Irenebrination: Notes on Architecture, Art, Fashion, Fashion Law & Technology

That post-apocalyptic, Darwinian feel: Rodarte S/S 10

In yesterday's post I briefly wrote about the way some designers have tackled notions of femininity throughout their collections at New York Fashion Week.

Marc Jacobs may have wowed the press with his ballet inspired collection, others such as Alberta Ferretti’s Philosophy focused on cute shorts and light dresses with Pop Arty prints or sequinned appliquéd motifs of lips, alternated with butterflies or eyes, in a nude, peach and blue palette and with sheer and matte contrasts.

Rather than Pop Arty Betsey Johnson’s collection was childishly tartish in a Patricia Field kind of way, with colour clashes, tiered dresses, neon leopard prints, tulle ruffles and puffed skirts.

I guess this is not the proper place where to launch into a diatribe about how modern women are seen by contemporary designers, but it’s interesting to see that while some designers tend to conceive women as sweetly cutesy dolls and ballerinas or file them under the "empty headed partying tribe" label, others such as the Mulleavy sisters interpret modern women as aggressive amazons, living in post-apocalyptic times.

Maybe they are right, after all our society could be fairly considered similar to the set for a post-apocalyptic film in which, too often, equality doesn’t exist.
 
Apart from condors and vultures, while designing this collection the Mulleavys must have had in mind a dystopic future in which women are closely related to fierce Medeas, destructive Medusas and slightly terrifying Boudiccas, go around with war tattoos painted on their arms and have a rather complicated wardrobe of deconstructed, almost gravity-defying dresses.

We have become familiar with the Rodarte sisters' shapes and silhouettes, and, for this collection, they were again the starting point, the main difference though was that the garments were constructed using a combination of fabrics and materials – leather strips, braided fabrics, black shiny feathers, wool cobwebs, distressed and tie died fabrics, nets, bits of macramé lace and crocheted pieces, appliquéd gems, stones and sequins and random scraps of burnt textiles with the consistency of gauzes – assembled together in an earthy palette going from rusty to black and swamp green.

At times these post-apocalyptic armours were draped around the bodies sensually, while leather strips crisscrossed the torso, twisting around it like snakes, zippers decorated skin-tight trousers and metal plates created armours on Nicholas Kirkwood’s extreme high-heeled  shoes.

Rodarte’s women are in a league of their own: the feathers incorporated on the bodices of their dresses are worn as if they were cannibalistic war trophies rather than decorative elements. Undoubtedly these women are survivors moving in a dark landscape and in a cynical society.

So far the sisters showed their Darwinian instincts were strong enough to survive even in our financially distressed times.

There is a problem, though, the Rodarte girls are in danger of repeating themselves a bit too much, and, as much as their draped formula has worked until now, come next season they will have to come up with something different and maybe also slightly less Edward Scissorhands-meets-The Crow, avoiding in this way to recurrently fall into the same theme.

An interesting habit has prevailed in this edition of New York Fashion Week: designers have tried to divide women in two categories - romantically sweet and slightly superficial or aggressively subversive Amazons - without realising women often escape “classifications”, being more similar to a two-headed Janus constantly looking in opposite directions.

I guess that the designer who will understand this simple trick perfectly balancing these aspects of the female mind, will finally manage produce a truly original collection.

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A ruched, frilled and ruffled affair at New York Fashion Week

Right before New York Fashion Week started silvery and golden studs, spikes and fringes of tinkling metallic cones were still all the rage both in clothes and accessories.

A while back I interviewed a footwear designer who actually revealed to me he had stopped designing shoes for women and focused on men’s footwear because the current trend wasn’t favourable to his elegant and chic inspirations, but it was all about aggressive shapes and silhouettes with nasty spikes protruding practically everywhere.

New York Fashion Week changed it all, though, and femininity became the keyword for many designers. Though there were too many designers who mistook femininity for neutral colours and cutesy prints, others reinterpreted the theme and tried to create a feminine look through frills, ruches and ruffles.

A few days ago we saw at Preen’s which are the consequences of the “ruffled approach”, in their silk ruffled numbers in shocking pink or black and lace inserts but that was only the start: Gilles Mendel at J. Mendel mainly focused on sculptural and sharp designs, adding a softer touch with tulle and organza details that created frills around the bodice or the skirt on draped lemony and orange dresses and beige, white or ice evening gowns.

