New York Fashion Week: Jenny Packham Spring 2014 on Gossamer Wings

Vintage styled gossamer creations from Jenny Packham for Spring 2014 (photo: Photo by Frazer Harrison/Getty Images for Mercedes-Benz)

The Jenny Packham Spring /Summer 2014 collection literally floated down the runway at New York Fashion Week on gossamer wings.  Delicate, ethereal and light.  That was the Jenny Packham Spring collection full of  beautiful dresses and gowns.  There was plenty of shine, diaphanous skirts and delicate beading all set to the backdrop of sixties classics like The Beatles “Here Comes the Sun” and Pink Floyd’s “See Emily Play.”  This was a gorgeous parade of fashions that sparkled.  The models looked like and updated versions of Rossetti’s pre-Raphaelite heroines with their long, wavy locks. I could see the Duchess of Cambridge, Kate Middleton, wearing anyone of these Jenny Packham dresses to her formal engagements.   No one will ever end up on a “worst dressed list” for wearing Jenny Packham.

Vintage Styling for Hair and Make-up for Jenny Packham Spring 2014 (photo Frazer Harrison/Getty Images for Mercedes-Benz.)

Reading the designer’s notes, I was surprised to learn that the collection was loosely inspired by ‘Picnic At Hanging Rock, a 1975 art film directed by Peter Weir based on a novel by Joan Lindsay. “What we see and what we seem are but a dream, a dream within a dream ,”  wrote Joan Lindsay in the book’s opening.    The film, set in 1900,  is both beautiful and haunting; a party of girls from a boarding school in Australia are taken on a picnic to Hanging Rock.  The girls climb the rock, never to reappear.  Inspired by the film’s austere Edwardian attire, the Jenny Packham SS14 Collection fuses classic 70’s prints with traditional embellishments and materials championed at the turn of the 20th Century.  We saw polka dots, checks and stripes along with  beautiful pearl and Swarovski beading walking the runway.   The color palette was a interesting mix of bold colors like brick red, cobalt blue and lime green tones  contrasted with a delicate array of soft powder pinks and silver marbles.  Many of the the fabrics were translucent, weightless organza with flowing skirts, complimented by waists clinched with satin ribbons similar to the silhouettes of the Edwardian era.  There were even little starfish ornaments/pins in the model’s hair like women worn in the 1910s.  Overall, the was one of the most gorgeous shows at Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week.  Watch the video here to see for yourself.  I think you’ll be stunned by how beautiful this show is from the music, to the make-up, to the hair and those beautiful dresses.  There’s a sweetness as well as an elegance to each of these dresses.   I know I’d love to own everyone of them!