SEPTEMBER 7, 2012
NEW YORK
By Nicole Phelps
"Something wonderfully excessive felt like the right thing to do right now," Gregory Parkinson said at his presentation. Not that we needed any convincing—Parkinson's 15 dresses were easy to love. Made from three, four, and even five layers of different colored laces, they almost shimmered in the Hudson River haze visible through the windows of the 12th-floor loft in which he showed. The woman who wears one of these dresses won't go unnoticed.
"Labor-intensive" was the term Parkinson used to describe them, pointing to a calloused index finger; and we believe him. But the effect was effortless: simple shifts and slipdresses to the knee or ankle, some fitted like a column and others more A-line. What drew you in were the reverberating colors—bubblegum pink trimmed with aqua; brick red and ocher intermingling with a camouflage print in complementary hues; patchworks of Turkish delight pastels.
Parkinson's dresses are of this moment, but also timeless. While this reporter was chatting with him, Lisa Immordino Vreeland, whose documentary The Eye Has to Travel premieres this weekend, leaned in for a kiss and told him about all the compliments she received on the engagement party dress he designed for her 13 years ago. When she wore it again last week.
http://www.style.com/fashionshows/review/S2013RTW-GPARKINSON
