L.A. Fashion Week Spring '04: Tree
Tree showed its collection on Oct. 29 at Mercedes-Benz Shows L.A. to an enthusiastic audience that included celebrities Tiffani Thiessen, Jennie Garth and Constance Zimmer. The line, designed by partners Theresa McAllen and Beverly Klein, combined a mixture of prints, textures and colors with beautiful fabrics and amazing fit.
“This season was about the return to innocence and femininity,” McAllen said. “We like to throw off the perfect beauty with a little imperfection. That’s kind of how life is—there’s beauty, but things aren’t perfect.”
The two took inspiration from the past but added their own edge, McAllen noted. “It’s the melding of a lot of different eras,” she said.
The designers emphasized the deacute;colletage with fitted designs that showed off the body. The end result was raw and subtly sexy but not over-the-top. The line used sophisticated, unusual color combinations including orange/red, pink/raspberry, gray/yellow and purple/lavender/chartreuse. Key looks included mesh pieces paired with cotton looks in an embroidered wave pattern, wrinkly fabrics, corset tops, touches of sheen, subtle florals mixed with stripes, satins mixed with prints, earth tones paired with color and dresses with panels of different fabrics. —N. Jayne Seward
