Kimberly Ovitz Spring 2012 Collection at New York's Fashion Week

Michael Ovitz' daughter Kimberly Ovitz debuted her Spring 2012 collection at New York's Fashion Week, covered by a series of articles in news sources Fashionista, style.com, and The New York Times, as well as fashion blogs such as FashionReporters, trendland, and fashionologie (the latter where you can view great photos of the entire collection).

"Breeze-catching pieces in sheer and lightweight fabrics—one of them made with Japanese paper—stayed rigged to the body with flyaway straps and subtle buckles, which were hints of utilitarianism rather than structural essentials. Embellishment was minimal, making the pattern of a white jacquard jacket pop against the loose knits and cottons.
The mood was dreamy and somber, but the clothes, while repetitive, had an easy grace. The sheer white top that closed the show had an obilike belt that turned into a long, fluttering train; it looked beautiful billowing atop a pair of silky pajama pants." - style.com 

Kimberly Ovitz' inspiration for the show was the dichotomy of “disaster vs. relief; nature vs. man”, in particular the work of Japanese architect Shigeru Ban, whom she discovered when he was hired by the Japanese government to create temporary housing after the earthquake and tsunami.

Shigeru Ban has done extraordinary work throughout the world in providing inexpensive and simple-to-construct housing alternatives for disaster stricken areas, utilizing materials as pedestrian as cardboard, paper, and tubing.  In the recent Japan disaster, he came up with an inventive design utilizing shipping containers for temporary housing structures.  The results are both tasteful and pragmatic.  Ban's website contains information on a number of his disaster relief projects, or read more about the Japan relief project here.

For her collection, Kimberly Ovitz was directly inspired by Ban’s Curtain House– "a work, which, if you haven’t guessed, features white flowing curtains in place of walls, and which certainly seemed to have informed the collection’s flowy, white dresses and pants."

Yet there is more to the Curtain House than flowing tapestries; it is both a reflection of a way of life and an homage to traditional Japanese structures.  "The house is intended to be a reflection of the owner's lifestyle. It is open to the outdoors and utilizes contemporary materials in new interpretations of traditional Japanese styles. Wide deck spaces are attached to the east and south sides of the second-floor living room and tent-like curtains are hung on the outer facade between the second and third floors. Interior conditions are controlled by opening and closing this Japanese-style 'curtain wall'. In winter, a set of glazed doors (in combination with the curtain) can completely enclose the house for insulation and privacy. This thin membrane takes the place of shoji and sudare screens, and fusuma doors that appear in the traditional Japanese house."

You can read more about the Curtain House here.

To learn more about Kimberly Ovitz and her latest collection, visit her website, kimberlyovitz.com, and/or her personal blog.