16817: (Hermantin) Palm Beach Post-Designing in a fantasy world (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: leonie hermantin <lhermantin@hotmail.com>

Thursday, September 25
Designing in a fantasy world


By Staci Sturrock, Palm Beach Post Fashion Editor
Thursday, September 18, 2003



NEW YORK -- In the audience at her show: supermodel Naomi Campbell and
Oscar-winner Cuba Gooding Jr.

Front row at his: novelist Salman Rushdie and heiress Patty Hearst.

She dresses singer Mary J. Blige. He outfits socialite Ivana Trump.

What Marie Claudinette Pierre Jean and Zang Toi share -- aside from Saturday
time slots during Fashion Week -- are fashion visions shaped by singular
fantasies. Neither seems particularly concerned about creating sensible
skirts and practical pants that step from runway to real world.

The Haitian-born Jean, married to music impresario Wyclef Jean, mixes
Caribbean colors with show-biz sizzle and elements of 18th-century design.

Yes, it sounds implausible, and some pieces in Jean's made-to-order spring
2004 collection would have been better off left on the sketchpad. A
mini-dress in which one leg is exposed and the other is covered by a ruffled
pants leg? A silk chiffon gown that's floor-length in front and
behind-grazing in back? These aren't brilliant reinventions; they're "Bride
of Re-Animator" fashions.

On the other leg -- er, hand -- Jean's century-spanning gelled when she
married a brocade corset with a layered skirt, and a sequined mini-dress
with a train overcoat. Maybe her purple and green taffeta ballgown, the one
with the appliquéd tulle and handmade flowers, was fit only for fairy-tale
princesses, but if fashion doesn't deliver the occasional fantasy, what's a
heaven for?

Zang Toi, whose previous collections include homages to the American West
and An Asian in Scotland (yes, Toi has a big-sky imagination), dreams of
ballerinas and mermaids for spring. Tulle tube tops and pink organza tutus
for the former, and a treasure chest of turquoise sequins for the latter.

Toi is a master at tailoring and doesn't need embellishments like coral
branches stitched onto the seats of jeans to make a statement. Just thinking
about sitting down in such a pair of pants causes a pang, Zang.

As goofy as they are gorgeous, Toi's and Jean's collections are the fashion
equivalent of a Broadway musical.

In real life, street gangs don't break into highly choreographed dance
numbers, cats don't reminisce about midnights past, and female inmates don't
look like Melanie Griffith.

But we gladly suspend our disbelief to consider a world in which those
things are possible.


Carries over into makeup

When it came to makeup, Jean and Toi chose theatrical looks (imagine that!).
Her models sported kitty-cat eyeliner and spidery false lashes, and his were
dolled up by Bobbi Brown with scarlet lips, teal glitter at the outer
corners of eyes, and turquoise shadows on the lids.

staci_sturrock@pbpost.com

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