Filed under: 49ers, NFC West, NFL Coaching When you hear 49ers offensive coordinator Mike Martz in an interview, he sounds like a reasonable, extremely intelligent football mind. Apparently, he’s also an awesome actor. Because once he steps on the field, It’s Mr. Hyde time. Cardinals starting quarterback Kurt Warner regaled the San Francisco media with stories of what playing for…
In addition to debuting his first-ever collection of handbags, Wu debuted a new kind of thoughtfulness around design, moving past his tried-and-true cocktail pieces into fully formed looks reminiscent of '40s sophistication.
Staging his runway collection in a massive, exposed-brick space at 82 Mercer, Wu started his show a whopping 40 minute late, though by showtime the front row included Andre Leon Talley, Stefano Tonchi, and Diane Kruger. Wu's shows often feel like a parade of his most loyal customers -- you'll always spot ladies in the second and third rows wearing head-to-toe Wu and impossibly expensive accessories. In this way, Wu is one of the few young talents working today that actually telegraphs the old-school vibe of an Oscar or Carolina: He is incredibly loyal to his clients, and they are quite loyal to him.
As such, it's no surprise that Jason Wu is quite retail-conscious: His collections are always a good balance of wearable separates, suiting, and the cocktail dress for which he has become so well-known. In addition, this year saw him branching out into eyewear and, now, handbags and shoes that are, of course, ladylike and rather '50s-inspired.
While the past couple of seasons have seen Wu experimenting with both bold patterns and an exuberant, hyper-femininity, the designer seems to have taken a much more mature hand in designing Spring 2011: While his inspiration may have been the Brazilian artist Beatriz Milhazes' eye-catching-yet-ordered pieces, the collection had a much more measured hand in doling out the more frothy elements. An oversize bow blouse was paired with a well-tailored suit jacket and shorts; floaty tea party dresses got a dash of structure with a nipped-in waist. Even one of the collection's more over-the-top pieces -- a "truffle" skirt that Wu claims was inspired by a night eating truffle pasta in Italy -- seemed a lesson in patience, hand-painting the edges of each layer of cut chiffon. Overall, an impressive and cohesive collection, and the little add-ons -- quirky turbans, a blue tile runway -- mostly excused the late start.
