After inviting the fashion crowd to her new store last season for a runway show, Meruert Tolegen went with an even more intimate affair for fall in her boutique — which also serves as her atelier — with an edited-down message of only 15 looks.
“I wanted each garment to be spotlit, and I wanted each piece to really have its own moment,” the designer said, walking though each piece during her presentation.
Tailoring has been bumped up the past few seasons, and for fall featured a wool drop-pocket blazer and shapely coats. A column coat with a sculpted synthetic hair collar meant to mimic monkey fur brought a touch of the macabre.
She evolved her silhouette with slim on top with a bulbous hip, like an upside-down tulip, seen on a satin corset lace-up hip dress. Hers is work that needs to be seen up close to explore her handcraft details; for instance, a black hand-knit cropped cashmere cardigan or cream cashmere argyle hand knit V-neck. Cashmere was yet another new fabrication, adding a tactile yet soft element to her work.
Her dark romanticism had gowns in a dusty gray that rumpled to the floor or as a tiered bubble strapless take. “I don’t normally do long gowns,” she said, adding that she wanted it to feel exaggerated. Prints came with a subtle logo, her name in script, and she touched on menswear. “I needed a male model just so I could make this pant,” she said, gesturing to a wool pleated trouser paired with a printed jabot shirt.
Unmoved by the trends of the world, she continues to refine her Gothic romantic language, and the restraint only sharpens her proposal.
