Anticipating Rodarte

One must step back to examine a label that premieres on the cover of WWD and rocks New York Fashion Week with their very first collection. From 2005 onward, Rodarte boasts an assemblage of highly-regarded design awards, found its place in the permanent collections of both the Costume Institute of the Met and the F.I.T. Museum, and joined the ranks of some of the most enduring fashion houses of the twentieth century. Rodarte, the tour de force of Kate and Laura Mulleavy, will be on view at Cooper-Hewitt starting February 11 to kick off New York Fashion Week.

What is most compelling about the line is the sisters' incredible ability to communicate ideas, interests and stories on the runway. Laird Borrelli-Persson writes of the spring 2010 line, "Forced to scavenge for existence in a barren, war-torn landscape, she pieces together her attire from rags that, as Laura Mulleavy pointed out, only serve to expose her wounds." A look from the collection, below, exemplifies the couture nature of the RTW line arranged by a duo that certainly has the intensity of gaze to convince us the stories come from within their own Hitchcockesque minds, further below.

Photo courtesy of insidesocal.com/rose

Photo courtesy of target.com

According to the Cooper-Hewitt design blog, the Quicktake: Rodarte exhibit will feature the sisters' "most deconstructed and destroyed pieces." Based on the adeptly conveyed spring 2010 story told through tribal body art, gothic spikes and zippers, swirls, and color, we look forward to what story will be told for fall 2010 and beyond.