dries

Dries Van Noten
Fall/Winter 2010

If only every woman had a closet full of Dries Van Noten and the score from Hitchcock's "Vertigo" as the soundtrack to their daily lives, we could only be so lucky.

the high priest

Rick Owens
Fall/Winter 2009
Doesn't this remind you of "The Matrix" with a little bit of "The Flowers of St. Francis"? An excellent menswear runway debut for Rick Owens.

mia

Dear Readers,

Excuse the lack of posts. Consider this a breather for not only me, but you as well before things pick back up. Adjusting to a new city and finding work can be time consuming beyond belief and as a result, draining on all fronts, especially my creativity. The fashion month coverage was more sparse than what I'd care for it to have been on this blog, but you can check out the dozens of reviews I wrote on the 212DRESSINGROOM blog and I'd recommend taking a peek at Bitch, Please's extensive reviews. Overall, I thought it was a weak season. Women are going to have a tough time balancing on insanely high heels and not looking ridiculous in harem panted jumpsuits or transparent laden pieces. The collections that really said something beyond what the trends dictated were the ones that really stuck out as defiantly beautiful and innovative with a bit of accessibility. If women's fashion has the edge of fantasy over men's, that's what should come through in the designs, however women of today need something functional and ultimately comfortable, wearable, and fitted to their own personalities. A seemingly impossibly magic trick to pull off, but it's what keeps fashion relevant and evolutionary.

Here are the top collections of the Spring/Summer 2009 season:

Dries Van Noten
Jil Sander
Narciso Rodriguez
Marc Jacobs
Ann Demeulemeester
Lanvin
Giles Deacon
Yves Saint Laurent
Calvin Klein
Balenciaga

paris: the song we sing

What would be the ideal music for a show in which the models looked like demented Fellini heroines wearing harem pants? A mean, throbbing UNKLE song remixed by DFA, of course. Once again, Stefano Pilati and DJ Michel Gaubert expertly choose the perfect song to complement a seductive and expressive collection.

summer madness

Another head spinning couple of weeks of fashion are behind us. Sigh. Milan and Paris and men's wear shows and the couture shows (too lazy to touch upon those, but I did love Lacroix's and Givenchy's) just blurred right into each other. I can't imagine actually being in the thick of it (actually, it's one of my eventual goals), but there were some interesting trends and shows along the way that really stood out amongst the glut. Shorts, loose shapes, pajama style dressing, and monochromatic looks (namely in day glo colors) were the general trends from the Milan and Paris shows. With men's wear it's important to note that men dress in a primarily conservative and simple way. Shirt, pants, suit, casual wear, and shoes are pretty much the bare bones of men's wear. That might sound like it's stifling to a creative mind, but working within that box can produce rich and exciting results. Here are my ten favorite shows that captured that essence of the tradition of men's wear but introduced something relatively inventive along the way:

1. Versace
2. Lanvin
3. Veronique Branquinho
4. Marni
5. Burberry Prorsum
6. Alexander McQueen
7. Maison Martin Margiela
8. Dries Van Noten
9. Prada
10. Junya Watanabe

To read more of my men's wear show coverage at the 212 Dressing Room blog, click here.

copy cat

Kanye West at the Lanvin men's S/S 09 collection in Paris

It's one thing that Clive bit off my shades of gray look, but dang Kanye, you had to go and steal my shorts, jacket, summer scarf, and smart glasses look too? I guess my bag of tricks is officially empty.

paris: givenchy

Justin Timberlake is the face of Givenchy’s latest men’s fragrance. In the ads he’s casually relaxed while jet-setting from concert to concert, recording new music for his adoring fans, and listening to the delightful tune on some mp3 player. Blah, blah, blah. How could such a safe ad campaign come from a house that’s currently creating some of the most goth, sexual, religious inspired, masterfully tailored clothes? I, for one, would think Mr. Timberlake crooning about his sexy back in leather cuffed shorts, leather leggings, a sleeveless button down shirt, and sleeveless double-breasted waistcoat/jacket would be a revelation. That was only look two in Riccardo Tisci’s brilliant spring men’s wear collection.

