protection." It is a departure from his more delicate looks in previous years, but seems right for the times.
Valvo showed his tender side, too, with an emotional goodbye on the runway to model Taylor Foster, who has been his muse for more than a decade.
Nicole Miller has a similar bent. She featured the classic '80s hit "Warrior" by Scandal with Patty Smyth on her playlist as models walked out in leather jackets, studded boots and neoprene skirts, along with a healthy dose of attitude. While Miller said she was inspired by Boudica, queen of the Celtic tribe that took on the Romans, the collection has more of a modern tough girl vibe, although Miller softens it up a bit with skirts made of peacock feathers and her signature digital prints.
I was delighted to see Carrie Preston on the front row, because she's my favorite in a recurring role as the brilliant idiosyncratic attorney Elsbeth Tascioni in The Good Wife, for which she won an Emmy for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Dramatic Series.
"It's just such a gift to be able to play a role that's so mercurial. She has so many different things going on inside her head, and yet she's able to jumble all of them with equal attention. It's a once-in-a-lifetime kind of role," Preston said.
Preston will be back for one more episode of The Good Wife on March 16 before returning to filmthe final season of True Blood, where she portrays the sassy Arlene Fowler.
Carmen Marc Valvo oxblood brocade ball gown with gunmetal mosaic top.
