I finished watching and reviewing the couture collections earlier than I expected - I feel like Superman now! - and so I’m pretty ready to fill you in with all my comments. In general I was pleased with what I saw, even if it seems more and more obvious in my opinion that Couture is becoming more and more similar to prêt-à-porter: everything becomes simpler, everything becomes more wearable.
Day 1
As usual Versace opens the couture runways in Paris, and this time I really hoped some of the subtlety Donatella put in both mens and womenswear collections was infused in this collection as well - what’s better than a subtle elegant couture gown? At the beginning I really thought this was the case - beautiful the total white or total black looks, even trousers on the runway, with sinuous cuts showing that much of skin just to be considered sexy without being vulgar. When the first electric blue piece went out I thought ‘ok, that is nice’. But then it started going worse and w(h)orse: giant oversize belts, more and more skin showing, and more and more predictable gowns. Missed opportunity.
Day 2
Schiaparelli opened the day with the collection designed by the in-house team after the departure of Marco Zanini. I want to spend some words on this line even if I didn’t quite like it, because I’m really worried for the future of this just-reborn brand. I don’t see where it’s going, and unless the next creative director really pushes the boundaries, this one is going to be the proof that sometimes is better to leave the maison dormant than to restore it. This collection was nice, but Schiaparelli can’t be nice. It has to be SHOCKING. And overall, it lacked cohesion.
Thank god Rad Hourani (photo 1) saved me. Even if it was a very short collection, more a presentation than a runway show actually, it was great in every sense, from putting menswear in a couture show to the clothes in themselves, merging the polished quality of kimono clothing to details from male suits, like the lapels. Everything is extremely futuristic - just look at the materials. And the very bright pop of colour wasn’t missing either.
Colour which was present in Dior(photo 2) as well. It’s amazing to see how Raf Simons can go from an inspiration to a radically different one in the space of a season: how could the 'period’ gowns we saw last season come from the same maison as this colourful contemporary extravaganza? There were some unusual shots for Dior: varnish thigh-length boots, transparent plastic coats, Picasso-like prints. Still, there was Dior at its full: ballerina dresses, strapless gowns with full skirts, luxurious materials, some bling which never risks of being over the top. It was a feast for the eye and for the soul, as well as for the mass of Dior addicts dreaming after seeing such an amazing show.
I was disappointed by Giambattista Valli (photo 3) as he’s one of the designers I like the most. But this time there was nothing original about his collection. Don’t get me wrong: I really think this looks were beautiful, but I saw this collection more as a tribute than as an original work. It’s Chanel, maybe even Dior - but very little Giambattista Valli.
Day 3
It was smart of Kaiser Karl to open Chanelcouture show (photo 4) with an explosion of solid colours; and it was as smart as this to pair these colours with simple straight-lined silhouettes. Of course there were the cream and powder tones dear to the maison, but everything seemed more precise and detailed, brighter in some way; even the total black looks had strong, bold lines; the flowers in the last looks - except being too heavy in some instances - looked like glowing of a new light. New things came from little details: like the exaggerated shoulders or the slightly more feminine edgy atmosphere of the whole show.
Julien Fournié chose feminine elongated silhouettes. His clothes went from the simplest to the extreme of decoration, with coral-like necklaces and accessories and multicoloured prints.
There was Russia in Ulyana Sergeenko’s collection (photo 5) as usual. It was very visible in her looks, as usual. Heavier in some of them, subtler in others. Still, what I really liked from her this time was the caricatural quality of her work: everything was exaggerated until it became ironic. The prints were extremely graphic and bold, the model was forced in rigid postures by the dresses, the very high waist of many looks made the model’s legs look extremely long - maybe too long. But after all, it was obvious that was the goal. Haute couture that can’t take itself too seriously anymore. Ulyana is growing up.
