White shirt takes on new appeal

IN YOUR CLOSET: They could be the next big names in the fashion industry -- Thakoon, Doo.Ri and Rodarte are all considered important up-and-comers ---- and here's your chance to add their look to your wardrobe without breaking the bank: They've each designed three unique interpretations of the classic white shirt for Gap.

Doo.Ri's Gap items include a shirt with a scarf draped at the neck, a tailored camp shirt and a loose shirtdress; Rodarte's are a sleeveless blouse decorated with bows, a trapeze-shape sleeveless top and a voluminous minidress with pockets and bows; and Thakoon's are a bow-tie blouse with short, puffy sleeves, a short shirtdress with puffy sleeves and a tiered hem, and a belted shirtdress.

"My take on the project was to build a boy meets girl attitude into the pieces," said designer Thakoon Panichgul. "The shirt has feminine elements like pintucks, ruffles and hemstitches built into it, and the dresses have a boyfriend's shirt element in the top portion, while the bottom has a feminine play with a built in skirt and the other looks as if you tied another white shirt around your waist to make a skirt."

Top models Stella Tennant, Liya Kebede and Carmen Kass star in the ad campaign for Gap Design Editions that was shot by top photographers Inez van Lamsweerde and Vinoosh Matadin.

Another player in this project is Vogue magazine, which features all the white shirts ---- paired with ballskirts ---- on a fold-out cover of the May issue. Gap has only been featured on the cover of Vogue twice before, once in 1992 when Linda Evangelista, Cindy Crawford and Claudia Schiffer, among others, wore white shirts and white jeans to celebrate the magazine's 100th issue and in 1988 for Anna Wintour's first cover as editor in chief.

The new white shirts serve as an awareness initiative for the CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund, which supports new American design talent. Panichgul, Doo-Ri Chung, and sisters Kate and Laura Mulleavy of Rodarte all participated in last year's Fashion Fund competition, and Chung was the winner.

Julie Alonso, senior director of public relations at Gap, says the retailer gave each designer the material, the buttons and then said, "Go!"

"I was blown away with what they did with a white shirt," she told the AP.

She added: "The white shirt is something we're famous for in our 38-year history. It's the perfect item for every closet. We thought consumers would be interested in the twists the designers gave it.

"The collection, which retails for $68-$88, is in select stores and on Gap.com. Click on Women, Shirts, Design.

-- Another high-fashion name reaching a broader audience this spring is Patrick Robinson, formerly the designer at Perry Ellis and Paco Rabanne. He is the latest designer to participate in Target's Go International program, which brings limited-edition collections to the mass retailer.

"The collection I designed for Go at Target captures bohemian chic with just the right dose of wit, color and lightness," Robinson said in a statement.

Items include a white off-the-shoulder gauze dress with floral details, a poet blouse, a mesh blouse with satin details ---- and a lot of tiny bikinis.

Source: nctimes