Severity was the keyword at Julian Louie’s as his rather geometrical and precise collection in neutral shades proved, but there was still room for softness in organza ruffles applied to the hips on skirts and mini-dresses, soft round ruffled collars and cascades of fringe-like elements and Swarovski crystals.

Yet the king of the ruched, frilled and ruffled look was definitely Marc Jacobs.

In a way, looking at his collection it was inevitable to hear Coco Chanel’s words echoing in your mind, “Le Scheherazade c'est facile. Une petite robe noir c'est difficile” (The Scheherazade look is easy. A little black dress is difficult.)

Chanel criticised with these words Paul Poiret and his over-embellished and lavish designs inspired by Oriental trends, highlighting how it’s easy to come up with an extremely original yet over-decorative and maybe slightly ridiculous look, while it's difficult to strip things down and create something minimally unique.

Jacobs quoted as inspirations for his collection, the theatre and ballet, without mentioning any specific play, show or performance. The fashion media tried a few comparisons, but, in my opinion, there is only one comparison that truly works and it’s the one with Poiret.

There were echoes of the “King of Fashion” in Jacobs’ oversized harem pants, in his metallic dresses covered with swirling waves of pleated ruches and ruffles, almost modern interpretations of Poiret’s "1002nd Night" silver lamé and green gauze dress with harem pants covered in blue, green, red and yellow beads designed in 1911. 

Winged pointy sandals were crossovers between traditional Japanese geta sandals and the petite shoes worn in Le minaret by Mademoiselle Corbé. Some skirts were excessively frilly, and ruffles seemed to appear even in more severe looks such as pin-striped trousers and jackets.

There were ruches and ruffles of any size and dimension, expanding and contracting like little fans, decorating the shoulders and cuffs of a sequinned Pierrot-evoking net-like "costume" - oh sorry - I mean cropped trouser suit or covering a short nude number that looked more like a crossover between a ballerina and a clown dress.

More sporty inspirations were introduced via little cardigans, long light knitwear dresses and cyclist shorts worn with matching bum bags (spare us the bum bag mania, please).

Some commentators saw echoes of Rei Kawakubo, others mentioned the spirit of the Kabuki theatre seeing the white make up and blood red lips, most saw in the collection endless originality (which, to tell you the truth, after days in which banality reigned supreme, it's almost understandable...), but, essentially, the collection proved  that Jacobs may not be a genius, but a clever stylist with a big enough archive and a rather interesting imagination.

You wouldn’t otherwise explain the success of the underwear as outerwear look (a trend as old as Madonna) with bras and corsets worn on top of formal shirts, sheer leggings and footless socks worn under dresses and shorts and even tights peeping over the top of pants.

Layering it all did the final trick, but it's right when you saw all that carefully layered style that Chanel's words came to mind, "Le Scheherazade c'est facile...".

Maybe only/if Jacobs strips down a bit his look we will be able to see if he's an irreverent genius or just a very talented and imaginative stylist. Until then we can only guess.  

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New York Fashion Week and the bad, the good and the hopeful

There are people in the fashion industry that could easily put to shame Iago’s doubleness.

I have indeed witnessed media people telling me they hate a specific designer, finding themselves by chance in front of the designer in question three minutes after revealing their dislike to me and suddenly starting to praise their latest collection as if it were the best thing that had happened in fashion after Dior’s New Look.

This sad tendency to, well, simply faking it, often dictated by a Darwinian instinct to survive in the downturn and preserve one’s highly paid job, is mirrored in the reports that are coming to us from the current New York Fashion Week.

It’s strange how the American fashion media seem to have joined forces and decided to write only more or less nice things about what they have seen on the New York runways.

It sounds like a good stratagem to convince people to go out and buy the new collections once they will be available, but do they really think customers are so silly to believe them?

Claiming a collection is actually redundant or plainly boring would maybe cost you next season’s invitation to that specific catwalk show (if there will be a fashion week come next season, that is…), but at least it would save your integrity (admitting you still had one) and even help that specific designer to improve.

If you read the previous posts about NYFW, you may think I’m repeating myself, but apart from a very few designers, the majority of those ones who showcased their collections so far have showed a lack of credible inspirations, research and cohesion.

