USA: Designer Gilles Mendel mixes lean clothes in black-and-white color blocking with pops of purple and green, high-slit skirts and even a little fur at his Spring 2012 runway show at New York Fashion Week

Record ID: 860483

  • Title: USA: Designer Gilles Mendel mixes lean clothes in black-and-white color blocking with pops of purple and green, high-slit skirts and even a little fur at his Spring 2012 runway show at New York Fashion Week
  • Date: 15th September 2011
  • Summary: (SOUNDBITE) (English) GILLES MENDEL, FASHION DESIGNER FOR J. MENDEL, SAYING: "Well, I think, inspired by Dorothy Draper, there's a lot of architectural moments and I think at the beginning, I sort of played with color blocking, which is very new to me and I feel it's a very strong part of the collection. I hope I will surprise you when you see the show, but it's a little bit different what I used to do, but still, my DNA's there. It's very ethereal. Lot of skin showing."
  • Embargoed: 30th September 2011 13:00
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  • Location: Usa, Usa
  • City:
  • Country: USA
  • Topics: Entertainment
  • Reuters ID: LVA4F3U6356VJ0591YEO4G5Q6N7U
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  • Story Text: Designer Gilles Mendel crafted geometric silhouettes with mid-twenties interior designer Dorothy Draper as the muse of his Spring 2012 collection.
    The line, known as J. Mendel, was shown on Wednesday (September 14) at New York's Lincoln Center, which Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week has called home for a year.
    Mendel seduced his audience with high-slit skirts and his signature pleating and draping.
    "I think at the beginning, I sort of played with color blocking, which is very new to me and I feel it's a very strong part of the collection," Mendel told Reuters backstage. "But it's a little bit different what I used to do, but still, my DNA's there. It's very ethereal. Lot of skin showing."
    The designer painted his female skyscrapers in chalk whites, lime yellows, deep blues and some grassy greens.
    Rock and roll chic was thrown into the mix with some white mink vests and a black goat fur bolero trimmed with purple fox.
    Seated on the front row were actresses and entrepreneurs Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen, who watched intently as the collection made its way down the runway.
    Backstage, two more of Mendel's famous adoring fans, American actress Selma Blair and Australian actress Melissa George, posed with the designer.
    "I got back from Venice and Toronto for the film festival and then to come here for Gilles whose clothes I think are the most gorgeous and chic and sensual," Blair boasted. "I'm so happy and I have my baby with me, so it's a big time."
    George said she has worn numerous Mendel designs for her red carpet moments.
    "I always wear Mendel. He just made my premiere dress. When I went to the Met ball last year, he made that gorgeous mustard gown for me, so he's one of the designers that I go to," George told Reuters. "He just knows exactly how to fit a woman's body. It's fascinating, just with the pleats and the drapes and the, it's gorgeous."
    Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week will conclude on September 15.
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