Tisci has endured a rocky tenure since taking over the women’s wear side of the brand. Pleasing critics here and there and confusing fashion followers with shows so cerebral it was impossible to fall in love with the clothes. However, he has proved he is an electric force in fashion, giving the Audrey Hepburn version of Givenchy an edgy, raw, and dark, and more recently focused, makeover. For his first men’s wear collection it’s in Tisci’s bones to give his audience something they’re not quite sure they’ll like at first, but it soon will resonate and becomes highly influential. Black and white was his base as well as the proportion of shorts over leggings with a structured top. A traditional two-button suit looked sensational in the same breath as a monochromatic hot pink look that included a daring lace button down, shorts, leggings, socks, and shoes. Transparency and density were at odds as were romantic and sporty in this collection. Warring ideas that confidently complement each other in the most complex of ways gives Tisci’s collections such freshness and excitement. Where else would you see such a dramatic and severe and yet soft and pure look on a tattooed punk?

paris: yves saint laurent

Yves Saint Laurent Homme
Spring/Summer 2009

Who needs a runway show when you can have a pretentious video installation in its place?

paris: dior homme

Dior Homme
Spring/Summer 2009
via Frillr
Those have to be the fugliest pants I've ever seen.

shorts or leggings? how about both!

Looks from Comme Des Garçons, Givenchy, and Veronique Branquinho
Spring/Summer 2009

Next spring keeps getting trickier and tricker.

60 and up

Models from Yohiji Yamamoto, Etro, and
Ann Demeulemeester

Gray is the new black at the European men's shows.

there's always next season

Alber Elbaz for Lanvin closed Paris fashion week, or rather fashion month, with his sublime and darkly sexy fall collection. He's a natural standout to end the dialogue of the fall collections. His statement was grand and modern in his use of manipulating and constructing fabric as well as mysterious and feminine with the inky color palette. Collections such as his, and a few others, invite those who want to watch and will appreciate an artist really thinking about design, the body, and the world. The points of view of such designers as Nicolas Ghesquiere for Balenciaga, Stefano Pilati of Yves Saint Laurent, Miuccia Prada, Raf Simons for Jil Sander, Jun Takahashi of Undercover, Christopher Kane, and Jack McCollough and Lazaro Hernandez of Proenza Schouler make fashion intoxicating and tuned into something connected to beauty and truth. After absorbing their craftsmanship and thought, there's a punch-drunk feeling of surprise and satisfaction completely different from ingesting any other art form.

Breaking down the geometry and design of things that we put on our body to protect us, illicit a certain feeling or mood, or remind us of something gone by or yet to happen was the big story on many of the runway narratives for fall. You can really tell if something seems new and fresh if you're eyes get a little bigger as it inspects each look, which could be found coursing through the threads in several standout collections. It may seem like a simple notion, but when they're so much fashion out there available for us to admire and possibly own, there has to be some voices that speak with greater articulation than others for us to truly be excited each season. Take into consideration there's an undeniable recession looming and the cost of designer goods climbs a little higher each day, then it becomes a greater challenge to decide where, or if, to spend one's hard earned dollar on quality, special clothes. All of that might deter from the fantasy and appeal of constantly buying and looking at the trends in fashion, but true fashion followers must persist because fashion inspires us to keep thinking and relishing in the quiet sensation of feeling confident and comfortable with what we're wearing for the day. Every morning the hulking decision of what to wear can be reduced to a simple pleasure if you were to a take a cue from one of the many great working minds in fashion. I'm sure a woman is going to feel at ease in those sinewy Jil Sander winter coats or a bit like a Hitchcockian heroine in those Michael Kors camel coats. A woman will never feel sexier than in a Balenciaga or Naricso Rodriguez LDB, both with the appropriate air of a sexy beast and a demure urbanite. Men can never feel more masculine, despite the big trend that says otherwise, in smartly tailored suits by Duckie Brown or Nautica. Rag & Bone proposed something tougher and rougher for fall, which feels more align with how a man should look, not the twee version so many other designers tapped for inspiration.

Fortunately the collections left me with my appetite being whetted just enough. Balenciaga, Yves Saint Laurent, Jil Sander, and Proenza Schouler make you forget about the rest. Duckie Brown, Rag & Bone, and Michael Kors have my mind racing with ideas of things I want to experiment with for fall. Unfortunately we have to wait until October for the next onslaught of models, big ideas, celebrity front row gawking, and of course, the clothes.

hussein chalayan

Seeing is always believing at Hussein Chalayan.

yves saint laurent

One show that I regret not looking at too closely from last season was Stefano Pilati's star-filled and mannish show for Yves Saint Laurent. Bare jewel tones and blazers missing sleeves with strong shoulders offered an interesting and effortless simplicity. Oh, and those YSL logo shoes and star accents that glittered were fun too. The knife sharp cuts and mannish tailoring were present for the fall collection, but it was harder, stronger, and better.

Normally I think it's terribly distracting when a designer sends a slew of models out in matching wigs and makeup. It makes them look less human, and less important because clothes are meant to be worn by people, not plastic looking hangers. However, there was a solidarity, a strength in numbers vibe if you will, in the black, blunt bowl cuts and noir lipstick. They almost looked like an army of Peggy Moffit look-a-like's with '80s wrap around shades. Once your eye moves from that shock, it will only be met with more things to rouse and intrigue. I love a good tweed and here it falls every so sharply in the form of coats, jackets, and pants. The silhouette of a belted waist, structure on top, and a flow of movement on bottom was consistent and very feminine. A charming charcoal coat with flecks of color and a suggestion of a cerulean blue beneath with fingertipless gloves and tall boots is an uncompromising look, but there is comfort in that fabric and texture, and a bit of hopefulness in the color that is more associated with summer and someplace hot. This was a built on collection of coats and outerwear, which is refreshing when it boggles the mind at the wispy nature of some other designer's creations for fall. It does get cold somewhere in the world, despite the effects of global warming, and Yves Saint Laurent will be there to offer you cozy single button coats, '80s toppers , and jackets that flow after the zips stops at the waist. Clean lines and color blocking ruled the dresses, even one going into that territory that's not alway the vulgar but just enough to titillate.

Shape and cut seems to be interesting French fashion more so than the other cities that have presented so far. Too bad for those cities because Pilati is onto something with his '80s-futuristic-everyday-femme-warrior.

balenciaga

When looking at a Balenciaga collection there's always a superbly executed high wire act being demonstrated with each seam, cut, and focused idea. The clothes always have such an interesting interplay between ideas, history, and Nicolas Ghesquière's own personal tastes. The balance between something hard/soft, sexy/demure, high/low shot, old/new, fantastical/wearable, becomes a form of fashion that is totally new and unseen. Ghesquière is one of the few tastemakers and true thinkers in fashion that gets us to think differently about what fashion means and what it will look like in the streets. Not everyone can afford the luxury of Balenciaga, but his influence is everywhere in those modish coats you see at Gap or H&M or those knockoff bags available at your local Target or Forever 21. His reach and touch is a sign of someone great. His fall collection did not disappoint. The provocation and freshness was there in a collection that was take on a perversely beautiful idea of bourgeois eroticism. Exposed flesh and a bit of kink made for one of the best collections of the season, if not the very best.

Last season, Nicolas Ghesquière sent out a controversial line up of models with slicked back hair, murderous gladiator heels, and armor like minidresses covered from seam to hemline in exploding flower prints. Fashion followers are still reeling from that show in all of its romantic rigidity. The look was too total for some or too constricting for a variety of body types. Understandable, but the runway is a forum for discussion and mood for Ghesquière. The hemlines, floral prints, and accessories will remain and bare their imprints for the season to come, and that is his genius. His prescient and engaging mind spells out the trends before the language is even created. For fall Ghesquière recreated midcentury looking architectural shapes with little black dresses that looked as if he took a pair of scissors and exposed his favorite parts of the female form. Pants were slim enough for the '80s with velvet tops swirling around the bust like a big paint stroke. Shoulders on jackets and coats were rounded to a slim point just above at the wrist. Delicate diamonds created an interesting frisson against the slick and naughty PVC coats. There were sportier pieces that had a wetsuit effect without looking too harsh. The last few looks consisted of Japanese screen prints but cut with such strong precision it could have been done by a laser.

With a collection with such vigor and vitality, it's almost a challenge for everyone else to catch up. Ghesquière's mind is essential to fashion continuously evolving and shifting us in new directions.

junya watanabe

I love when you can see a designer really thinking about how clothes relate to the body. The act of wearing clothes is a tacit agreement, creating a bond that extends to how you feel beneath the clothes and what you project on the outside. Junya Watanabe's fall collection was a very modern take on draping, something when done the right way, or at the very least an exciting way, can look almost couture in that with each fold and fall of the fabric it fits differently on every body. Each look rigorously worked that idea with a focus on the body and never once abandoning it.

The models, or figures rather, in the show were striking with their faces concealed with opaque headwraps and bulbous things poking out from beneath. The trend of veiling the face, a big a few seasons back, immediately connotes something about silencing or beheading women, only to use them their for their bodies, but here it doesn't come across as violent or misogynistic. It appears Watanabe wants us to look at the clothes and not be worried about the big beauty trends of the season. What is there on the body is fantastically draped in a myriad of ways, some that are familiar and others that are not. The smoky grays that were the color basis of the collection looked as if smog breezed up the body. It's an odd effect, which may make the models look like apparitions, but the eye goes immediately to the craftsmanship of clothes that slink and slither around the body. It wasn't all fluid lines and drapery, there were strong and structured peacoats and blazers paired with elongated skirts and pants, all in that urban gray and black. Gray and black are interesting colors because they're not as vibrant as obviously shocking colors in the crayon box, and yet there is a life to them that feels very relevant. The latter part of the collection blossomed with a smattering of flower prints splashed across the draped dresses with the model's faces finally exposed. The narrative and evolution of thought was so strong and evocative in this collection that you wish other designers, especially American designers, pushed the perimeters of fashion so hard and splendidly as Watanabe achieved in this collection.