Ohne Titel showed Egyptian inspirations can lead to intriguingly modern collections, yet Diane von Furstenberg turned Egypt into a sort of “Indiana Jones turns into a hippy, then goes to club” theme, coming up with animal printed adventurer suits matched with neon coloured bangles.

If you take aside the neutral colour palette, crocheted details and use of denim, nothing changed at  Hervé Léger by Max Azria were the pièces de résistance were, obviously, the skin-tight dresses.

The list of unsatisfying collections could go on forever including all those designers who think the definition “a touch of femininity” means floral prints, ribbons randomly placed here and there, powdery lace shirts and soft cutesy shorts. My personal list of collections that stinks also includes Victoria Beckham’s.

I admit she is actually a genius: she has done nothing else but remixing all the bits and pieces she likes about her designer wardrobe, and cleverly put them all together in her own designs, this is why these hybrid creatures are simply perfect Franktenstein monsters. This is also why it’s impossible for me to rant about her column dresses and peplum dresses and blah blah dresses (does she know women also wear trousers?) in a positive way. 

The last couple of days reinforced two statements: tailored sportswear is a trend; young designers do it better.

Alexander Wang obviously proved the former, but it’s Yohji Yamamoto that showed in his Y3 collection for Adidas you can take sportswear inspirations further and in particular start from something as popular and often not very inspiring as soccer, and turn it into a very important element for a rather original collection.

There were plenty of nationalistic T-shirts and shoes, plus jackets in techno fabrics in the Y3 collection, but the standouts were the black tailored suits that called to mind the elegance of early referee uniforms, deconstructed soft jersey tops and skirts, and laser cut vests and dresses that reproduced in their design the goal net.

The best effects were actually achieved by pairing a long goal net-like skirt with a cropped jacket, but also the tiered dresses-cum-jumpsuit were rather interesting.

A very apt "soccer finale" with Zinedine Zidane closed the show, and, though that was a clever marketing ploy, it looked more like the cherry on the cake. 
 
If only Thom Browne had stuck to sportswear, maybe things would have been much better.

After successfully managing to convince men to adopt his cropped skinny pants -  the sort of look that would give a massive heart attack to traditional tailors - now Browne is presenting them with a new idea, extremely wide (almost palazzo pants) trousers or cropped pants with shirt cuffs.

Prints of palms and swordfish and cases covered in shells lacquered in thick black, gray or white paint seemed to evoke atmospheres à la "The Old Man and The Sea", while polka-dot prints scattered on a halter-top jumpsuit, white holey trench coats and space headgear were crossovers between Courrèges, Cardin and the realm of the uncannily bizarre.

Menswear offers maybe the chance to experiment even more than womenswear, but there were points in the catwalk show where you wished Browne had left behind huge circular sequins scattered on suits and trench coats or the nets wrapped around the models' head to focus on more functional clothes.
 
Among the best catwalk shows that took place during NYFW there was definitely the one from the San Francisco’s Academy of Art University students. 

Kara Sennett may have gone for a body-con look, but I found the choice of colours rather beautiful, and also bearing a sort of arty connection since it was inspired by British painter David Hockney; Brittney Major created quite cute plaid dresses and trench coats; Richelle Valenzuela designed ethereal dresses with circular organza motifs that created interesting movement as the models walked down the runway (though they reminded a lot of Christopher Kane's S/S 09 collection...); Amanda Cleary's pieces had a sort of architectural and sculpted touch about them and Jie Pan's designs were rather geometrical.

My favourite designers out of this group were Thai designer Sawanya Jomthepmala who designed quite beautiful tailored trousers and jackets with futuristic origami elements, and Bulgarian Marina Nikolaeva Popska. The latter showcased some well-executed knitwear pieces characterised by interesting shapes and quite beautiful colour combinations, think Missoni on acid and you may get an idea.

The Academy of Art University Students showed that, though there may be not much hope to find exciting collections by the more established or mainstream designers, the new generations may offer something freshers and much more interesting.

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More on I.P.F.O. (Identified Pilfered Fashion Object) # 1

Remember the post on the JCDC/Schiaparelli gloves? Well, if you are too lazy to make them and would like to find them at an affordable price (or if, like me, you are on a mission to find how much this pilfered trend will become popular this season), check out Sportmax’s version of the Schiaparelli gloves.

