PITCH-PERFECT
The small, elegantly staged Isaac Mizrahi retrospective at The Jewish Museum is called An Unruly History. While the designer’s personal and business affairs might be summed up this way, his designs cannot, for they are consistently impeccable. As a dressmaker Mizrahi has the gift of making even the most extravagant garments (a skirt folded from twelve yards of taffeta, a minidress covered with dime-sized palettes stamped from Coca-Cola cans, an ankle-length sheath embroidered to resemble a totem pole) seem straightforward and utterly uncomplicated. He can deliver opulence with perfect pitch. In that sense he’s an ideal society designer.
He’s also a distinctly American designer. The clean lines and immaculate craftsmanship of his garments give them remarkable clarity. These are fancy but unfussy clothes. As styled for the runway, and on the mannequins here, the gowns and suits comprise complete looks in themselves, and don’t require jewelry, hats, shoes or bags to complete them. Each piece is like the platonic ideal of a staple that a fashionable, well-to-do American woman would find hanging in her closet: an A-line dress, a houndstooth suit, a black bodysuit, a camel-colored wool coat. Taken together, Mizrahi’s pieces make up one fantastic wardrobe.