Lucire examines four collections at New York Fashion Week for fall–winter 2002–3, finding common themes as R. Scott French and Jason Bunin return in force

by Phillip D. Johnson

Jason Bunin and Francis Hendy collections photographed by Richard Spiegel

HERE ARE PEOPLE in fashion (and throughout your life) who leave such a positive impression on you that you miss them a great deal when they are not around (for whatever reason). The late Liz Tilberis and great Kevyn Aucoin immediately come to mind. After sitting out the last few seasons, two of my favourite people in all of fashion came back creatively revived and better than ever before. Jason Bunin and R. Scott French are two of the most down-to-earth, centred people I know, and coupled with a clear design sense of self, what you get are two collections that served to reaffirm what we already knew, as well as indicating the lessons learnt from their sabbatical.
   For Mr French, it is all about paying attention to his customers’ needs. That includes easy-fit pieces that are well designed and adventurous. He used fabrics such as stretch denim, terry cloth and traditional men’s suiting in quite an harmonious manner. One’s first thought then was not to question his thinking but to appreciate the end results. Liberty prints are hard to pull off in men’s design but Mr French found a way to incorporate a taupe daisy liberty print in a cream half-shirt paired with an olive stretch denim Austin Powers trouser. He skilfully navigated that thin line between over-the-top dandyism and masculine comfort. He demonstrated versatility with his women’s dark jacquard stripe skirt suit pairing with a grey hooded varsity pullover top. And that is just one possibility available to the customer.
   For the most part, he maintained a small colour palette, using black, navy, heather gray, khaki and cream as his starting-point. He punched up the collection with an occasional bright yellow, red rose, lavender and burgundy accent. I particularly liked his yellow hooded toggle coat and the men’s cut burgundy corduroy leather trimmed crushed coat. He saved for the best for last, with his black leather lace-hemmed miniskirts paired with a black lace sleeve turtleneck and a deep V-neck lace trim top respectively. These were extremely classy evening pieces and evidence of his growth as a designer. He is not known for late evening looks so these were a pleasant surprise indeed.

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This page: R. Scott French returns from his sabbatical refreshed with new niches exploited