Friday night, my wife and I traveled down to the Hollywood Hills for Bradley Baumkirchner’s Summer 2008 Show. After watching Bradley on Project Runway, I knew he had a creative thought process and a design aesthetic that was perfectly wearable, but I was unsure of what to expect from him because I have not seen much of his work since Season Three.
We arrived at 8 pm, which was the beginning of the cocktail hour. We entered into the Besant Lodge, and the setup was a couple of rows of chairs facing a beautiful stained glass window, which would be the obvious backdrop for the runway show.
The press would be standing in the rear with a straight shot down the aisle to the stopping point for each dress.
I claimed my spot to make sure I had a good position to take photos of the runway. Fashionista began to fill the room as the time passed, from the most elegantly dressed to the hipsters of Los Angeles. People began to gather and socialize, with the cocktails flowing all around.
Around 30 minutes in to the cocktail hour, PR’s Nick Verreos, David Paul, and Amanda Fields, wearing a beautiful Nikolaki dress, entered the room and were immediately swarmed by the crowd.
A few minutes behind, Vincent Libretti entered the room and went straight backstage to see Bradley.
Finally 9 pm came around, and in typical fashion time, the show had not begun. The guests began to take their seats at around 9:30 pm and the music from cocktail hour ended. The pianist, Laura Steenberge, took her spot at the grand piano, and the show began.
The anticipation and excitement were at the highest point, and I know I was more than ready to see his collection, titled “To Pierre”.
The first piece that stepped onto the runway was a gorgeous butter cape dress, a cotton shell with a taffeta lining throughout. The dress had beautiful detailing along the shoulders and hood. The detailing of the pieces would be a theme running throughout the each piece, and would define the feel or emotion of each piece.
The second thing I noticed was the interesting arrangement of the hair. Part of the hair had been braided and wrapped around the top of the head. And finally the model was walking barefoot. All of these elements played into the theme of Bradley’s work.
As the show continued with the seventeen pieces walking throughout the show, each piece built upon the theme, but also took a different stance towards the placement of hems, detailing, and the basic elements of clothing.
Vincent Libretti noted after the show that Bradley’s ability to move elements is something that will be the future of fashion in 2009 or so. “He has the guts to move things around that is far beyond himself,” said Libretti.
At the end of the show, to an overwhelming applause, Bradley made a quick run through at the speed of an Olympian. I barely could get off two photos of him as he bowed and continued at his shy speed.
Bradley's mom, Gail, was there as well as an aunt and his grandparents.
There was a return to the Renaissance feel of clothing, but with a modern aesthetic. As Bradley’s mother noted, “the collection consisted of wearable pieces with a couture edge to them.” And she also noted that each piece was defined by the detailing within the piece, and how her son masterfully played with the elements of proportion within each piece.
Something that I noticed throughout the show was that the models all took a different pace of walking down runway. I first asked Bradley’s mother and aunt whether this was done for a specific reason, and all of us thought that it was done in order to display each piece in its own manner. In some of the more casual pieces, the models took a more relaxed approach to their walk; whereas, the more formal pieces took a slower and more melodic walk around the runway. It was obviously me overanalyzing things, because when I asked Bradley if there was a reason behind having the models walk at certain speeds, he responded, “There was nothing behind it, it was just how the models walked.”
There have been few shows that I actually thought each piece was beautiful from beginning to end, but Bradley’s show had a cohesive thought process and each piece was unique to itself and amazing. I cannot come up with a better word than amazing. Although it is hard to choose certain pieces, my favorite pieces were:
- the silk organza ballet dress with pleating at the neckline and bottom of the dress. It was the perfect summer dress. It was not overstated, nor was it basic. It was the perfect piece for both day and night.
- the bow tie dress with blue silk and gathering detail at the bottom. This piece was very similar to the first, but was the gathering at the bottom hem was a playful touch that contradicted the black bow tie.
- the gold brocade floral printed high waisted trousers and the silk purple tank top with matching check detail.
My first though when I saw this piece was that Bradley did a high waisted pant that also had a cropped pant leg. The playful and casual quality of the purple silk tank top contrasted the gold brocaded pant that could have easily been taken too formally.
After the show, Bradley was inundated with friends, family, and basically every person at the show. Overall the show was very well received and a fun experience. Because it was extremely difficult to even get to Bradley, I first approached his mother and asked if I could get her response to the collection. Overall, she was happy beyond words, and even said, “I am just so excited and happy that I cannot talk. It is like having a baby again.” There is not a mother who could have glowed with more pride that night.
Her favorite pieces of the night were the capes and the shorts, which she would even wear at her age. She loved the ruffling detailing on the shorts and mentioned again that the whole collection was ageless. After almost 45 minutes I finally stepped in and got a few questions in with an obviously exhausted and shy Bradley. I asked him from where the theme for his show evolved, he responded, “It is a combination of Bach, ballet, and little girl’s dresses.” He also said that it took him in between two and three months from start to finish to complete the collection. He began the collection with the grey summer dress. When I asked him which piece was his favorite in the collection, he said, “the white cape with the silk tank top and yoko trousers.”
To help with the stress of creating the fashion line, Bradley said he had to get away from the work daily by just spending time with friends, watching movies, and enjoying time away from the collection.
In the end, it was an intimate show with a beautiful collection of pieces that straddle the line between wearable pieces and artwork. The detailing within the pieces was amazing. The slight changes between a pleated hem to a gathered hem, and the play with collars from a bow tie to the peter pan collars. The textures, which is hard to see with the camera, was a beautiful change from the use of cream silk to black wax linen to printed shantung tops. The color palette was very subdued, modern, and refreshing. The combination of white, cream, black, purple, green, sky blue, and gold gave a wide array of colors, but all the pieces flowed together and there was no obvious gap between each color.
It was a long night, but a lot of fun - thank you, Bradley!
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