Move over, Mussolini. Yours isn’t the only revolution to inspire a designer this fall. The Bolsheviks are also getting their moment du mode, courtesy of Vera Wang. The designer spun an elaborate reverie inspired by early 20th-century Russia and its various charismatic camps — her rally of revolutionaries and kerchiefed peasants broken up by some Swarovski-ed gals more of the Romanov persuasion. (What? You thought the high-low thing was invented yesterday?)

The theme allowed Wang to wax ever-romantic while working the artistic mood that has become her ready-to-wear signature. And it resulted in some absolutely breathtaking clothes, even if too often they had to battle through the presentation’s lack of subtlety — all the headgear, piles and flying appendages — for attention.

In the end, it was worth the fight. At a time when other designers are scaling back on the romance, embellishment and any trace of exotica, Wang embraced all of the above. She started with structure, last season’s dancer’s flou replaced by sturdier fare — a proletarian cutaway shearling over short pants, stiff lantern skirts, rugged boots touched with jewels. There were A-line dresses in stiff taffetas, tunics over short skirts and lots of take-to-the-streets layerings, often punctuated with a dark-hued coat and major knit action in a heavy bonnet, scarf or kerchief. Once or twice Wang even stepped back from all the stuff, sending out a pair of gorgeously sober dresses with jeweled medallions on one shoulder.

Evening was a less proletarian affair. Then, try as they might, Wang’s melancholy bejeweled waifs couldn’t hide their true tsarist inclinations under even the most overt babushkas. So let the revolution come; win or lose, these girls will look dazzling in defeat.


To view the full collection click here.