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• June 25, 2008
• On The Verge

Sweet Tooth Streetware: Natalie Encarnita's Tasty Treats

By Jason Wilson

Recent streetwear innovations have shown an affinity for the bright and candy-colored, prompting the most fashionable to drape themselves in Kool-Aid Red, Christmas Green, and Blow-Pop Purple. We've been seeing so much fuchsia out and about, that we're pretty confident people will start spelling it correctly from now on. Now, if one really must dress like a pack of Starbursts, best to do it in one of Natalie Encarnita's four-sided numbers.

Pulling images and inspiration from 1930s metropolitan architecture, Encarnita waxes poetic: "The daydream of first seeing such buildings against a hot and arid landscape prompts a relaxed feeling." That, or heat stroke. Summer afternoons in midtown are noted for their hallucinatory effects. Psychotropic in their own way, Encarnita's sweet emerald, purple, and fuchsia 4-cornered sack dresses and tops are adorned with gold leather triangular panels, foil voile, and sparkling metal zippers, all of which are sweet enough to cause cavities. Elsewhere, she uses cotton jersey, muslin, and poplin to communicate the touristy fantasy of a utopian Candy-Land metropolis with the kind of swish that's delicious but not too saccharine&hellip:sort of like the perfect Italian ice on the hottest summer day.

Available at Pixie Market, 7950 West Third Street, Los Angeles 323-782-1718 and 100 Stanton Street, New York, 212-253-0953; www.pixiemarket.com. For more information go to www.natalieencarnita.co.uk