Badgley Mischka's collection sparkles in gold
NEW YORK (AP) — Badgley Mischka sent sparkly gold gowns and floral blue brocades down the runway Tuesday with warm fur hats and cozy tweeds in a mix of red carpet dazzle and clothes for every day.
The design team of Mark Badgley and James Mischka used chunky gold jewels on cuffs and even a pair of leather gloves, also offering their sophisticated woman unadorned nubby knits and loose satin trousers that rippled down the runway at New York Fashion Week.
Pairing gold sequins and beading with black gave a majestic air to gowns in heavy fabrics, but also lighter, more sheer looks, like a skirt that fell just under the knee.
Katrina Bowden of "30 Rock" admires how some Badgley Mischka designs come to life when worn.
"They make such beautiful dresses that have really lovely shapes for women, and they also make some really cool edgy styles as well, and also some very normal wearable styles," said the actress, who attended the show.
Badgley and Mischka joined forces 25 years ago and are darlings on the red carpet, growing their business to shoes, handbags and jewelry.
Badgley said backstage that the two love the variety of women they dress, including the "new young ingenue that's completely hysterical and doesn't know what she wants to look like."
While the two are "constantly inspired by our friends," Mischka said, their latest collection is the product of a heavy "Viennese inspiration" in fabrics, color and luxury.
"Everything has a little guilt touch to it. We gold washed the fabrics, we took tweeds and bronzed them. The evening gowns all have, they're weightless, they weigh just literally ounces but the fabrics are extremely rich and opulent," Badgley said.
A silk brocade, for instance, was done in Italy and is light as a feather, "but we cut big voluminous shapes in it," he said. "We usually do things close to the body, but our fabrics were so light this season, it allowed us to cut big flowy silhouettes with a lot of sweep, which was fun for a change."
Giuliana Rancic, who was on the front row and has hosted many a live red carpets — along with "Fashion Police" on E! Entertainment Network — noticed the light and airy nature of the collection.
"They had heard from a lot of women that they were so uncomfortable wearing these gowns to dinner parties or events and so they wanted to make them as comfortable as possible," she said.
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Follow Leanne Italie on Twitter at http://twitter.com/litalie
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Gina Abdy contributed to this report.
