Timestamp: Tuesday, September 4, 2007, 5:00pm
Agatha Ruiz de la Prada = Comfortable and colorful fashion
Location: The Agatha Ruiz de la Prada shop, 135 Wooster Street, Manhattan
Text, Vivian G. Kelly
Photos, courtesy of Agatha Ruiz de la Prada
The collection is housed in a 2 story Soho townhouse whose brightly painted floors and walls serve as the perfect backdrop for Ms. De la Prada’s intrepid prints which are a pleasing mix of flowers, stars and heart in both huge and tiny dimensions.
The prints are multi-functional, used for everything from note cards to easy tops and dresses in the women’s and children’s collections. The designer is working on a lifestyle concept, as she also designs furniture, which matches her clothes to a tee. The colorful prints work as they are shown on simple shapes such as bell-shaped skirts and tops that are gathered and pleated at the waist. It’s entirely possible to imagine performing light exercise [as the designer proposes] in her pieces as well as lounging in them afterwards over a glass of fresh-squeezed orange juice.
In addition to the clothes there were some well-priced accessories such as platforms covered in multi-colored patent leather. Speaking of patent leather, the MOD red patent skirt suit made more sense after we discovered that Ms. De la Prada had the legendary Paco Rabane as one of her mentors. Stylish oversize sunglasses were well priced in the low $100’s range, about 1/3 of what you’d usually pay for a pair of quality designer shades. There’s even a jewelry range, a fragrance, as well as animal accessories and even paddleball racquets. There doesn’t seem to be any area that this prolific Spanish designer hasn’t touched on during her 20+-year career.
From her furniture line, we took an instant liking to the solid colored wooden chairs with smiley face and heart shaped backs displayed in emerald green, ruby red and sapphire blue in the upstairs studio.
Ms. De la Prada is a known entity in Europe as she shows at the Milan RTW and at the Children’s Pitti Imagine Bimbo in Florence. She has stores in Milan, Spain, Santiago de Chile, San Juan, the US, Latin America, Russia and Korea.