This is not your average runway. In fact, it is not a runway at all but an emptied out SoHo loft whose kitchen is filled with what feels like all of the Lower East Side. The occasion? Lou Dallas is launching its first resort collection, "Buzz for Double You," and we are all here for the show, sipping the flower laced cocktails our generous host seems to have left us. We know it is starting when dancer Brittany Bailey glides into the center stage of the living room wrapped in layers upon layers of Lou Dallas. Is she the owner of this space?
The music hits (a live electric guitar set by Bryce Hackford) and our heroine begins to unravel as if cued by the melody. Each choreography ends with another garment shed. It is if we aren’t even here. Bailey’s movements call to mind the image of woman dancing alone in her mirror perhaps after months cooped up inside. Each layer of the prolonged strip tease reveals a new chapter, a new mood. The angst of the plaid-clad school girl gives way to the kicks of the pastel candy-striper. When she is down to just her leotard and her peachy pink stockings, she rolls on the floor as if she’s washed up there after a dream. Perhaps this is designer Raffaella Hanley and Bailey’s way of telling us that vacation is indeed over and once again we have to trod out in the swamp of New York summer night. I walk home with twirling thoughts of lace and the stir-crazy of winter wrapping my mind like a spool.
