For her 2007 collection designer Cari Borja swung her design pendulum from the left to right. Hitting every strength she in her craftsmanship and her eagerness to explore the idea of texture and shapes. In the opening section of the collection Cari’s focus was on unique and delicate fabrics that really tease your eye. The strongest looks in the opening section were her knitted fabrics in unique shapes. Like the cream diamond-web tunic, the fabric has a crocheted quality. The design of the tunic was very simple but the material is what really made the look. Another strong look in the opening section was the taupe honeycomb knit blouse worn with a matching sarong pant with a ruffled hem.

While many of designers used ruffles over and over in their collection, a trend we saw in mass quantities at the Fall/Winter 06’ collections. There seems to be uniqueness with Cari’s ruffles. Backstage we spoke briefly about the technique that she used. It’s not a regular ruffle; she cut the ruffles in a zigzag motion and finished off with a zigzag stitch. This treatment created a unique movement to ruffle, rather than a up and down motion when it moves, the ruffle floats from side to side while moving up and down. One of the best examples of this technique was the sky blue wool matching vest and skirt shown in the third section. The vest collar and the hem of the skirt was finished with the zigzag ruffle along with the collar of the white cotton wrap blouse. The sky blue wool is woven with white plastic bouclé giving the fabric an embroidered look.

In the third section of her collection, Borja played with some of last seasons big trends, brocade and balloon shapes. While these trends seemed to use over and over in other collections, Cari limited her use. Borja did take the brocade trend and twist it in a couple of looks. While she labeled the red & pink damask fabrics as brocades, they are from the heavily textured look of brocades. One of the strongest looks was the sleeveless red/ fuchsia floral silk damask wrap blouse worn with a matching red/fuchsia tulle skirt. Another strong “red” look was the candy stripe cocktail dress with the hem of dress finished Borja’s zigzag ruffle. The dress was labeled as a baby doll but it really does not fit the baby doll styling. Cari tailored the ribbon fabric to drape with a trumpet shape.

The must have pieces from the collection are two completely different looks from Borja's collection. First is the purple metallic angora cocktail halter-top dress. The dress is worn with a silver ruffle underskirt, the combination of the two metallic fabrics and the design really compliment each and create an eye-catching look. The other must have look is the black and white pinwheel floral print silk chiffon kimono wrap worn over a black and white zebra strip silk chiffon pant. The trim of the kimono and the hem of the pant is finished with ruffle. When this look came down the runway several eyes started top pop open. While Cari continues her used of the ruffle she took it a step ahead of the trend curve. Creating some of the most unique pieces of San Francisco Fashion Week. The key to the collection was her eye for movement. Bravo Madame Borja!

View the complete collection at wireimage.com

[images viaWireimage.com]