Ecco Domani-winning designer Mandy Coon presented her fall 2011 collection on an right-angle runway surrounding a spotlit grand piano and the brooding crooning of Emilie Simon. Models moved slowly and purposefully in Coon's creations, from statement-making dresses with column and ball skirts to shorter, asymmetrical hems and a few trousers.
Despite describing herself as "so not much a pink person," Coon took an adventurous leap with pops of fuschia on several pieces, that played a nice balance to the prevalent black leather (often balanced by slightly starched sheer panels) and a watercolor brown, cream and black print.
Coon's masterful sense of duality could be seen not only in the leather-and-sheer combinations, but in the alternating of grotesque-precious motifs of bugs and bows -- sometimes tiny, other times massive for a chic shock appeal. The bug silhouette also carried over onto an oversized backpack, which hung from the model's torso like a beetle with his wings closed.
