Alexandre Herchcovitch Spring 2008 Mercedes Benz Fashion Week The Tents at Bryant Park September 5, 2007 Written by Wendy R. Williams Photographed by Eli Ceballos

For Spring 2008, Brazilian designer Alexandre Herchocovitch has deconstructed the tuxedo with touches of elegance and kink. One model marched down the runway in shackles. Tight high collars appeared from seemingly nowhere, adding a mysterious element to an otherwise conservative black dress, but it was to a conservative black dress worn with strappy gladiator shoes.

The late great London-based Vogue editor Isabel Blow was one of the first fashion taste makers to discover Herchcovitch. The English have a historic love for kink, an affection that incubated for them during the Victorian era. Perhaps that is what Ms. Blow saw in Herchcovitch (a nice Jewish boy raised in Catholic Brazil), a love of fashion that sizzles with a touch of repressed erotica.