Sparkling dazzle and youthful elegance. The two themes represent two very distinct bridal personae that can sometimes have the potential for going all sorts of wrong in different ways.
Fortunately, bridal designer Amsale Abrerra brings a clear focus and spirited embrace of both sides of the bridal coin. Abrerra’s Kenneth Pool represents the sparkle side while Christos is the personification of youthful elegance. Or rather, we should say three sides to the bridal coin since Abrerra also continues to give her main, Amsale line, plenty of attention as well.
A separate review of the Amsale collection appears elsewhere on the site.
What makes Abrerra’s lines so noteworthy isn’t that there is variety. That spice of the bridal business life is almost standard today.
But Abrerra consistently finds ways to make each of her lines distinctive and yet imbue all of them with a unified design aesthetic and an overall elegant sensibility.
The fall 2015 Christos collection moved from the spring collection’s youthful sweetness to a more mature but still dreamy romanticism.
Lace, silk chiffon, and tulle combined for a series of nine looks that epitomized delicacy, a light ethereal airiness.
The infusion of lace was particularly important here as Abrerra used it not only for overlay skirts and overall layers but also for details that lent the collection a vintage feel. One silk chiffon gown, for example, featured soft Chantilly lace ruffle sleeves that gently accented the shoulders. A layered silk chiffon and georgette gown showed a hint of lace at the décolleté.
Another in the vintage-flavored line seemed straight of the 1930s—a silk chiffon draped gown with crystal hand beading at the neckline and back, with a delicate bit of lace edging the neckline.
Adding to this dreamscape was Abrerra’s use of soft layers, many of which were done with a pale pastel such as a fit to flare halter gown in soft tulle and layered with a very pale mint tulle and several gowns in pale blush.
If the Christos line is the essence of dreamy vintage romanticism than its sister line, Kenneth Pool, is the stylistic yang —sexy, modern and glamorous.
This is where sparkle lives. But, thankfully, under Abrerra’s watchful eye, it’s an elegant and tasteful brand of dazzle. The designer’s taste meter remains pitch perfect.
The fall 2015 Kenneth Pool collection was particularly notable for its range. With the 10 gowns in this collection, Abrerra showed that there’s more than one way to make a sparkling statement.
And so there was a long sleeve fit-to flare gown to open with a white crystal hand beaded net-like overlay bodice and a detachable long train. An eye-catching fit-to-flare hand beaded crystal gown with sheer back detailing that featured a recurring design motif—a pattern of beaded scalloped shapes that flattered the curves followed.
Several gowns were done in a figure-hugging stretch charmeuse including a fit-to-flare halter gown with a crystal hand beaded neckline. Deeply scooped sweetheart necklines prevailed, although as the halter gown showed, there was room for variation.
And just when it seemed that fit to flare would be the only way to define sexy, Abrerra turned up the volume, literally.
A dropped waist ball gown with a tulle skirt and a taffeta peplum that bordered on being overly fussy, still kept the sexy vibe with a hand beaded appliqué detailed bodice that featured a sheer illusion back. And a final strapless dropped waist ball gown showed the designer’s gift for modulation presenting a bodice entirely void of sparkle but a dramatic pouf of a tulle skirt over a shimmering layer of tulle.
—Karyn D. Collins
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