design: Elizabeth Dye. photo: Pete Springer
Elizabeth Dye takes her store’s moniker (The English Department) seriously. Seriously enough that each program came wrapped around one of Charles Dickens’ books, and audience members were greeted upon entering with a sumptuous table of cake and plums. The influence did not stop there, as models in outfits named after books and characters paraded under a wrought iron chandelier with lit candles which hung from the ceiling and at several points threatened to spatter the odd passing waif with wax.
design: Elizabeth Dye. photo: Pete Springer
The grimy, Victorian motivation for the show provided for some unusual manifestations in clothing which was clearly period-inspired, but by no means dated. Throughout, Dye veered back and forth between strict and loose interpretations of her early Industrial Revolution ideal, while maintaining a unified palette and applying those colors in some innovative ways. Most striking was the eminent wearability the pieces; even some of the most ruffled and bowed shifts would not be out of place in an office or on the street.
design: Elizabeth Dye. photo: Pete Springer
One of the collection’s particular strengths came in using Dickens’ characters for inspiration, though not in so overt a way as to be merely costuming them. The Ward from Jarndyce was an enticing ingénue, as a chiffon dress in plum with a huge ribbon around its high waist failed to conceal completely the metallic blue slip beneath. Fickle Estrella was haughty and removed in a silver jaquard shift, and the Artful Dodger herself was a British schoolboy in dun plaid with brown velvet details, particularly a striking panel tapering down the back of the fitted jacket.
design: Elizabeth Dye. photo: Pete Springer
Those outfits not fortunate enough to have a character’s name attached to them were not in any way deficient. A linen dress with cropped coat on top looked fit for wandering through copses and bowers, and a yellow waistcoat over a velvet skirt clearly belonged to a country squire. Bonus points if you pronounce it “wess-kit”, and no points for calling it a vest.
design: Elizabeth Dye. photo: Pete Springer
One of the most ingenious looks was an extremely abbreviated Sherlock Holmes cape with a box pleat at the back, shown over a severe black wool “Lady Dedlock” dress with puffed sleeves. Both the cloak and the dress would have been highly noteworthy on their own, but the combination of the two made a dynamite outfit.
design: Elizabeth Dye. photo: Pete Springer
Fittingly, the piece which stole, then closed, the show was a full ballgown, immaculately constructed of striped chiffon and smartly cropped at the knee while the bustle brushed the floor. The model knew what she was working with, and shook a tailfeather at the audience before walking. It was the capstone of an inventive, deliberate, and well thought out collection. Dye did an outstanding job hewing to the spirit, and not the letter, of her self-imposed law, and in so doing made garments like waistcoats and jabots look totally believable. No hard times here. None at all.
–Will Levin
–photos: Pete Springer
updated Friday September 08 2006 12:41
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