Ralph Rucci Spring 2014

Ralph Rucci is in a class all by himself; well, at least he is stateside. Nobody but Rucci creates a 60-plus collection that is not a redundant re-interpretation of past seasons, but season after season keeps audiences gasping and nodding appreciatively until the last model has properly presented Rucci’s last work of genius.  (There is no watch glancing at a Ralph Rucci show.)

Rucci is still among the few American designers that create collections that employ couture and demi-couture techniques and detailing on ready-to wear collections with each garment designed as though it was made for a very specific client, but in truth a lot of women can and want to have in their wardrobes. Where some of the collections shown at Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week have unfortunately become a combination of expected trends and safe points of view for the American consumer who doesn’t want to think too much, Rucci’s runway shows are an actual event for the savvy, discerning, fashion aficionado, and not just a social media opportunity for celebrity stalkers looking for a quick glimpse of their favorite pop star.

This season Rucci outdid himself. In past spring/summer collections a good portion of garments worked mostly for early spring due to Rucci’s detailing and double layering and/or lining of fabrics. In contrast, this season there was lightness and buoyancy that expanded this spring 2014 collection past March, April and early May. Still, Rucci didn’t skimp on the detailing.

“There was a tremendous shift this season, the clothes are light as air. I challenged myself to do things that I would normally be self-conscious about,” explains Ralph Rucci. “There is this concept of shadow and weightlessness in this collection … In my pursuit of making clothes a certain way the integrity and make is still there, and I believe I achieved another level of dressmaking.”

Rucci indeed evolved his aesthetic to not only include more lightweight spring/summer garments but also he presented fabrications that are closely associated with colder temperatures in ways that worked in warmer climates.  Python, a favorite of Rucci, combined with organza or black leather worked ingeniously into a crepe jacket. Rucci also broke new ground by incorporating trends in his own special unique way. Only Rucci would take the continuing trend of cutouts and exposed midriffs by taking a crepe jacket and making the exposed midriff a see-through lattice of black leather.

Rucci takes the layered apron trend—a concept he has used before—and infused this collection with aprons in ways that are uniquely Ralph Rucci. “There are aprons throughout the entire collection. There are two black velvet aprons, bugle-beaded aprons, cotton aprons, and chiffon aprons,” details Rucci. Only Ralph Rucci would expand the apron trend for spring/summer to include fabrications of black velvet and bugle beads.

Though Rucci’s color palette this season is more muted, the color combinations work perfectly for spring/summer. “There is black, shades of different petrols, coral, spice, bronze, beige, nude … After last spring where I used lots of neon, I was frankly neoned out. So, I had to get a creamy palette going [this season] that satisfied where I was with the proportions,” explains Rucci.

With Ralph Rucci familiar silhouettes take on new incarnations, tried-and true fabrications become new evolutions of whimsical beauty and signature points of view are expanded to envelope consumer’s broadening fashion palette and needs. Rucci’s fashion now is always next and the next is palpably now. Check out the show below.

—William S. Gooch