Cynthia Cheng Mintz

While many designers are emphasizing colour for Fall/Winter 2011, Vivienne Tam decided to stick with what traditionally works best – plain darks.  Her show opened with a dark runway, with the first few models wearing dark colours such as greys/blacks, especially for pants and skirts.  Tops were a little more varied, with some winter whites.  However, the darker emphasis seen more with her separates.  There seemed to be more lighter, shinier, flowy looks for dresses, an interesting look for fall as this is usually something reserved for Spring/Summer. 

While a good number of the pieces were a little on the boring side, there were some that are of note.  The cream coloured top with the black embroidery that was paired with a shorter dark pistachio skirt is something that we at DelectablyChic! would love to get our hands on (first screenshot).  A fuschia coloured dress (above), perhaps the only very bright piece in the entire collection also caught our eye.  One piece that stood out as a MUST NOT HAVE was a long dress with kimono-like sleeves (third model below, the one facing directly to the cameras).  It looked a little out of place for colder weather, and might have worked better as a tunic top.

The collection as a whole was not bad.  However, it wasn’t good, either.  The collection was supposed to have been inspired by Chinese opera, but we did not see anything Chinese or opera about it.  Not even in the make-up.  Also, the runway could have been better lit.  Perhaps more lighting would have been able to give viewers a better look at the darker pieces.   Finally, unlike other collections for the Fall/Winter 2011 season, Vivienne Tam’s skirt lengths tend to be shorter, with many pieces at knee length.  This is good news for those who are on the shorter side, as anything that isn’t knee length or floor length would look out of proportion.  However, pants lengths in this collection tend to be cropped, which is not exactly the best.