undercover

As any great artist should, Jun Takahashi pondered several questions about the state of fashion in his fall collection for Undercover. Each looked seemed to be a walking question mark in search of the meaning of tailoring, sportswear, American streetwear, and of course, the future. I feel like Paris fashion is the most adept at looking at fashion in the future. Where will it be? Who will buy it? Who will design it? Such abstractions may seem pretentious for fashion, but we are what we wear, and why not ask questions, especially when they are so thoughtfully and oddly dazzling at Undercover.

The hooded sweatshirt, unlike any other article of clothing, has had a tremendous effect on how we define youth in the 21st century. In a world run rampant by man and woman-children, post-collegiates who don't want the responsibility of becoming their parents, and major fashion trends aimed at the tween set, the hooded sweatshirt has become a bit of a symbol for those of us who never want to grow up and want to wear something that comfortably reminds of what we would wear to play on the monkey bars. Ellen Page's entire wardrobe in "Juno" consisted of a variety of hoodies and Michael Cera clamored to his during his would-be first time in "Superbad." Grown up fashion magazines, more so men's magazines, tell us how to incorporate them into our work wardrobe. Michael Kors and Juicy Couture, among many other young, trendy labels, have started offering hoodies in cashmere and other luxe fabrics. Takahashi played with the concept of the hoodie in this collection, but here it was exaggerated to the ankles or done in fabrics you wouldn't expect. Puffer jackets, baggy trousers, and bulky sweaters are normally found on your average tenth grader, but here it was chic and something completely new. There's a certain comfort in those clothes that evoke something traditional, but the Daryl Hannah in "Blade Runner" makeup and coneheads on the models looked as if an alien from the distant future transported to a local high school and co-opted the new styles. The outerwear was especially strong with interestingly and intricately layered looking blazers, coats and a baby blue motorcycle jacket immersed under fur shoulders and straps across the bust. For such a futuristic show it never veered into something too austere or avant garde. Pick apart each look and there's something great and uniquely wearable along the way. If you're going to pay the price, you might as well get the greatest bang for you buck.

The idea of sportswear in relation to youth culture was done to death in New York without much precision or mature thought. Here it looks fresh and as if what we've been wanting to see has finally landed.

the couturier

As a man fashion is a matter of pragmatism and not the full on fantasy that is sold to women. Either that or I have lost my critical ability to look at women's fashion, but I couldn't wrap my brain around the recent Paris haute couture collections. They're stunning in their construction and aesthetic achievement, but I have no frame of reference for enjoying it. It's not for me and the narratives behind most of the collections are things that are of no interest to me (sea shells at Chanel, mermaids at Jean Paul Gaultier, and diamonds at Ellie Saab). However, I cannot stop admiring the unsettling and provocative beauty of Riccardo Tisci's collection for Givenchy. It's sparse, striking, and smolders in a way that feels fresh and curious about how to adorn the female form. The mannish tailored jackets that are flounced at the waist to emphasize femininity, the graphic black and white palette, the curved seams that at times burst into folds of fabric, and the fascination with leather pants culminated in a collection that was in his own way a take on the Givenchy staples (the little black dress, the white blouse, and a gamine sensibility) but is not concerned with being costumey or overly pretty like his older couture contemporaries. Since Tisci joined the house in 2005 he's attracted a new audience to follow his unique and at times avant garde brand of glamour and thought and I must say I'm included.


Click to watch his best ready-to-wear show to date.

pinot noir, possibly?

Clockwise: Looks from Jil Sander, Versace,
Burberry Prorsum, and Veronique Branquinho

I wonder what would be the Pantone number for that shade of a purple-red that's not quite oxblood nor full on deep cabernet. Plum, fig, merlot, whatever you want to call it, I like it. I like a lot. However, I think it's a little tricky to wear with my skin tone without making me look like some spilled a glass of red wine on me. It's a color you don't see people wear often, but I'm glad it made its presence known at the menswear collections in Milan and Paris.

separated at birth: pt. 2

Models from the Dior Spring/Summer 2008 Haute Couture show or contestants from "Paris is Burning"?

You be the judge.