A SEASON TO BEE

Fashion Week starring insects.

Spring is here, and everyone arrives to the meadow: models, a fashion editor, viewers, and paparazzi—all insects and other creepy-crawlies. Aponte uses matte colors, often tertiary, to create bustling scenes of the lead-up and the runway show. Before the show begins, the illustrations are visually busy, with no particular place for readers’ eyes to rest or focus; once the show begins, the compositions focus, though color saturation stays monotonously uniform. Various creatures walk the runway as each double-page spread emphasizes one color. The green page is conceptually inventive: models in green dresses appear reflected in the green eyes of green spectators, who hold up their cellphones to record. On the page highlighting white, fireflies—glowing in yellow-white—stride up the runway in gray-and-white capes. The inconsistent text sometimes scans satisfyingly: “ ‘What should we wear?’ ask the six-legged press. / ‘Who should we follow and how should we dress?’ ” Other times it stumbles: “ ‘It’s a season to BEE!’ exclaims Miss V. McQueen, / editor of BUZZ fashion magazine” (requiring incorrect syllabic emphasis). At the end, an extraneous, out-of-the-blue platitude—“In the spring, summer, fall, and winter, too— / the most important thing to BEE is… / YOU!”—undermines the high-fashion theme and falls flat.

Little fashion bugs deserve better.