Carmen Marc Valvo: Tile-riffic, NYFW Fall 2014

The designer takes us on trip to Istanbul revealing a collection full of tile and mosaic details inspired by the foreign city's art

From the LifeMinute team

February 7th, 2014

Carmen Marc Valvo takes a trip to Istanbul and some of TV's hottest stars join him.

"Carmen of course!" shouts perky-in-purple Katie Couric when asked whose frock she's sporting at the show.

The spicy Daisy Fuentes, also in attendance, reflects on her history with the designer long before the trip to Turkey.

"I remember first working with him and wearing his fashions when I was at MTV," she says.

Valvo builds his style message one tile at a time. His dress designs really shine.

"The inspiration really started in Istanbul; it's just an amazing city. It's mosaics, it's tiles, it's art," he says. "It started out using tiles as the motifs but they became warriors. So, she's a warrior she can't have messy hair. The bangs she hacked them off herself with her sword. She's a pony. She's a rider. Ponytail is perfect."

The models angular, sharp-edged hairdos compliment their strong faces.

"Beautiful, glowing skin. A little bit of a cheek, a super neutral almost gray mouth and then what you really see is this double liner and super shiny shadow on the lids and then a highlighted face," says Romero Jennings, Makeup Artist.

The designer hammers home the silver theme.

"Of course the nails have to be pewter," says Valvo.

Thanks to manicurist, Danielle Candido, they're pewter and pretty ... not harsh.

"It's called Metalling Around and it's gunmetal with a nice light reflecting quality in it yet still soft enough to be feminine," she points out.

After a long reign of brights and flourescents on the fashion scene Valvo stages an aggressive takeover.

"It's very black. I wanted a black space. I wanted lights just to emerge. It's black, midnight, pewter, a little steel .. a little silver .. a flash of persimmon.. and a flash of blue but for the most part we did an extremely dark palette," he says.

The eclectic mix keeps Actress Vanessa Williams on her toes ... even more than the drama queens on Wysteria Lane did.

"Sometimes it's leather, sometimes it's kind of three dimensional, I love the way he makes it romantic," says Williams.

What a trip.