Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge in Dallas. Photo by Mei-Chun Jau.
It’s little surprise that Lela Rose knew the work of Santiago Calatrava long before his gleaming white, steel-and-cable suspension bridge became Dallas’ latest piece of “starchitecture.” Rose happens to be the daughter of Dallas philanthropist and arts patron Deedie Rose, who played a role in selecting the Spanish architect for the project.
Though Lela now lives and works in New York, she watched the bridge take shape during trips home to oversee the opening of her first freestanding boutique. “I kept looking at that bridge, with its fluid, bending lines,” says Rose. “You usually think of architecture as structured and rigid, but Calatrava talks about ‘the poetry of romance,’ and you really see that in his work, the bending and undulating forms. It’s very romantic to me.”
The "Very Calatravan" look 28 from the Lela Rose Fall 2012 collection
No wonder, then, that Calatrava’s “fusion of structure and movement” was the jumping-off point for Rose’s fall collection. Silhouettes are long, angular, and lean, and Rose worked with fabric mills, showing them photos of the architect’s bridges and railway stations, to develop fabrics and patterns such as the swooping Linear Labyrinth.
Nice touch: When the Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge had its formal opening in early March, Elisa Summers, granddaughter of the bridge’s namesake, was wearing Look 28 in Linear Labyrinth. “That fabric is so Calatrava,” says Rose. “It couldn’t have been more perfect.”
