Fashion Shows that Deal with Coming of Age from the Fall/Winter 2012-2013 Season of NYFW, part 1: Oscar de la Renta!

Going from girlhood to womanhood and asserting independence is a prominent theme in the fashion world. Fashion designers can pair bows with trousers, frilly skirts with leather jackets or blazers, a pale pink dress with a heavy blazer, or heavy ornamental and mature brooches on light and airy summer dresses.
This entire fashion week was a pretty awesome one - shows covered all sorts of styles, from oriental (Proenza Schouler) to Dickensian/Eliza Doolittle-esque (Marc Jacobs) to NYC-inspired (Donna Karan) to lots, and I mean lots, of throwbacks to the beginning of the 20th century, which was most notably done by designers L'Wren Scott and Ralph Lauren.
It's no secret that I lovelovelove Oscar de la Renta. His show was the only one I was able to see live (via livestream) and I couldn't be happier or more giddy about it - I saw it right before dinner with my family, and they were getting annoyed at how many times I was sighing over the gorgeousness of it! According to Oscar de la Renta, one of the main themes of this show was "a young girl dressing up", and I think that theme was excellently conveyed. From frilly mini dresses with full skirts and bows to black shifts with bright jewels sewn on, the clothes portrayed in the show definitely remind me of what I instinctly went for when going through my aunts', mother's and grandmother's closets. If they'd also featured large Hermes-like silk scarves wrapped around like a skirt with strands of pearls that reached my 5-year-old knees, I'd be worried Oscar de la Renta was a mind reader.

I also loved the bob-like hairdo with the black silk ribbons or jeweled headbands. They almost remind me of the girl version of the 1920's-esque bob, and the hair accessories are really fun!

This dress almost reminds me of the first thing I would always look for when going through more elegant closets - the item of clothing that was the easiest to imagine myself wearing, which was usually the most youthful item.
And look at those shoes! There were those shoes in different colours, such as black, and champagne, throughout the entire show. How pretty!

I actually had a skirt like this when I was little, just a lot pinker, almost entirely pink, actually, and then, ironically, when I was a teenager, maybe thirteen years old, I had the same thing but shorter, and with almost no pink and a lot of red to go with my rebellious teenage status.

In my opinion, this is the perfect little-girl-dreams-of-poufy-dresses ball gown. I mean, really - it's pale pink, has pretty poufy off the shoulder sleeves (kind of reminds me of Jasmine from Aladdin, the Disney movie!), has multiple layers of pink tulle, and it kind of reminds me of a cupcake! What more can a girly little girl want?

However, it's at this point that the fashion starts to "mature" a little bit - you could almost say that the girl is tired of the frilly cupcake-and-jewel looks after 10 minutes and wants something a little more interesting.

Yes, this dress has a youthful look, mostly because of the pale colour and frills, but it also a mature edge to it. First off, you could say that the way the frills are arranged could almost look like the frills on a men's tuxedo shirt. There's also a kind of deconstructed look about it, almost as if the ruffles were in perfect order and then purposely messed up - the kind of looks teenagers love after years of perfect bows and pale pink princess dresses.

This is also a dress that is very grown-up, with the column shape, draping, but with a splash of youth in the pale pink colour and the glitter bust.

This is so awesome, it reminds me of a flapper warrior! And look at those cute gold shoes!

And, finally: this dress. I've tried to follow a kind of little-girl-to-woman order in these placing pictures, but couldn't resist posting this one, which should've been towards the beginning or middle, at the end. Best for last! Because, seriously guys, I gasped when this dress came onto the runway, and I highly doubt I was the only one. This dress is the epitome of "the little girl", but not at all in an immature way - it's magical. I can imagine Eloise wearing it! The tiara certainly complements it, and the heels remind me of Cinderella slippers! This dress would've occupied my dreams for a few weeks when I was young had it existed. (It might now either way. Maybe). (Even if Cinderalla is kind of a wimp. I like to think of the Ever After version of Cinderella, where the slippers are still insanely beautiful and Danielle, aka Cinderella, is kick-ass.)

That's all for now! What did you think of this fashion season - what did you think of Oscar de la Renta's collection in particular?
The next installment in the coming-of-age-in-the-fashion-world series: Tory Burch's fall/winter 2012-2013 collection! (It was so adorable, oh my gosh.)

(Photos courtesy of Style.com ).

Thanks for reading! :)
XO,
Laura