Adam Selman Fall/Winter 2014: New York Fashion Week

One of the central motifs of Adam Selman's Fall/Winter 2014 collection is what at first glance appears to be an elegant cow print. In fact, it's a print from the country where cows are sacred: India. "The splash print is from the Holi dye festival," said the designer backstage before the show. "And the seed print is a traditional block prints from saris," he said of the other pattern that permeated the collection. "Whereas my first collection was very sexy and va-va-voom, this is a mashup of cultures."

The Indian motif of the designer's second collection was anything but heavy-handed––the prints appeared on tailored pencil skirts, cut-out jumpers, throw-on hoodies, and low-rise jogging pants. As you can probably tell, there was a strong streetwear element. Many of the models wore seed-printed headphones, their hair braided into messy cornrows by hairstylist Duffy. "It looks like it's been slept in but still has a form to it," Duffy said. "It took hours, but it's meant to look like she did it herself."

As it turns out, it's not just India that inspired the collection but a very specific story: that of a French mountain climber who in 2012 uncovered the wreckage of an Air India flight which crashed in 1966––including a box of emeralds, rubies, and sapphires. Evidently, there's still a good deal of va-va-voom in Adam's collection behind the paint splashes.

Photos by James Parker III | E-mail ONLINE@OPENINGCEREMONY.US & to be notified when the FW14 collection arrives at OC!