New York Fashion Week Fall-Winter 2011: Libertine back on the scene

This article was originally on a blog post platform and may be missing photos, graphics or links. See About archive blog posts.

After a two-year hiatus, the Los Angeles-based label Libertine was back on the runway, this time with only one of its original designers (Johnson Hartig) at the helm.

The label, founded in 2002, earned a reputation (and a group of dedicated fans, including Karl Lagerfeld), for screen-printing Victorian-style illustrations of pirate ships, pocket watches, skulls, et cetera, onto vintage blazers and coats, then bedazzling them. (It was a style much imitated, all the way down to Forever 21.)

Well, the medium may be the same -- one-off vintage pieces -- but Hartig’s approach now was decidedly different. The collection included ladylike swing coats, boxy jackets, pencil skirts, sheath dresses, hats, gloves and tights screen-printed with sketchy plaid paint in clashing electric blue, fluorescent pink, green and yellow. It was thrilling to watch these modern art canvases come down the runway. (It brought back memories of the color story in the spring Jil Sander collection.) And with so many high-end designers yet to confront the sustainability question, it was refreshing to see a designer up-cycling with such impressive results.

-- Booth Moore in New York

Libertine Fall-Winter 2011 runway collection photo gallery