Wes Gordon reminisces the late 90s quintessential New York for Carolina Herrera’s SS24.
“Last season, we took the Herrera woman to Rio. This season I was excited to celebrate New York,” Wes Gordon noted after showing his spring collection for Carolina Herrera. Fittingly, he chose for his venue a quintessentially Gotham location – the Whitney Museum of American Art.
Gordon’s homecoming found him musing on a moment that’s getting some consideration this week, the late Nineties. Specifically, he looked at the effortless glamour of Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy, whose innate elegance and minimal style made her an icon. From her, he took a baseline of clean lines and elegant discretion. Yet he retained the warmth and joy essential to the Herrera aesthetic.
It proved a smart move, as Gordon savvily navigates his ongoing shift of the brand to a younger sensibility. Here, he offered plenty of range, both literally – 61 looks – and sartorially, sometimes working a tony austerity and others, a controlled take on flamboyance. In a statement of ongoing respect for the house founder – once again, the ever-chic Carolina Herrera sat front row – Gordon opened and closed with a shirt, at the start, a big-sleeved white version over a black skirt, and at the end, the same shirt in black over a glistening silver skirt.
In between, he sent out streamlined tailoring in black and other neutrals, his most direct reference to Bessette-Kennedy. But he couldn’t deny his love of color. It came in ebullient prints and wonderful knits, including an update on the classic twinset, now shrunken, with the inner pullover longer than the cardigan.
Such items beautifully illustrated how Gordon is keeping the house of Herrera relevant; pairing a sweater set with a politely sexed up unlined lace skirt made for an appealing, sportif approach to dressing up. Ditto the modernist bra top-and-skirt pairings, and a number of lovely linear gowns including a body-con lavender beauty with knot-front bodice and long sleeves. Which is not to say Gordon eschewed all things grand; he didn’t. Discretion went pouf with a major gown in densely packed stripes of black and lavender ruffles. Chic restraint is alluring, but, Gordon noted, he also wanted to provide “the flourish, the exclamation point…the flamboyance that makes Herrera Herrera.” Here, here.
