L.A. Fashion Week Fall '05: Jenni Kayne
In her Fall/Winter 2005 collection, presented March 18 during Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week at Smashbox Studios in Culver City, 22-year-old Jenni Kayne offered a clear vision of a strong, independent and individualistic woman who lives in her clothes.
The youthful Kayne rebelled against convention, cropping the sleeves of a structured coat and pairing navy wool with black cotton voile. Juxtaposition has always been a central theme in her work, which pairs relaxed fabrics with bespoke tailoring and feminine shapes with masculine outfits.
In her fifth runway event, sponsored by Mercedes-Benz, Kayne sought inspiration in Victorian culture and explored sexuality and propriety. What resulted were 49 ingenious looks, including a navy silk charmeuse dress that flowed from underneath a blond goat vest bound with a pale-yellow sash. In the tops that had sleeves, long slits running from the wrists to the shoulders revealed a touch of skin. Known for her knits, Kayne trimmed cashmere in rabbit fur. She added plum, chocolate and green to her basic palette of black and white and introduced goat fur in her stock of tweed, silk and leather.
Kayne said she settled on the collection’s tone during a getaway to Lake Tahoe. “Being up in the woods in nature—it was very moody up there,” she said, adding that, compared with her previous four collections, this one “was a lot more sophisticated and consistent.”
—Khanh T.L. Tran
