This post comes a day late, but with no less enthusiasm. Jesse Kamm’s sophisticated society girl dresses and tap pants for Spring 2008 were like a cool, sweet breeze on a humid day. The collection was titled, “Bloom,” but there wasn’t anything floral and cliché. Instead, Jesse took her inspiration from antique buttons, bows and ribbons. She brought back a collection after a trip to Paris and didn’t know quite what to do with them.
“I thought maybe I was going to put them on the clothing and then I realized that I was really supposed to incorporate the shapes into the clothing,” Jesse said backstage as she helped models undress and began cataloging her merchandise.
She sketched drawings of the buttons and bows that appeared on the fabric of dresses and shirts. A few sack dresses made for girls confident enough to pull off the micro look were darling in that grown-up-girl sexy sort of way.
The nearly six-foot-tall blonde designer only wears her own designs because she only makes things that she would want to wear, but she said that she also wants to make things women with average proportions would feel comfortable in.
Jesse is very genuine about her love designing clothes that flatter various shapes, but to be honest most of her collection will appeal to girls with proportions like Jesse’s who used to be a model. But I don’t think that’s a bad thing. Not every designer’s line has to be for everybody. It’s enough to know that she doesn’t glorify the waif-look.
The Fashion Lab space was a perfect venue for the show, by the way. It looks just like spaces used in New York by up-and-coming designers who can’t afford a six-digit production in the Bryant Park tents. The white space is a perfect backdrop.
The long runway rimmed by seats allows most of the attendees ample time to take a look at the outfits coming and going. And the lights blare with an intensity that raises concern about retina protection.
But unlike New York, I actually got a front row seat and I found a parking spot a block away.