The bamboo forest on Armani Privé catwalk (photo 6) was enough to understand we were in Asia for this collection. But then, the oriental inspiration came very strongly from the clothes themselves: there was chiffon, glossy silk, some bamboo printed ethereal fabric, kimono belts, and an essentiality of cut which one can only find in Japanese tradition. The colours were lighted of a very toned down glow and the bling was to the minimum, extremely chic.
Day 4
A 'Lady Gagaish’ extravaganza with Frank Sorbier opened the fourth day, with encrusted lace, voluminous gowns made of what looks like chiffon foulards and sculptural outfits. More relaxed was the atmosphere with Elie Saab (photo 7). Every season I say 'next one I WON’T put his looks in my post’, because you know, it’s true, he always does the same things. Yet, you can’t help looking at his gowns with open mouth and a sparkle in your eyes. They are really beautiful gowns, no other word can be used to describe it appropriately. And I must admit, there was something different this year: no strapless draped glamorous gowns, but more traditional silhouettes and shapes, like princesses from a not-so-far-away past sliding down the catwalk. The glamour was there but it was in some way less glam and more sophisticated.
Jean Paul Gaultier presented his first collection after the closing of the prêt-à-porter line. I was disappointed. It felt like watching a Moschino show from the 80s. Viktor & Rolf (photo 8) never disappoint instead. They go very wearable and understated when they do ready-to-wear, but with couture they choose art all the way. Yet, it’s not art for art’s sake; it’s art AND fashion, because apart from all the irony they put in their clothes, the exaggeration, the fantasy in their looks, there are always those outfits that stay on the verge between couture and ready-to-wear. This collection was fantastic in taking a fairy-tale little gown - I can clearly see Snow White wearing every single piee - with puffy skirts and flowery maxi-prints, and making it sort of resort, paired with flip-flops and essential straw hats.
If you want a perfect end of the day, just ask Valentino (photo 9). I was skeptical about this collection at the beginning: it looked like something already seen, it looked like D&G, bla bla bla. After the fifth or sixth look I was in love - again - with what Valentino designers had to offer. It was all about love: as simple as that. There were lines from literary works stitched to the skirts of the more opulent gowns, but love was especially visible in the romantic aura surrounding every piece of the collection. Russia gave the inspiration for the decorations and with the prints, colourful and traditionally decadent at the same time. Nothing was too much, everything was flawless.
Day 5
It’s good to see there’s someone apart from the big brands doing very good couture fashion. This was the case with Serkan Cura (photo 10). It was definitely over the top. Yet, every piece started from one simple piece: the bustier. And so, here they went with countless versions of it, with fur, chiffon, lace. There was even a male model wearing one of the pieces. And it was sexy.
I finish my review by mentioning Ralph & Russo which presented a very pleasant collection even if it lacked cohesion overall: it looked like there were two parallel collections going on. Nevertheless, there were some happy results, like the layered skirts - kinda reminded me of Capucci’s 'Nine skirt gown’ -, the algid floor-length capes and the total chiffon looks.
I’m completely exhausted after having covered all the three major menswear fashion weeks and if I think Couture Fashion Week has just started and will be over in just some days - this means I’m going to cover it very soon - I think I’m going to die - and we haven’t got to RTW Fashion Weeks yet! But after all, I love fashion, and that’s why this is sweet labour for me - since I started studying fashion for my MA my life is completely soaked in it, today I was at a conference with three of the most important Italian fashion historians - I love my life!
But apart from my personal life, here we go with the best runways from Paris, day by day!
Day 1
Yes, it was a very exciting fashion week after all, and I was surprised by a city which I thought was fashion only for the marvelous past it had in the business. 22/4_Hommes (photo 1) was a great shot to start with. I enjoyed this collection the more I went ahead with the looks. Still could do without the fur, but in general it was classy in a new way, even if giving a sort of reference to the past. Loved the elongated silhouettes and the edgy cut of jackets and coats.
