Rodarte and the little white dress...

I am such a big fan of the Mulleavy sisters' designs at Rodarte; their outfits are not simply clothes in the manner of basic garments to clothe a naked body, neither are they slavish adherents to the trends of 'fashion'; to me Rodarte designs are pure abstract art. Each look is cut, draped, layered, twisted and dyed to produce a multi-textural collage of beauty. I love that the deconstructed aesthetic of their clothes is so meticulously produced and yet evocative in a different way in each collection. Although the underlying aesthetic is consistent and characteristically 'Rodarte', the concept changes each season. Whilst the AW09 collection featured lots of leathers and hard edged fabrics in cold tones, SS10 used wools and softer fabrics in rich, warm colours in dramatic contrasts with black. Previous aesthetics have been tribal, futuristic, even apocalyptic-all with a distinctly hard edge and even aggressive tone. The Fall 2010 collection could not be more different, I would even go so far as to call it romantic and Victorian inspired. The collection features characteristic layering but this time of delicately sheer chiffons and lace, interspersed with impressionistic floral prints and loosely woven knits. The layering was even extended to accessories: leather gloves with minute stud detailing, multiple thin knit socks, subtly metallic embroidered tights/leggings and what style.com describes as 'melted wax' Nicholas Kirkwood heels. A definite new variant of the classic Rodarte theme which proves that the Mulleavy sisters have plenty more inspirational designs to come in their future.

Although the full length shots are great I think the details are far more representative of the talent and ingenuity of the label:

The finale dresses were particularly spectacular in that, unusually for Rodarte, they were all of one colour-pure white. Despite the lack of characteristic clashing colours the dresses were still highly creative in the myriad textures and layers which were subtly interwoven to produce a feminine, elegant and ethereally beautiful garment.

These white dresses really brought to mind the finale dresses of the Chloe SS10 shows, one of which was recently worn with great jewellery styling by Jessica Alba on the red carpet:

As many magazines have already noted the little white dress is a key item for your summer wardrobe. In my opinion the longer and more loosely draped the better; preferably with some lace detailing and an overall vintage feel. I found a few really great designs on the Topshop website: