I can now count five people who I know in person who can pull of party wigs and Carlos Santiago is one of them.  He is the final of the three really REALLY young American designers who I got to know through Arts of Fashion and also roomed with at Hyeres (post holiday blues does cause one to mention destination an  irritating amount of times... apologies...).

If Douglas is a master of print/textures and Amy does shape/volume well then Carlos is a superb judge of colour.  In his 'Broken Heart' collection, the soft muted colours that are inbetween being vibrant and pastel reminded me of this editorial for Vogue Korea Oct 2007 by Kim Kyung Soo.  By 'Broken Heart', Carlos has quite literally taken the shape of half a heart in the front to form a one shouldered shape.  The halved, broken quality continues in the back where half a zipper is exposed and tied at the top to make half a bow.  A further contrast is created with a short cocktail dress made out of double faced satin forming the stiff and masculine base with a flowing silk charmeuse fabric draped in different ways over the top representing a softer, feminine side.  Structure and rigidity vs. unpredictability and unbounded emotions.  A relationship incarnated in a dress?  Miss Carrie Bradshaw could surely wear one for one of her many melodramatic farewells to yet another decent boyf. 

I love that the charmeuse was also handprinted with motifs like lace, scissors, chains and buttons by Carlos himself which adds another dimension to the dresses.  I also have the 'shorty short short' sillhouette stuck on my brain for reasons I'll reveal later so these dresses that combine both sexy and romantic elements are quite alluring...