Lemaire then delivered a collection for hipsters growing up, while Walter van Beirendonck was brave for opening a collection in Paris after the recent happenings at Charlie Hebdo with a top on which the sentence ‘Stop terrorising our world’ was written. It was a strong message, if not for the content in itself - it’s a pretty simplistic and obvious statement - at least it reminded everyone fashion can be used as a very big means of communication. Apart from that, I saw a lot of reference to art in this very eccentric collection, especially Picasso and Braque: colourful pullovers with faces, a lot of patchwork, even three-dimensional. And there was eroticism also: 'Explicit’ was written on some of the looks, and explicit enough was the mini sex toy hanging from the chain of the accessory decorating some of the pieces.
It would be a lie if I said I didn’t like Valentino collection. Yet, it was nothing like the last collections, and this time Maria Grazia Chiuri and Pierpaolo Piccioli went for something very very understated that, after all, really risked of being not interesting enough. The only very positive thing I can point is the fact they finally chose to use some more popping colours than usual - even if, again, everything was really subtle. But this is Valentino, of course.
We’ve understood reminiscence is going to be a big inspiration among designers for the next few seasons. Raf Simons (photo 2) took the theme and made it his own in a shocking way. The coats were covered in drawings and writing tags, from the most infant-like to the ones more appealing to adolescence and the rebelliousness that comes with it. The clothes talked about time: raw hems, floor-length proportions mimicking something like 'too big for your age’, and the last, fantastic looks, 'ruined’ by holes but at the same time getting their charm exactly from those flaws, because they talk about time, and time and memories are some of the most precious goods we have in life.
Balenciaga (photo 3), under the direction of Alexander Wang, instead, had no flaw which could be apparently found in its looks. Not even a seaming could be seen. It’s such perfection that you can’t even imagine it can exist. But it can, and after all Balenciaga has always been about this: construction and structure before anything else. Nothing more, nothing less. Just the piece of clothing and the person wearing it.
Day 2
3.1 Philipp Lim put together formalwear with dynamic materials, shapes and details, while when I saw Kolor collection I thought, at the beginning, 'Ooops, there’s someone here copying Missoni’; but then I rethought my judgement and kinda enjoyed the overall collection, with its subtle playfulness. Loved the trouser details, like pockets and closures, applied to coats.
You can’t help talking about a collection everyone talked about just because models were actually walking down the runway with their 'little friends’ hanging freely in front of the audience. Yes, I’m talking about Rick Owens. Apart from this little detail, been overlooked by the designer who defined it as 'juvenile transgression’, I really think there was something wrong in this collection. Believe me, I’m all for research on new ways to do fashion, but apart from very few looks, it was just formless rags hardly covering the body. And the dicks bouncing freely down the runway just distracted you from the most important thing: clothes.
At least there was Louis Vuitton (photo 4) to comfort us all. Angels were singing in my head as soon as I saw the first look and immediately fell in love with this collection. It was great in its simplicity. The clothes in themselves were just plain, ordinary clothes, but everything was superbly toned up with the quality of material, the perfect cut - have you ever seen such perfection in cut, shape and proportion? GOD, I’m crazy about it! - and the print, which was sublime, being figurative as well as optical, looking like a giant tattoo sometimes, and a maxi decoration in some other instances. Classic monogram bags were the right complement for such an amazing view.
Dries Van Noten offered a great variety of clothes of which I particularly liked the quilted trousers. Alexander Wang (photo 5) hit the jackpot with his own collection again after Balenciaga. It’s now obvious, he elevated activewear to its first and foremost inspiration and style and we’re always happy to see what such a motive can bring to fashion. This time it looked more summery than anything you can possibly wear for winter, and the Hawaiian-like prints make this impression stronger. Loved it anyway. It’s like waiting for the summer to come ASAP.
Viktor & Rolf presented a collection which was less conceptual than usual, still loved the digitised print and the colour palette for the slick skinny-fit suits.
