Leanne Marshall at NY Fashion Week
design: Leanne Marshall (Leanimal) for Project Runway at New York Fashion Week. photo: Imaxtree via New York Mag
Portland-based fashion designer Leanne Marshall (her line is Leanimal) showed at New York Fashion Week this week as one of the remaining six contestants on Bravo’s reality television show, Project Runway. She’s been cleaning up in recent weeks, and her capsule collection was a clear favorite. According to an AP report:
For most of the show’s alums, the clear favorite was Portland, Ore.-based designer Leanne Marshall, the quiet, bespectacled brunette who was one of six designers to present before an audience that included stylist Rachel Zoe, a bevy of former “Runway” contestants, studio exec Harvey Weinstein and actress Michelle Trachtenberg.
“I thought Leanne’s was fabulous,” said last year’s winner, Christian Siriano. “She has to be winner, because everything else was not cute.”
design: Leanne Marshall (Leanimal) for Project Runway at New York Fashion Week. photo: Imaxtree via New York Mag
design: Leanne Marshall (Leanimal) for Project Runway at New York Fashion Week. photo via Bravo
As we’ve come to expect from Leanne, her garments are works sculptural, but organic, never hard, with frequent use of layers of what we call, for lack of a better word, petals. We’ve seen layers of various sized organic petals at a collar or cascading down a dress front. Here she variously used petals as dramatic collar, at the shoulder, horizontally on a skirt, and vertical petals (have you ever seen a sculpture made by folding in the corners of every page of a book then standing it on its spine?) on skirts both long and short and the shadow of the same petal look in a chiffon skirt with skewed hemline pleats.
design: Leanne Marshall (Leanimal) for Project Runway at New York Fashion Week. photo via Bravo
What was new for Leanne was color! The blue she used in both opaque and transparent fabrics was very Palm Beach; an almost Lily Pulitzer kind of Caribbean blue. So clear and hopeful, and honestly very un-Portland, but un-New York as well, it is more daring for Leanne than probably anyone seeing her work on the show realizes. (Does anyone else notice that the blue is like a less garish version of the Bravo color blue?)
I have to say that although Kenley’s work didn’t hang together as a collection, the individual pieces were strong, particularly an ivory mandarin collared dress with a spray of flowers cascading down the front. I could see her, for example, getting a job at Betsey Johnson. Korto made good gowns and dresses with only a clunker or two, but this is nothing we haven’t seen before. Which isn’t to say that the world doesn’t need good gowns, but please thrill me…a little. Leanne’s work has what others lacked: a strong and adventurous point of view which is just what American fashion does need. If there is any justice, and if that television show is not half as silly as it appears to be, she will win. Regardless, the exposure she’s receiving should get her the backing she needs and move her into a Rodarte position in the fashion firmament. Portland should probably kiss her goodbye.
See the slideshow from New York mag here.
Here are all of the collections from the Project Runway website.
Leanne Marshall on the runway for Project Runway at New York Fashion Week. photo via Bravo
yay go leanne!
Leanne just stopped by the shop and dropped off 2 dresses. She looks great! It’s so wonderful to have her back in PDX.
Where and when i can buy those georgeous dress??
Love it!!!
Yay Leanne! She is such a wonderful person, inside and out. She’s worked her butt off to do the things that she has-I remember her at second Saturdays in Sacramento, and how popular her stuff was there-some friends got there to help out, and she didn’t need it-she was already sold out! Love her to bits-she’s truly someone her deserves every bit of success she’ll receive!
where can I buy that scarf looking thing that she often wears in the show its maroon the one she wears!!!loves it!!!
My daughter is a senior in highschool and absolutely loved all the dresses Leann created. She would love the long blue dress worn at fashion week to wear at her Sr. prom. Can you buy this dress anywhere?
LOVE the dresses! Where can I buy one?
She may put some of her designs on her Etsy site, but there isn’t anything up right now.
Keep an eye on
http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5249055
Or try foundationgarmentsinc.com.
she was such a nasty person on PR, I am sorry to see her win….
Jan,
You are just jealous of her success. I know her personally, and she is one of the sweetest and most humble people I have ever met. They couldn’t have picked a better winner.
Loved Leanne’s style. The snide commentary has to be coming from a vindictive set who are as rude and nasty as Kenley because Leanne came off as a person who was humble and kind to anyone who watched it through non Kenley colored glasses.
THE BEST MUSIC OF THE NIGHT. I NEED TO KNOW WHO IS THAT!!!
Leeann’s collection was fabulous and it made you hunger to see more!! Her color choices were feminine and her designs were innovative. Every piece was as if you were viewing gems against the skin instead of clothing. Leeann’s instincts, attitude and trust in herself along with her impecable ability for detail made her a winner all the way. I can’t wait to see more of her designs, own them and experience her shows in person. I would be honored to wear her designs or collaborate anyday. J.Dean Los Angeles
I LOVED her line. The wedding dress was my favorite. It’s going to be MY future wedding dress!!!! I l-o-v-e-d it!!
im so happy to be a part of the show leann is so humble and shes got an great future ,manicurist with leann in elle mag feb 09 pg 70 hey
Сенкс автору. Возможно, в будущем я и на самом деле реализую подобную затею.
Ugh, her winning was a bittersweet deal. She really knows her sewing techniques no doubt and could make clothing for anybody, but like Kenley said, she works with an extremely muted/tacky color palette and has the most annoying peronality.