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A Backup Player Begins His Solo Act
By ERIC WILSON
IN the year since Miguel Adrover's tumultuous career came to an unceremonious end — he closed his business and moved home to Majorca — the cautionary tale of his failure has taken on a romanticized patina. He is now the stuff of legend, like fashion's Wild Bill.
Peter Hidalgo was Mr. Adrover's design director for four years, and that association seems to have piqued interest in his first solo effort, a fall collection he is introducing with shoestring trappings and the same group of supporters.
When Mr. Adrover started his line, the retailer Linda Dresner famously broke an industry standard by paying him in advance for his designs. Now she is introducing the untested work of Mr. Hidalgo in her stores in New York and Birmingham, Mich. Mr. Hidalgo, 37, was in Ms. Dresner's Park Avenue store last month, showing his collection of slim and sexy dresses and suits in charcoal stretch wool and cashmere blends.
Douglas Chen, the store's buyer, described the designs as representative of the "softer side of Miguel Adrover," which is to say great tailoring without the theatrics.
Mr. Hidalgo's education in the Dominican Republic introduced him to the work of the fashion illustrator Antonio Lopez, who taught a course at a design school there, and to the country's manufacturing capabilities, both of which have influenced his collection. The look of Mr. Lopez's stylized women, reminiscent of 1940's Hollywood, is adapted for modern wear in Mr. Hidalgo's hourglass tailoring.
He is also working with Dominican factories to produce the embroideries and logos sewn on some of his jackets, which are finished in New York.
"This is all me," Mr. Hidalgo said. "I don't have to collaborate anymore."
A Backup Player Begins His Solo Act
By ERIC WILSON
IN the year since Miguel Adrover's tumultuous career came to an unceremonious end — he closed his business and moved home to Majorca — the cautionary tale of his failure has taken on a romanticized patina. He is now the stuff of legend, like fashion's Wild Bill.
Peter Hidalgo was Mr. Adrover's design director for four years, and that association seems to have piqued interest in his first solo effort, a fall collection he is introducing with shoestring trappings and the same group of supporters.
When Mr. Adrover started his line, the retailer Linda Dresner famously broke an industry standard by paying him in advance for his designs. Now she is introducing the untested work of Mr. Hidalgo in her stores in New York and Birmingham, Mich. Mr. Hidalgo, 37, was in Ms. Dresner's Park Avenue store last month, showing his collection of slim and sexy dresses and suits in charcoal stretch wool and cashmere blends.
Douglas Chen, the store's buyer, described the designs as representative of the "softer side of Miguel Adrover," which is to say great tailoring without the theatrics.
Mr. Hidalgo's education in the Dominican Republic introduced him to the work of the fashion illustrator Antonio Lopez, who taught a course at a design school there, and to the country's manufacturing capabilities, both of which have influenced his collection. The look of Mr. Lopez's stylized women, reminiscent of 1940's Hollywood, is adapted for modern wear in Mr. Hidalgo's hourglass tailoring.
He is also working with Dominican factories to produce the embroideries and logos sewn on some of his jackets, which are finished in New York.
"This is all me," Mr. Hidalgo said. "I don't have to collaborate anymore."