Day 3
Maison Margiela went very 70s with a wearability we don’t expect from the maison - is it a sign of the changes happening with John Galliano’s return? Ann Demeulemeester instead confused me a little bit with the huge amount of pieces they sent down the runway, but overall there were some very interesting details, like the rows of dozens of buttons going over tops, trousers and coats, as well as the heavy layering of some pieces.
Juun.J chose XL proportions with military vibe and formalwear as the ingredients of this new collection. Kris Van Assche instead manipulated camouflage and made it urban and appealing.
Comme des Garçons (photo 6) is always one of those collections you expect with excitement because you know it’s going to explosive. This time it seemed like the main focus of the designer was the research on male suit. There were reinvented proportions, buttons moved from one place to another, oversize shorts instead of trousers, a real revolution of the most conservative piece in the male wardrobe. The dreamy part - never missing in CDG collection- ? Total tattoo look.
Givenchy (photo 7) was another one you would probably like to see. Despite the usual references to gender crossing in fashion these days, there was something very masculine about this collection, and something very erotic too. I don’t know it it was for the colout combination - guess black and these tones of red and orange together turn me on. I absolutely adored the print looking like a Persian rug.
J. W. Anderson knows what he’s doing and he does it in such an amazing way that you start wondering if Loewe (photo 8) has ever been so amazingly fascinating. This time it seemed every garment was infused with a retro 60s atmosphere which really made it look like an authentic vintage piece of clothing. Yet, it has the brightness - in colour, in cut, in material - of today.
Day 4
If it wasn’t obvious, the 'UFO’ written on some of Kenzo pieces (photo 9) swept away all the doubts you could have about the inspiration of this collection. Yet, the biggest achievement for the designers of the maison was to talk about something so otherworldly as aliens in such a down-to-earth way. Irony in the presumably 'alien’ symbols - but there were actually human symbols mixed with them as well - covering total looks or combined to form messages added that smile which sealed the entire collection. Genius and futuristic the leather bundles as bags. Études Studio (photo 10) was not one of the most innovative collections, but it was eye-catching for sure, and I loved the reference to architecture visible in the geometry of the patterns and in the structure of many of the looks.
Dior Homme went for businessmen with a touch of colour this time, Wooyoungmin chose soft comfy silhouettes and, to close the day, Miharayasuhiro displayed decadence in an opulent way, with denim torn apart and enriched by brocade-like prints.
Day 5
InUndercover’s collection(photo 11) everything was thought to the last detail: the velvet of the coat was perfect to accentuate the beautiful bright shade of blue; many pieces had a back as important as the front in terms of decoration; some outerwear even had a pocket for iPhone6. It was young, fresh and perfect for the metropolitan boy of today.
No Editions delivered a collection of basic classic silhouettes with soft cozy fur - I only hope that was faux fur. Paul Smith was somewhat more polished than usual, it seems he wants to focus on the suit and on geometrical patterns. From Umit Benan I appreciated the inspiration coming from sea - fishermen were everywhere. Still wished he went a little bit further with this inspiration, making it more modern - some looks really looked like they were actual fishermen’s clothes. Loved the warm knit in multicoloured patterns.
Thom Browne (photo 12) was the perfect ending to Paris Fashion Week - even if he wasn’t the very last designer to show. It was subtler than usual, but after all, it was total black. And it’s so genius to present a total black collection, even more if the obvious theme of it all is mourning - and if this mourning comes at the end of Paris Fashion Week. Amazing quality of the cut, there is every ingredient that makes Thom Browne recognisable, included the jacket + shorts suit. Feminine-inspired pieces for men were alternated to more manly silhouettes. The thing I liked the most was, paradoxically, the life exuding from every garment, like in the aztec print beautifully camouflaged in a ton-sur-ton black: there is life after death, and Thom Browne wants to be designer in it as well.
