Patchwork was the name of the game for Gilles Mendel this
season. That was true in a micro sense and in a macro one: Not
only did Mendel work a mix into his typically polished clothes,
he also applied the "little of this, little of that" MO to the
collection as a whole. The patchwork effect scored in the looks
that featured it, but the collection overall never really
cohered. The show started strong, with a series of outfits in
white and sherbet tones that featured various kinds of lace. The
gowns in that group had real panache—sexy fitted fishtail
numbers that nonetheless expressed a sense of gamine sweetness
rather unusual for J. Mendel. Then there was a lick of
sportiness, and then a hit of that J. Mendel-trademark slick,
uptown, razor-sharp glam, and then a group of dense, arcadian
jacquards, and then a graphic group in mean yellow, black, and
white.… And then more stuff—more colors, more varieties of
proportions and silhouettes, more attitudes, more everything.
(This being a J. Mendel show there was fur