Christian Cowan may be largely associated with downtown New York party girl dressing — but for Pre-Fall, the designer had a different clientele in mind: Old Hollywood stars. “I’ve been looking for inspiration at the club – that spirit will always be there – but I haven’t been out much lately,” Cowan said. “I’m getting more and more concerned about Old Hollywood; I’m really getting into the Judy Garland era.”
WatchingDearest Mom and Valley of the Dolls , Cowan said he was drawn to the glamorous style of stars like Bette Davis, Marlene Dietrich and Faye Dunaway absorb. “Marilyn is always an old Hollywood reference that people go after, but we’ve seen that a lot,” Cowan said. Instead, he wanted to capture the grandeur of these style icons through his clothes. “There’s an evening, boudoir feel,” he adds.
Cowan cut a lot this season in an effort to evoke Dietrich et al. If his party attire is usually meant for a shot of tequila, these clothes are meant for sipping Old Fashioneds (Marlene’s drink of choice). They just feel grown up. His simplest creation was a champagne silk slip dress, surprisingly simple for the often boisterous designer. This time, too, his signature feathers were applied more sparingly, like the cuffs of a black silk twill trench coat. “It’s actually really easy to wear,” he says.
That’s not to say Cowan’s entertaining acting skills are completely gone. A silver sequined dress features laser-cut vinyl acetate stars on the skirt. “It’s an evolution of the sequined dress I did for Kylie Minogue,” he explained. A pink nightgown adorned with stork and ostrich feathers—a dramatic nod to Valley of the Dolls—while the massive Las Vegas-style headpiece is by Made of phoenix rooster feathers, follow it pointing to Showgirls.
For his younger clientele, Cowan branched out into denim, with blazers and jeans covered in big, chunky crystals framing bras and underwear. Even more difficult, perhaps, was an evening gown with floor-length pom-pom strips at the hem—a tripping hazard. Cowan has a good sense of humor about it: “I joked it was a cat toy dress.”
