Zang Toi Fall/Winter 2012

Referencing Hollywood glamour is common fare for fashion designers whose oeuvre is red carpet looks and high end cocktail dresses. Still, very few designers do sophisticated glamour better than Zang Toi, so his choice of 60s Hollywood glamour was a match made in heaven.

For Zang Toi’s “Glamour at Gstaad” fall/winter 2012 collection, there was lots of emperor red, plunging necklines and fur embellishments. And it all worked beautifully, with styling that was sheer perfection.

In this collection Zang Toi dressed his customer at every jointure of her day, from an ivory wool boucle-sculpted skirt suit to a black cotton corduroy capelet trenchcoat to a ruby couture silk cotton column gown with beaded imperial garland court train.  The showstopper of the collection was the final look, a silk organza Gstaad ballgown with attached beaded black miniskirt.

And Zang Toi was able to keep this sophisticated, elegant collection, youthful and on trend; a feat that designers with more brand recognition and decades of experience still find arduous, if not formidable.

—William S. Gooch