ISAAC MIZRAHI SPRING 2011 RTW

"There's a hint of Schiaparelli in everything I do," said Isaac Mizrahi a few days before his Spring show, dubbed IM Xerox. Sounds like the call for Troop Trompe l'Oeil. Sure enough, Mizrahi's collection rendered collars, pockets, buttons, bows, and corsages in poor-quality copy-machine images printed on his sweetly ladylike clothes.

JAC

The visual witticisms continued at the collar, with a white resin choker crafted to look like it was snapped off a button-down shirt, and a blindingly bright rhinestone bib in a Peter Pan shape. Mizrahi's floral was a grid-collaged photo print. As at Fotomat, you could choose from black-and-white or color, albeit often muted with a tulle overlay, in one of many instances we've seen this week. (Was there a sale on nude tulle in the Garment Center?)

There are moments when Mizrahi's themes take a slightly silly turn. ("Excuse me, can I get that shower curtain in a dress?" quipped a quick-witted stylist on seeing the voluminous dot-matrix textured floral gown that ended the show.) But there were great moments, too, particularly a black strapless column printed at the bodice with a single large bow.

Should it find its way to a red carpet somewhere, it has a chance of survival that's not often granted to conceptual dresses. And a black cap-sleeved shift with actual sequins that merged into a skirt of large paillettes was a simple but cute new way to do an old standard. As such, the copy concept is something of an old standard itself. Perhaps that was the point.

SHENA MOULTON (MUSE)

ISAAC MIZRAHI