Sharagano Bows Fall With Monah Li
For Fall 2006, Sharagano is all Monah Li.
This marks Sharagano’s first full season under the Los Angeles–based designer’s direction since she joined the firm last year.
Li first joined Sharagano’s sister company, Spy Zone Exchange, as a co-designer before switching to Sharagano, where she designed tops to complement denim designer Rokhsan Enanoria’s low-slung jeans. In October, Enanoria left to relaunch her denim collection, Huzzi, and Li took over at Sharagano.
The label’s Fall collection is like peeking into Li’s closet. The designer said she thought about what she wanted to wear and used that as her inspiration for Sharagano.
The result is a clean, tops-driven and denimfriendly collection, because, as Li explains, “Most girls wear jeans.”
Akey look for Fall is the corset shape, which turns up in tops and vests with fitted, structured silhouettes.
“Everything that makes you smaller in the waist I will do,” she said, noting that many of the tops and vests have corset stays to help keep the narrow silhouette.
Styles include stretch-jacquard corset tops in inky shades as well as tailored vests in menswear stripes.
“I tried to do something male but made it very sexy and feminine,” she said.
Li continues the masculine/feminine theme with drapefront tops made in fluid matte jersey on the front and structured menswear wovens on the back. The mix of woven and knit is also seen in romantic ruffle-front blouses and Julietsleeved tees.
Other tops include rufflefront blouses with asymmetrical front closures, and romantic, short-sleeve styles with lace trim and ribbon ties.
The line also includes a few bottoms, including a layered black-and-white mesh skirt that can be tied and draped in a variety of ways, and a pair of knickers in a pinstripe.
The designer is also experimenting with the kimono shape, offering a few dresses and tops with a modified kimono sleeve and an obi-like sash.
Another dress style, in liquid mauve jersey, echoes the emphasis on the waist with a torso-skimming fit and rows of top-stitching along the bodice.
Still, the overall look of the collection is very clean, Li notes.
“It’s very pure and simple,” she said. “It’s detailed, but in a very subtle way.”
Li said she made a conscious decision to move away from last season’s elaborate embroidery and embellishment. The only style in the 35-piece collection that has embellishment is a dip-dyed crinkled–silk chiffon tunic with leather appliqueacute;s near the hem.
The collection, which is produced in China and India, is wholesale-priced at $59–$79. The line includes fabrics from France, Italy and India, as well as some original prints.
Sharagano is carried in Los Angeles at contemporary boutiques including Horn, M. Fredric and Planet Blue, as well as at New York retailers Lounge and Institut.
Sharagano’s full Fall collection will bow at Fashion Coterie in New York Feb. 14–16 and in the new Platform section at WWDMAGIC in Las Vegas Feb. 21–24.
For more information, contact the Bryan Wilson Showroom at (213) 629-2201.
—Alison A. Nieder
