Marchesa Fall 2012

There were four dresses at the Marchesa show that literally swept the toes of the front row, one of which even threatened to carry away Ingrid Sischy’s phone, which she accidentally dropped on the runway.

That said, Georgina Chapman and Keren Craig’s second time showing their dresses in motion continued to take them in a more realistic direction. Reality is, of course, relative when you’re making dresses for galas and Oscar ceremonies, but there was lots in the shorter and lighter category. Two lovely caped dresses probably had thousands of dollars worth of lace embroidery, but they had an almost girlish sweetness. There was even a cap-sleeved wool dress that could work for (gasp) day.

Chapman and Craig’s touchstone was late-nineteenth-century French painter William-Adolphe Bouguereau’s A Soul Brought to Heaven, which depicts two angels spiriting a young woman through the clouds. You saw the inspiration in the winged embroideries and all manner of feathers, but also in the intimations of mortality.

This darker side could be seen in the dresses worn over skeleton-embroidered tulle bodysuits, the laser-cut black leather dress (with nary a sparkle or puff), and the engineered embroideries that traced the anatomy. Those elements lent the collection some invaluable bite.

DESIGNER: Marchesa Fall 2012

Photos: Marcio Madeira/firstVIEW