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The word on the street, while I was writing this
review, is that he is still looking for a financial backer to come
on board so that he get this collection into the store in time for
spring, as well as backing the showing of his prospective fall 2004
collection. I wish him the best of luck. He wrote the following
in his programme notes: "When passion stops being a perfume, it
starts to be the energy of your everyday meaning, and becomes your
everyday life, even when it can be a danger to your existence. That
makes life worth it.’ All his passion is poured into this and his
other collections; and we are the better for it.
Mark Montano
MARK MONTANO may not want to hear
this, but his spring 2004 collection, ‘Modern Day Saints’, was the
most mainstream, accessible collection I have ever seen from this
downtown style maven. As a rule, Mr Montano takes a great deal of
pride in always displaying his East Village, downtown-hipster credentials
whenever possible. He sees himself as a "downtown couture"
designer and acts accordingly. But his many years in the industry
and rubbing shoulders with various uptown designers of varying stripes
may finally be having an effect on him because so many of the pieces
in this latest collection are wonderful examples of market-ready
cocktail dresses and other looks that don’t require post-show fine-tuning.
The take-off point of this collection, it appears,
was his interest in the beauty and historical nature of gold. As
he explains in his programme notes, ‘[Gold] has been around since
classical times and has an ancient association to powerful and saintly
women. By using today’s fashion-forward yet affordable gold jewelry,
I can express the emotional connections gold inspires in modern
day women [allowing these] modern day saint[s] to proclaim [their]
own style.’ (Not so coincidentally, one of his sponsors for the
show was the World Gold Council.)
The proclaimed theme of the show manifested itself
in various forms, particularly in the ‘St Joan of Arc’ segment of
the show where stand-out pieces included his gold silk chiffon and
silk brocade “all tied up” dress (a bondage-style confection), an
equally fashion-forward silk chiffon and silk brocade Xena, Warrior
Princess dress and a steamy gold lace and silk chiffon “too
hot” cocktail number that truly lived up to its name.
Other worthy mentions from the collection was
his beautiful black silk charmeuse short evening dresses with front
and side “sign of the cross” lace inset accent elements. Lest I
forget, his signature model, Kimberly, opened the show wearing a
blood red silk chiffon–silk satin–silk brocade sex-me-up dress that
certainly had all the men (even the gay boys in the audience) standing
at attention. It was very reminiscent of Sophia Loren in her early
sexy, bombshell starlet years.
CONTINUED
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Mark Montano’s signature
model, Kimberly, opened the show wearing a blood red sex-me-up dress
that had all the men (even the gay boys in the audience) standing
at attention
 
 
ABOVE: Mark Montano.
BELOW: House of Field, by David
Dalrymple.
      
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