By Sarah J. Gim
I am familiar with Literature Clothing, but know it for its graphic-printed t-shirts, sweatshirts, and hoodies and mostly casual pants. Seeing the Literature Fall 2007 collection during LA Fashion Week at Smashbox Studios was a little bit of a surprise, though I expected something different from a line called "Literature Noir." Everything was a little more dressed up. The women were in short little skirts and dresses, with a featured black print on nude/khaki (right, in the image above) that showed up on several babydolls and a long gown. In fact, I almost fell over myself for the babydoll shown. Some of the pieces were a little odd, like the black smock shown in the middle, which looked a little too much like a smock you'd throw on at the beauty parlor, particuarly with the hair styling on the models. Otherwise, not a bad showing from Literature Noir for Fall 2007.
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Alvin Valley's Fall 2007 collection, while at first did almost nothing for me, is kind of growing on me. I thought the colors were typical and the designs somewhat boring except the strange shape on the voluminous pants, but after thinking about it for a while, I realized that while it was rather ho-hum, they were all very wearable. I love the loose comfort of cowl necks, simple dresses, and especially the smart little silver dress in the middle of the photos above. The dress is pretty, no doubt, even girlish with that big fat bow at the waist, but how much can you love pockets on an evening-ish dress?
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I think I might have found the collection that made my Fashion Week: Joey Tierney.Granted, it's not often, no, pretty much it never happens, that an entire collection will make me say "yes," and though Joey Tierney's Fall 2007 collection wasn't 100% perfect, I liked a lot of it. Tierney's palette was mostly black with some rich jewel-ized green. I am not fond of wearing green, but it was a nice refreshing change from all the typical autumn colors. I'm getting a little tired of shorts, but I loved all her use of sheers, whether it was lace shirt or sheer fabric on an evening gown, not that I could actually see someone wearing a sheer gown in public like that. Then again, this is LA and anything goes.
