Los Angeles Fashion Week Fall '06: Sue Wong
Sue Wong always opens her runway show with a performance to set the mood. This season, a trio of Chinese ribbon dancers, from the StarLight Performing Arts Institute, performed for the enthusiastic crowd at Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week at Smashbox Studios on March 21.
For Fall ’06, the Los Angeles–based designer dubbed her collection “International Glamour,” which was presented in several groups that drew inspiration from international destinations and eras, such as 1920s Hollywood, 1930s Shanghai and Jazz-era New York.
The designer channeled Weimar Berlin and Marlene Dietrich for the Berlin series, which featured beaded dresses with playful bubble skirts. For Wong’s Cairo section, a beaded gown in an olive watercolor floral print took on the look of shadows moving over shifting sand. Flapper-inspired dresses mixed well with baby-doll shapes in Wong’s Paris section, which included a teal halter dress with a beaded bodice. For the London section, Wong moved effortlessly from Victorian- and Edwardian-inspired gowns to even earlier periods. The designer showed a pair of elegant silk velvet gowns with matching evening jackets. One featured elaborate gold embroidery in a “Byzantium Scrollwork” pattern on burgundy velvet. —Alison A. Nieder
