After seeing her spring 2004 collection, Phillip D. Johnson tips Behnaz Sarafpour as being one of the new guard—with an increasingly important role to play in New York Fashion in the next decade

PHOTOGRAPHED BY THE AUTHOR

EHNAZ SARAFPOUR, the 33-year-old Parsons graduate who cut her teeth designing for Isaac Mizhari, broke out of the pack of young up-and-comers two seasons ago with a pronounced penchant for sweetness in her designs that caught the eye of retailers and customers alike. After a much-lauded fall 2003 collection, one would have assumed that she would continue to operate within the same sphere but she proved everyone wrong with her equally acclaimed spring 2004 collection. With this collection, Ms Sarafpour broke out of the box that was being built around her by others, and showed a whole new side to her personality and sense of design.
   She opened her show with a kick-ass black strapless knit and patent leather dress, a "leather and lace–ying and yang" moment if ever there was one. And for the rest of the show, she expertly walked a thin line putting just enough of each element in each piece to make them all distinctively hers. Once again, she has displayed her intuitive way of knowing when enough is enough, when to step back and allow a design to shine on its own without further embellishments.
   Much of the collection also had a certain ’80s overtone, but Ms Sarafpour, here too, knew when to reign it in and add that ever-important twist of modernity, leaving behind all the not-so-great things that has made the ’80s such a memorable oasis of style.
   On the soft side, she held on to her foundation customers with such beautifully-cut pieces like her blue knit and taffeta pullover shirt (paired with a white stretch cotton short pant), the extremely cute strapless, yellow gingham poufy taffeta dress (over a white ribbed tank top), the Metropolitan Museum of Art Gala-ready pale pink satin back ruffled cocktail dress and a sensual black taffeta and stretch silk bustier dress for the young lady who wants to be just a little bit naughty.

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Sarafpour has displayed her intuitive way of knowing when enough is enough, when to step back and allow a design to shine on its own without further embellishments