Cheryl Shops

The weather outside is frightful, but the champagne inside is so delightful: That's right, New York Fashion Week has begun! Mina & I are all credentialed up and ready to race all around town for the next week, so stay tuned. To kick off our coverage, we hit two presentations on this first (unofficial) day of the Fall-Winter 2013 collections. Slow and steady wins the race, right?

WHIT
Whitney Pozgay's fledgling WHIT line is quickly carving out a niche in the contemporary world with retro-classic staples like pleated skirts, tie-neck blouses, and shift dresses. This season's collection was inspired by a young Marianne Faithfull, which translated into a very '60s-mod interpretation of her signature pieces. There were interesting, rich textures like metallic coating on wool and cutout detailing around the hem of a dress, complemented by animal-print haircalf accessories. Also spotted: the first (and surely not the last) peplum skirts of the season. Mina & I were particularly taken with the pleated leather skirt and ruffled shift dress pictured here.


Gilded Age
Mina hates it when I ask her what she thought of a show and then quote her here, so I will let her file names speak for themselves: The first picture below is called "nunchuks1" and the second is "smoulder1". My take: Gilded Age's clothes are cool enough that they don't need to resort to weird theatrics like props and Blue Steel. As for the collection, according to the show notes, it was inspired by a post-apocalyptic metaphorical journey—I'll let you digest that one for a bit.


All photos by Mina Kim. 

MasstigeWatch!
The big news this week is that Anna Sui will design a Designer Collaborations collection for Target [subscription required]! Even more awesome is the fact that the collection is inspired by Gossip Girl, specifically the four female leads. While Sui's namesake collection is more contemporary-priced than that of most of Target's designer collaborators (her dresses are downright affordable if you can find them on sale), this masstige outing will definitely let her reach a broader audience. No word on prices--and no pictures yet--but the line will hit a select 250 Target stores (and target.com) on September 13th, just in time for back to school (and, one would guess, the new season of Gossip Girl).

Speaking of Target, the Tracy Feith Go International collection hits stores next Sunday, May 17th!

Today, the Shipley & Halmos and Gilded Age collaborations hit Uniqlo, but, as Racked reports, well, no one really cared.

Finally, the summer portion of the Matthew Williamson for H&M collection hits most H&M stores next Thursday, May 14th. Unlike the previous portion, this less luxurious, more mainstream batch will be available in nearly every H&M store worldwide, and it also includes men's looks. You can preview the collection on the H&M website--it's indeed very summery, with caftans, swimsuits, and lots of great dresses, many with a peacock motif. It's very luxe-bohemian, which makes it perfect for summer. While Williamson is generally not quite my cup of tea, I have my eye on several pieces from this line. Hopefully it won't sell out as quickly as the last!

MasstigeWatch!
As was leaked last month, Uniqlo has a very downtown coterie of designer collaborations lined up for spring [subscription required]: Steven Alan for women and Opening Ceremony for men hit stores in March; Shipley & Halmos for women and Gilded Age for men bow in May. Price ranges for all four lines will be a very wallet-friendly $19-$79. So while none of these lines are really anything to go crazy about, I'm sure they will be well made and quietly cool, as the previous Uniqlo designer collaborations have been.

If you're more excited about the McQ for Target collection, Target already has a microsite up and running; it helpfully counts down the days until the March 4th launch, and you can also preview a few looks and listen to a song by The Duke Spirit (singer Leila Moss was McQueen's inspiration for the line). But if you're like me and realized--oh, shit!--you're going to be on vacation when the collection hits stores, you're in luck: Racked reports that Target will open a pop-up shop, called the Target McQ Market, 2/14-15 from noon to 10 p.m., at 330 West Street, in the far West Village, a block north of Houston. Yep, it will be packed with all the fashionistas in town for Fashion Week (I'll have to strategically time my visit during one of the big shows that I'm not invited to), but, damnit, I must have that jumpsuit!