The honour of actually closing in Paris was given, of course, to Hedi Slimane for Saint Laurent. I understand Slimane’s style is 70s, edgy, rock, but there should be something changing, because in this way I’m just getting the same thing every season. And then there were too many too similar looks. Apart from very few strong pieces, in general it was something extremely predictable.
This was another great and exciting week for fashion, with cruise shows busying fashion experts’ schedules and announcement of new collections and collabs :D
Of course the most important news of the last days was Christian Dior 2016 Resort collection, presented in Cannes - where it’s currently held the Cannes Festival, and you can be sure I’ll post a review of the best and worst dressed of the event when it finishes on May 24th - at Le Palais Bulle, Pierre Cardin’s architecturally extravagant house.
And architecture was not a secondary thought in Raf Simons’s design process this time. First, fabrics: they varied from boldly coloured tartans to mesh and metallic looking see-through textiles giving texture and structure to the outfits. Shapes were undoubtedly solid-looking, with raglan sleeves giving a sort of armour-like allure which is maybe not usual Dior, but it was anyway credible for its pairing with very thin waistlines, V-necks and pleated skirts. Colours were really subtle, apart from fresh brushed of orange and blue - it reminded me of Rauschenberg’s beds colour palette - or repeated pattern of pseudo-flowers taking you back to the art nouveau era.
Among the new collections which have already been released in stores there’s Lulu Kennedy for Marks & Spencer: the capsule is definitely nailing it - I’ve noticed most of the fashion websites I follow are talking about it - and we all know that this year you can’t really do wrong when you go all the way for the boho chic style. Even if I think that in general it’s going to read really cheap in a couple of months - most of the pieces are really too obvious in my opinion - there are some cute things, like the little purse you can see in the photo above - but I would do without the beads.
It’s become a cult for fashion lovers and it’s definitely one of the fashion events we all wait for every year: the collab collections by H&M. This year the luxury brand which is going to design for the low-cost retail giant is Balmain with its creative director Olivier Rousteing. I will be honest, I don’t really follow Balmain’s creations, I’m not a super fan of the brand, but of course, it’s always interesting to see what designers from deluxe brands create for H&M. From what I see in the promotional photos released with the announcement - photos featuring two of the hottest models of the moment, Jourdan Dunn and Kendall Jenner, nice marketing strategy - I would probably like this edgy look - and isn’t the folding skirt that Jourdan is wearing a reproduction of a skirt I’ve seen in one of Balmain’s latest collections? Let’s wait for November to see more. Another nice collection which I’ve heard about this week is the eyewear collab by jewellery designer Nicholas King and eyewear brand London Retro. All the profits will go to Orbis, a charity which operates in the world’s most troubled zones to help people with blinding conditions. Fashion for a good cause, always something I love!
I know all of you already know about this - when it comes to things having to do with Rihanna the news go viral instantaneously. Our ‘favourite’ singer - no, she’s not my favourite singer at all, but how can’t you love her when she’s always first row in every fashion event with extravagant and absurd outfits? - has been chosen by Dior for the new campaign ‘Dior Secret Garden IV’, filmed in Versailles. Stunning setting and view, I even think the clothes they chose for her fit her personality. Unfortunately I thought she is really strange looking when walking - those hip-moving is too exaggerated not to be parodied by the whole Internet - and running - can’t she run in heels? This is a must for all fashion bitches like her! No, I’m sorry RiRi, this was not enough for me.
Scenes from the set: the satin diner uniform shirt and silk-screened denim, as featured on-set at the Spring 2018 CALVIN KLEIN #205W39NYC campaign shoot.
It looks like Louis is wearing a Raf Simons x Smiley T-Shirt on stage tonight. He previously wore a T-Shirt from this collaboration in black and yellow.
A (slightly) closer look at the shirt :)
Please note the price is in mexican pesos — around $390 dollars.
It looks like Louis is wearing a Raf Simons x Smiley T-Shirt on stage tonight. He previously wore a T-Shirt from this collaboration in black and yellow.
