Designer Joeffer Caoc's pants (well, not literally his pants) have a following among women of all shapes and for fall the Noir straight pant, an iridescent rustling grey, is punk but could be worn to an office, I suppose.
The midnight blue metallic basketweave fabric, as a Grace Kelly
topper, is beautiful. On several velvet and satin cocktail dresses, I
think the unforgiving square neckline is meant for an ingenue, and
ingenues don’t wear Joeffer: strong women do. Consider some of the
boldface attending the show: Wendy Crewson, in sequin-encrusted,
back-plunging silver; Jacqueline Hennesey in zesty lemon one-shoulder
charmeuse. On the runway, Caoc’s signature, deceptively simple-looking
origami folds, drapes and one-shoulders parade by (Eva Longoria would
have a field day posing on the red carpet in any one of them) but I
can’t help longing for more colour. It's all beautiful, but last season
(and the one before that) Caoc spoiled us with tangerines, acid yellows
and fuchsia, and this is an about-face into subdued, almost mournful,
territory. And as you can see from the finale photo, Caoc is one of the
most happiest guys in fashion.
It’s moody lighting, and it’s
late. All these black and bruised purplish colours, the teal, indigo
and slate blue (often with matching, humongous ponyskin bags)
feel...gloomy. I have to admit, I can’t give the show my full
attention: I’m instead drawn to looking at statuesque Suzanne Boyd (in
tiers of azalea-purple chiffon) and all the past seasons of Joeffer on
display in the front row to cheer myself up.
[Designer Joeffer Caoc walks the runway with models. Credit: Peter J. Thompson/National Post]
