Rodarte At Fashion's New Frontier

Fashion Wire Daily – FWD101 Model walks the runway at the Rodarte show during Fall 2010 Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week in New …

New York – Welcome to fashion's new frontier, at least as seen by Rodarte, whose ephemeral fall 2010 collection was all about passing beauty.

Statuesque, though rather sad-eyed, beauties marched across the twisting runway in the Chelsea art gallery where the collection was unveiled Tuesday, Feb. 16, in New York.

These clothes had all usual stylistic style one associates with Rodarte, a Los Angeles-based fashion house, whose founders andcreative directors are sisters Kate and Laura Mulleavy. The two siblings love a mish-mash of fabrics, which this season included in a single outfit - shards of lace, scarf fabrics used as a cowl neck, tweed patches, lace layering, faded chiffon, fishnet, Victorian curtains and Anastasi pattern rugs.

"It was while driving across Texas that we got the idea of creating a collection inspired by border towns," explained Kate post-show. Added sister Laura: "We wanted a sense of how life can be very transient, and full of transients."

Rodarte is one of the most sought after show tickets in fashion, and one can easily understand why from this highly imaginative show, where the sampled chic of the fabric cocktails and fertility of these two designers' imaginations impressed with every look.

It's also true that the duo did break new ground, sending out quite a few jackets, multi-fabric boleros or strict bomber jackets. However, the collection, at least in terms of silhouette, recalled their previous shows, which was a pity, as we'd love to see the Mulleavy minds let loose more on cut and line.

That said, their finale was also the best so far of any New York show - a series of some ten models in ecru and white combinations bedecked in pearls and trimmed with fur that whispered warrior brides. And using black light then was a clever trick, turning various looks into new hues of orange.