L.A. Fashion Week Spring '07: Elsie Katz Couture
Ruffles, lace and a coquettish charm characterized the Elsie Katz Couture Spring 2007 collection, which debuted on the runway on Oct. 18 at Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week at Smashbox Studios in Culver City, Calif. Seattle-based designer Donna Baxter dubbed the collection the “Coquette Croisette” and imagined the Bennett sisters from “Pride & Prejudice” on holiday in Cannes. The clothes expressed the idea of vintage wealth in a seaside palette with sunset tones borrowed from a Joe Sorren painting.
Baxter said she wanted to take the English sensibility of a sweet maiden with fair skin, flushed cheeks and conservative manners and put it into a more contemporary French context. Empire waists, hand-tucked bodices and pleated trims on tops and dresses were reminiscent of the time period.
Tailored silk brocade coats, linen knickers and an antique white embroidered French Chantilly lace and silk taffeta gown had the uptight formal feeling of English nobility. Baxter modernized some pieces such as a daring bronze silk charmeuse gown with a plunging V-neck, a flirty bisque satin-face organza tulip-sleeve cocoon jacket paired with a beaded-lace bikini and a corseted empire gown in sunset Italian linen trimmed with pink cotton voile straps. —N. Jayne Seward