Rather than going for the classic black gloves with red nails, Sportmax opted for extra short/short coloured gloves (black, charcoal, blue, red or peach) with metallic nails.

You can see Sportmax AW 09 collection and check out their gloves here.

Also Swedish designer Anna Sara Dåvik went for a black glove-metal nails approach.

Jewellery designer Dominic Jones went down the same route, though in his case the nails are made of white gold and the gloves look slightly more aggressive.

I must admit I prefer the original red nails/black or white glove effect. Ah, who knows what Schiap may have said about all this "nail gloves" obsession.

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New York Fashion Week and the quest for an interesting inspiration

There is one thing that fascinates me about designers and that’s how they tackle specific inspirations for their collections.

It’s not uncommon for designers to say that a particular collection was inspired by, say, a painting, and it’s usually rather interesting to see how that painting inspired a print, a colour palette or a silhouette.

In a nutshell it’s always interesting to see where, or rather how far, an inspiration can lead you.

This is what annoyed me about what has been going on so far at New York Fashion Week: what we saw so far could mainly be considered as a pile of ready-to-wear clothes based on one idea, selling as much as possible, but lacking craftsmanship, beauty and interesting inspirations.
 
I was therefore happy to see some inspirations coming back in a few collections yesterday.

You may like or not Alexander Wang’s work, and his crowd of "It" girls, but the young designer definitely managed to get a precise inspiration, rugby, and rework it into his clothes.

Sweatshirts were half turned into corsets and tied at the back with leather strings reproducing the traditional hand stitched leather rugby ball, a trick also applied to leather shorts and, in some ways, also to the leather wrist clutches that looked more like deflated rugby balls.

In the early days of rugby, the balls were covered in pigskin, but the material was banned in the 30s when it became clear that it wasn’t cost efficient. From then on the material of choice became leather, divided in four pieces, usually dyed brown and sewn together on the inside.

This story seemed to have been on Wang's mind as he employed tanned leather for his well-structured biker jackets, shoulder patches on sweatshirts, details on shorts, trousers and hats that looked more like rugby headguards.

The rugby inspiration was also clear in the designer's light stripy and cropped knitted pieces, in fluffy black and white jumpers, and in the ample and voluminous silhouette of the sleeves of his sweatshirts that called to mind the shoulder protections worn by rugby players.

In the second part of the catwalk, Wang briefly returned to his trademark body hugging designs with cut out motifs around the hip area (an idea apparently applied to the back of the socks...) and also included a few sweatshirts with sheer inserts.

As a whole it wasn’t a bad collection, but editing it down to a maximum of 30 looks and a minimum of 20 would have probably avoided a few fashion faux pas such as a cumbersome and rather shapeless cape with an integrated hat-like hood.

Now that Wang has proved he can design chic sportswear, he could maybe focus on working onto something slightly more timeless than sportswear with an edge.

Being Ralph Rucci the first American designer in more than 60 years to be invited to show under his own name in Paris by the French Chambre Syndicale de la Haute Couture since Mainbocher in the 1930s, it was clear that Chado Ralph Rucci’s Spring/Summer 2010 collection was going to be suspended between couture and prêt-à-porter, verging more towards what could be described as “couture-à-porter”.

With this collection Ralph Rucci showed us that a perfectly cut trouser suit is undoubtedly more timeless than a series of redundant mini-dresses and also explored a rather interesting inspiration, the work of late choreographer Pina Bausch.

Her minimal costumes already inspired previous collections, but Rucci seemed to be more interested in the physical aspects of her work since he printed on an ethereal A-line evening gown and a trench coat, an image of dancers from a Bausch ballet.

There were also further inspirations: interior design was tackled in a white trench with embroideries of a Japanese tea-house and literature emerged in an evening gown with golden embroidered details from the tales of Genji.

The strength of Rucci’s collection stood in the cut, but also in the luxurious fabrics chosen and in the sculptural, almost architectural, motifs created by pleating and twisting chiffon and then applying it to skirt suits and dresses.

Among the newest designers that showcased their work so far, I quite enjoyed Ohne Titel.

CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund finalists and winners of the 2009 Ecco Domani Fashion Foundation award, Flora Gill and Alexa Adams reinterpreted in a sort of Pop Art key Egyptian artworks, coming up with interesting pieces of knitwear characterised by graphic motifs and bold colours.

