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

the tailor, the magpie, the foodie

Reasons to love the winner of last night's Council of Fashion Designer of America's International Award, Belgian designer Dries Van Noten:

*He has a funny name. It's pronounced Dr-ee-z Van No-ten.

*He was apart of gang of avant garde Belgian designers known as the Antwerp Six that staged their own shows during London Fashion Week in 1988 to garner attention for the emerging and progressive talent coming out of their native country.

*His Fall 2006 menswear collection was a sleek and dapper homage to Brian Ferry set under a canopy of upturned umbrellas.

*"I just wanted to give the audience a bouquet of flowers."--Van Noten, on why he often chooses floral prints. He has a 60 acre estate outside of Antwerp, where he tends to his own garden.

*For his 50th fashion show, Van Noten hosted a three course formal dinner at an abandoned factory 40 minutes outside of Paris for 500 guests at a table that stretched 490 feet long. And what was for desert? Fashion, of course.

*He's remained truly independent over the past two decades, never advertising his brand and continues to be entirely self-financed.