Monochromatic sophisticate with twist of denim! Designer Hidehiko Yamane’s inspiration this season is all over the place. From this season’s big trend, the print to a lot of denim and even last season’s trench coat. Right from the opening section Yamane jumped into a series of denim looks. While some of the denim looks and pieces were borderline ordinary, there were a few standout denim looks. One of the standout looks is the armless black denim jumpsuit. The bodice of the suit is similar to a tube top. From the denim looks Yamane mixed in several wool suit fabric’s looks; which he plays with draping and structure. One of the key wool looks is a gray wool dress with a plunging neckline. The shoulder straps are finished differently, one with the fabric synched the other lays flat on the shoulder.

In the second section Yamane showed a series of printed silks and satin pieces. Unfortunately, only a few tops rather than dresses. One of the strongest looks in this section was a dragon print on a silk kimono shape wrap jacket. I would like to have seen more printed looks, especially a few cocktail dresses. One of the weak points of the collection is the lack of design continuity. Hidehiko moves from piece to piece with different design theme in each piece. From the kimono style jackets to the 20’s style slip dresses to off the shoulder bias cut dresses from the 70’s. Moving into evening Yamane moved to a black and white palette and focused on a few very loosely tailored silhouettes with emphasis on textile use. One of the standout cocktail dresses form the collection is a reworked 20’s off white silk slip dress with a satin nouveau design on the front of the dress.

The highlight of the collection is not the eveningwear dresses or gowns. Rather the Yamane‘s snowy white outerwear pieces for evening. One of the standout looks was a snow-white wool overcoat with a Peter Pan collar and low riding belt around the hip. The other must have look is one of this season’s must have pieces, the trench for Spring/Summer, a white wool crepe safari style trench coat. The look created both of these outwear looks is a twist on masculine but the overall feel from the collection is very simple and clean. The emphasis is on creating a feminine shell over the masculine pieces. The result is a collection that you can easily over look key pieces. I would like to have seen the collection a little more mixed up, the parade of well manicured looks lacked some personality.

View complete collection at Wireimage

[images viaWireimage.com]