Libertine makes a splash at Target
Filed under: Style in the News
Target released the latest installation of its GO International collection over the weekend. This time, the chic-for-cheap line features roughly two dozen looks from the east-coast-meets-west-coast design duo known as Libertine. Using a simple color palette of white, beige, navy and black, Libertine's fashion forward pieces rely on a range of creative design twists to breathe new life into a few old familiar classics. For the most part, this old-meets-new-neutral-meets-bold conceit works.
What do I mean by that?
Consider the Funky on Fifth outfit: derived from a ho-hum navy blue pantsuit , the outfit has been updated with rose-printed shorts and a swinging contrast trench in admiral blue. Admittedly, when paired with the bow blouse as it is in this photo, the outfit looks costume-y. But I think if you wore the shorts and the trench with a basic top, you'd look be quite rakish.
Unfortunately, therein lines the problem with Libertine's looks -- they seem like caricatures of real fashion. The costume-y quality of the collection is especially pronounced when the pieces are worn as head-to-toe ensembles.
So the bottom line is this: the new Libertine line looks great (aside from the skull stuff and the capelet, which I hate), but just don't overdo it.
Last month, 
Late last week, Radar Online reported that the 