I must admit I preferred the first part of the collection with its black and white tuxedo matched with a cropped sweater with geometrical motifs, body-con dresses and neckpieces recalling the style of mummies (though in a rather pleasant way) and draped skirts (matched with elaborated leggings) that almost reproduced in their folds Egyptian loin cloths.

Jackets with asymmetrical fastenings and deconstructed lapels were another highlight as were the socks paired with Cesare Paciotti’s lace up footwear.

Ohne Titel’s feathery designs didn't add much to the collection, in fact they may have been taken out in favour of further knitwear pieces or deconstructed suits, but, as a whole, Adams and Gill showed that they perfectly know what tailoring means and also understand that not all their clients may have the perfect body to wear skintight dresses, a thing not many designers seem to have understood this season.
 
Among the designers who could have done much better there are Jeremy Laing, United Bamboo and Vivienne Tam.

Laing has the skills to do much better and relying on functionally practically pieces is perfectly understandable in our financially critical times, yet, there was too much repetition in his draped pieces, leggings and mini-dresses and also a graphically limited palette.

There was proof that Laing could have come up with something slightly more intense just by looking at the work he did on the surfaces of the textiles chosen for this collection. 

Miho Aoki and Thuy Pham of United Bamboo mistook elegance for a hat or a headscarf. The effect, unfortunately, didn’t always look good on the models, but ended up giving them a rather stiff appearance and detracting attention from the designs on the runway.

Undoubtedly, the best looks at United Bamboo were the ones in which prints by French illustrator Pier Fichefeux were employed. Indeed Fichefeux's work added a much needed touch of colour to the entire collection.  

Vivienne Tam got extremely obsessed with butterflies and employed this theme in as many ways as possible, from prints of blown up wings to appliquéd motifs.

Though butterflies are an overused theme in fashion, Tam had some good intuitions such as a butterfly dress that had a sort of macramé lace effect and used quite beautiful colour combinations for her prints, yet they weren't simply enough to declare the collection entirely new nor original.

The search for the best inspiration at New York Fashion Week continues.
  

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Second day of disillusion at New York Fashion Week

My disillusion with fashion continued during the second day of the New York Fashion Week.

I find it almost impossible to look at collections such as Charlotte Ronson’s with its cropped tops, see-through leggings, black lace tops and dirt splattered shorts, Shaun Kearney’s for Cynthia Steffe's ruffled tops, tiered skirts, cutesy denim dungarees and romantic flowery prints, or Erin Wasson x RVCA’s metallic sequins scattered on bland cropped tops and holey jumpers, and not think about the High Street retailers being ready to spit out more or less the same designs even earlier than the next seasons.

In a nutshell, the second day of New York Fashion Week seemed to be still low on great inspirations, themes, tailoring innovation and, above all, research. 
 
Take Cushnie et Ochs, sooner or later the time will arrive for them to try and present something different from their body-con dresses and then I’m not sure what will happen.

For the Spring/Summer 2010 Carly Cushnie and Michelle Ochs endowed their sharply cut body-con dresses – in a palette of black, aqua, peach/orange and white – with sheer inserts and sexy slashes, the latter actually looking rather out of place in long evening gowns.

You wonder if they will somehow manage to leave behind, or at least limit, their obsession for second skin dresses in future, though it’s hard to imagine how easily they will be able to do it.

Another “victim” of the slash and slit mania was Cynthia Rowley that opted for cute looks with a disturbing feeling about them such as burnt or frayed edges, unfocused prints and horizontal slashes on grosgrain trousers and dresses.

There was barely anything new, though, when it came to the cut of most of the pieces in the collection which was rather disappointing.

Yigal Azrouël was instead mesmerised by asymmetrical motifs and cut outs, rather than by slashes, and he used them on swimsuits, skirts and mini-dresses.

Though his designs with appliquéd elements that seemed to reproduce bandage-like motifs on the body weren’t too bad, Azrouël’s most interesting pieces were the more casual ones such as long jersey dresses or bi-coloured trousers for men.

Jeffrey Costello and Robert Tagliapietra’s fluidly draped dresses were rather interesting mainly because there was a little bit of research behind them.

