Looking at the Fashion Week decoy collections by the auf'd designers.


April announced that the inspiration for this collection was "broken down dolls," which is of a piece with her aesthetic. Michael Kors told her there was no joy in her work but frankly, we think he sounded a bit like an out-of-touch middle-aged queen. Not that we have our finger on the pulse of the generation behind us, but there is a tendency among the young to find beauty in the decrepit, which is exactly what April does. Thankfully, she (mostly) ditched the black.



She was definitely making a statement in light of the judges' criticism for overuse of black. When this came out, it was totally unexpected. We like the dreamy, floaty quality here, but the ace bandage/garter thingies, which repeat throughout the collection, give it a slightly disturbing feel, which we imagine was her intention.


If it didn't have that collar, this would be a perfectly chic little look.



We like this one a lot too. The asymmetry up top in both the neckline and the sleeves is perhaps a bit too much, but we do love the dye effect on the fabric.



This one feels like an "almost." The skirt's pretty standard, but the weird placement of the sheer peplumy thing just makes it look like it's riding up on her.



Not crazy about this one at all. The cups on that bustier are placed too far apart and the pants are unflattering as hell. The garter belt just looks silly.



Love this look. It's a basic garment with some unexpected details, like the unusually placed sheer part in the bodice and the beautiful use of the dyed fabric in the skirt.



Those big garter things are coming pretty close to ruining some of these looks. We can't help but think that if Tim Gunn visited her, he told her to get rid of them. We'd love to say more about this look but the leggings are basic and the top looks interesting but it's too obscured by that fabric tumor.



This is quite pretty. Again, working in that floaty, dream-like area that she does well. Love the sheer straps; don't love the ace bandage/garter thingy.



One of the more conventional looks in the collection. We love the skirt (although it didn't need to be a mullet), but we don't love the way she does bustiers. The boobs always look like they're running away from each other.


This is kind of an "off the rails" moment. It's like she took all the things that don't work in this collection and put it all in one garment. We can't even tell if she's wearing a sheer skirt over pants or sheer pants over pants. Either way, the bottom half is a head-scratcher. Actually, the whole look is. The waist is way too high and the top is just plain odd.

Even though quite a bit of it is not to our taste (despite how we sometimes sound, we're not 22 year old girls), we respond well to what April's doing. The word that comes to mind when viewing this collection is "thoughtful." She's not quite there yet, but for 22 she's showing remarkable potential as a designer. She brings something a little more thoughtful and artistic to the table but she clearly wants to make clothes that people wear, not just clothes that people talk about. If she can marry her aesthetic (which, granted, also needs some maturing) to more prosaic concerns like marketability and salability, we have no doubt she can carve out a place for herself in this industry.


[Photo Credit: getty/wireimage]