Carlos Rosario was a much-anticipated newcomer to the runway at Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week at Smashbox Studios in Culver City, and the buzz at the March 18 show was heightened by the appearance of Vogue Editor Anna Wintour in the front row.

This marked the debut for the Los Angeles–based designer, who was born in the South of France and got his start as a designer for Christian Dior Homme in Paris. He has been working as a costume designer for the past 9 years and most recently collaborated with costume designer Colleen Atwood on the Academy Award–nominated film “Lemony Snicket: A Series of Unfortunate Events.”

On the Smashbox runway, Rosario opted for understated elegance. For the opening outfit, he showed a fitted cream suit featuring a jacket with reversed darts and a double peplum. He experimented with texture, both real and implied, as with a modern bolero worn over a pin-tucked turtleneck and a winter-white wool skirt with an original bubble print down one side seam.

The attention to detail was evident in the red piping on a cream silk dress with a faint gray swirl print––also original––and in the mitered pin stripes of a suit with a cutaway coat and chain closure.

For the finale, the designer showed a series of slash-front dresses artfully rendered in liquid satin with carapace-like darts on the bodice. —Alison A. Nieder