UNDERLIGNE

www.Style.com Highlighting Doo.Ri's Under.Ligne February 5, 2009 Last night Doo-Ri Chung presented Under.Ligne, her lower-priced secondary collection, which hits stores in July. The 12-piece collection is a tight edit of the CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund winner's signatures-all in black, white, and gray. (She plans to rotate in a new color every season.) The highlights: A few tops had delicate zipper details that at first glance look like built-in jewelry. And hey, who's to argue with a free necklace in this recession? The black leggings with geometric quilt-stitched leather panels had a fresh, Mad Max-lite feel. And the scuba-inspired insets at the waist of simple black pencil skirt gave it no-duh instant style. That sense of deja vu you might feel is right on track, as some Under.Ligne pieces are reissued styles from collections past, such as the gray Grecian frock that's little sister to a Spring 2005 look. And in case you were wondering what she was thinking when putting the collection together, there's a T-shirt silkscreened with her notes and scribbles. (Don't you kind of think every designer should do this?) And Fall 2009 spoiler alert: the sequined fishnets she paired with one look will be in her show. While it's not our style to question a good thing, we had to ask, why now? "It feels like a natural progression," said Chung. "About a year ago, Stella [Ishii] suggested I do a second line. When I moved to a bigger space, everything just came together. It's so exciting to see it on mannequins, I've been looking at it on hangers for months!" Well, we're so excited to see it in the mirror-on ourselves. -Laurie Trott