What would a rockstar’s girlfriend look like? That’s the question Jill Stuart sought to answer in her Spring/Summer 2014 collection. For Stuart, the rockstar’s girlfriend seems to be three parts Chloe Sevigny and one part Courtney Love; she is the epitome of modern high style, sweetly seductive and feminine, but has rockstar boldness when you might least expect it. Stuart complemented progressively geometric shapes with lighter fabrics, leather and lace. Standouts from her collection were a dress featuring a black leather skirt and sheer deep-v top accented with black lace; a black empire-waisted halter dress in a bubble shape (worn in the show by top model Lindsey Wixson); and a nude-and-black pleated dress with side cut-outs and black lace floral detailing. Black and white featured prominently in the collection, and there’s little doubt this will be a hot trend for Spring/Summer 2014.
Accentuating Stuart’s “rockstar girlfriend” aesthetic was makeup designed by Aaron de Mey for Sephora PRO, “cool, fresh skin that is punctuated with ‘imperfection,’ in the form of a raw, intense glossy eye.” Models’ thick black eye makeup and sexily messy hair gave the clothes the Courtney Love gravitas (read: badass-ness), that “I-care-but-I-don’t-care” look cool girls seem to always have without effort. As they strutted down the runway to rock and roll jams like Jack White’s “I’m Shakin’,” I understood more and more what Stuart was trying to create–just because I’m feminine doesn’t mean you can mess with me, just because I’m stylish doesn’t mean I don’t have a head on my shoulders. The rockstar’s girlfriend, she looks like she might be just a pretty face, but she’s really the brains of the operation, as it were; she’s the type of person who can wear a baby doll dress and still demand the attention of a room, still be taken seriously. In a pleated skirt, she is a force to be reckoned with.
See here for some pictures behind the scenes and at the show (all by me), and visit New York Magazine’s The Cut here for the entire collection.