Like Oscar de la Renta and Narciso Rodriguez, Brazilian fashion designer Carlos Miele understands the feminine mystique, how to create magic through the artful manipulation of fabric, how to celebrate the female form via body conscious silhouettes, how to make every woman feel like the star of her very own fashion fairy tale. Miele's extensive knowledge of architecture informs all his designs — even when crafting the most fluid gown in the slinkiest fabric, he emphasizes form via clean lines and adds internal structure through a bevy of techniques ranging from bias cuts to pleating, braiding, draping, ruching, piping, shirring, and cross-stitching. When you gaze upon his concoctions, you can't help but marvel at the intricacy of the detailing, and yet the garments never feel constrictive or rigid. Each piece has an effortless grace to it, even though the most extensive work went into its creation.
But perhaps what makes Miele most distinct from his fellow clothiers is the extent to which he draws from his heritage when designing his pieces. Vibrant color and luminosity abound in Miele's work, and there tends to be a festive exuberance to his collections befitting of the Caribbean. More importantly, Miele has a knack for infusing a breezy sexiness into his pieces — whether through one-shoulder cuts, sky-high slits, plunging necklines, or peek-a-boo slits and slashes. It's perhaps a sensibility he can attribute to his rearing in Río de Janeiro, where the hot climate necessitates the exposure of sun-kissed skin, as opposed to in the United States, where any flash of flesh tends to be labeled obscene or scandalous.
His Spring 2012 collection, showcased on Monday, September 12th at Lincoln Center, showcased all of Mielie's aforementioned strengths. Simply put: it was the type of show that left you wanting to bow down before such a genial artist.
Dubbed "Immaculate Landscape," the collection was inspired by Miele's notion of paradise. In his utopian vision, the sun is perpetually out, hence the flashes of tangerine, coral, sunset orange, and persimmon, not to mention the glittery gold details peppered throughout the collection. And, of course, Miele's Eden involves an expansive ocean, a notion conveyed via aquatic shades of blue and green ranging from aqua to turquoise, azure, pale teal, seafoam green, Amazonite, and sapphire.