Forsaking the runway for a showroom presentation, Natalia Alaverdian showed her looks on both models and real-life fashion industry friends who agreed to be photographed in her spring collection. Among them were Elizabeth von der Goltz, CEO of Browns and chief fashion and merchandising officer at Farfetch; Roopal Patel, SVP fashion director at Saks; and Jessica Willis, style director of The Cut.
For spring, Alaverdian reprised the kinds of favorites often spotted in the audience at PFW and elsewhere, such as a skirt of cascading circles (now in purple, or in faux leather, or a white dress) and a sheath shimmying with tabs (now in rosy beige or red). She also revisited the upcycled denim her base loves, offering up a pair of “winged” jeans and a long, gathered skirt made of patchworked denim.
There were a few stealth-feminist statements, too, for example a “Kiss” shirt fitted with a lush pair of padded lips, a motif that returned in all-white or all-black on several other pieces including a dress and shoes. The message? That women should be able do whatever they like with their bodies, a memo that got a more subversive twist on a T-shirt printed over the breasts with a halved grapefruit on the right, and half a melon over the left (get it?). She paired that one with basque trousers, one of her most popular styles, available this season in white lace.
Sculptural pieces spanned utility—as in silver foil or black cargo pants studded with boxy pockets in relief—and what Alaverdian called “space Victoriana,” meaning sculptural portrait necklines, hourglass shapes and gathered details, for example on an asymmetrical white dress with a dramatically hiked skirt. There were plenty of options for naked dressers, like a transparent white tunic or a gauzy black off-the-shoulder gown. But the looks with real staying power were the sculptural ones in black and white—a wide-cut trouser, a jacket with a bold lapel and flared cuffs, a bustier dress with a ruched back, a metallic collage of a top in mixed materials. Those all put a little extra spin on the classics, making them good candidates for building out a wardrobe.