The prints used for the dresses were based on digital images shot by Costello himself and the colour combination was pleasant, though a couple of thick elastic belts on some outfits should have definitely been avoided.  

There was much more variation at Gary Graham’s where the designer experimented with fragile romantic pieces with frayed appliquéd motifs.

Some pieces looked as if they had been stored in a trunk since the 1800s, and there were hints at deconstruction or at menswear, with tops and skirts asymmetrically wrapped around the body and oversized jackets. Though everything wasn't perfectly original, there were some interesting contrasts.   

Juan Carlos Obando somehow slightly restored my faith in fashion thanks to his handmade outfits.

His "Imaginary Forces" collection surely didn't feature extremely perfect pieces, but his dust coated skirt suits were well constructed with rigid lines that gave a sculptural edge to the body.

It's undeniable, though, that the best pieces were the dresses that echoed in a darker and almost rusty palette his designs for the Spring/Summer 09 season and that featured swirling motifs of fabrics that, twisting endlessly over the body, sensually hugged it.

One thing you could say against Jason Wu is that he has become extremely sophisticated in practically no time.

Jealousy aside, it’s interesting to find somebody as young as Wu who seems to have quite a good knowledge of fabrics and of not being scared of showing it.

Wu balanced sporty looks with chic influences, coming up with coloured tweed jackets and trousers that were crossovers between Chanel and a tracksuit, practical yet elegant shorts and cardigans, tulip skirts, cocktail dresses (maybe too many in fact…), over the knee one shoulder dresses with sculpted motifs, and strapless dresses covered with soft feathers in pale pink that contrasted with lime green ribbon belts. To add a further touch of chic all the models wore black hats or stylish headdresses.

There was an uncanny amount of biker jackets, cyclist shorts and leggings, sequins and mini-dresses, the latter featuring digital print inserts à la Emilio Pucci on acid, used as decorative elements, at Nicole Miller.

Construction wasn’t bad but it wasn’t as exciting as it may have been and it felt the designer was essentially offering not much variation to her customers, but suggesting them to divide in two sort of types, "skin-tight dresses lovers" or "biker jackets and tank tops maniacs".

Preen’s collection could have done with a little bit of editing: there is only a limited amount of experiments you can carry out on lingerie lace, cords and ropes and ruffles and Justin Thornton and Thea Bregazzi carried them all in the first ten pieces that walked down the runway.

An extremely high amount of frilly ruffles invaded the upper body, the area around the shoulders and the edges of dresses and skirts, while ropes twisted around necks and along the models’ bodies.

Patchworks of lingerie lace, ruffles and pink neon lines (undoubtedly the most redundant looks) created a sort of 3D "Mondrian" mini-dress, though the most undesirable effects were achieved when ruffles, lace and ropes were reunited in the same dress.

It’s difficult for me to admit it, but, as much as I never found Rag & Bone extremely interesting, Marcus Wainwright and David Neville managed to nail down the menswear look in their womenswear collection (a thing not many designers have done in these first two days as they seems to have been more focused on dresses and mini-dresses) with tailored jackets and trousers or a practically functional layered look.

A final mention goes to British designer Ben Copperwheat who managed to bring back a little bit of exuberance to New York Fashion Week, injecting some much needed colours into his fun T-shirt dresses and suits in acid shades and bright prints.

Maybe we could hope for a little bit more of originality and fewer redundant mini-dresses for the next few days?  

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New York Fashion Week and the relevant irrelevance

Fashion experts claimed the keyword to this year’s Spring/Summer catwalk shows was going to be relevance, yet seeing the designs presented on the runways during the first day of New York Fashion Week, you had a feeling that most designers mistook relevance for lack of inspirations and plain, dull clothes.

The truth, despite what many may want you to believe, is that fashion and fashion weeks have turned into a redundantly tiring (and expensive…) exercise.

It’s easy to boast about the success of Fashion Night Out and say that it brought people out in the streets (though in Milan there weren’t as many people as planned actually carrying shopping bags...), but, unfortunately, most of what’s on offer in the shops all over the world is rarely extremely fresh and original.

Besides, most brands taking part in the various fashion weeks shouldn’t be allowed to present their collections at catwalk shows because they simply do not  produce anything extraordinarily beautiful.

Italy has produced hundreds of small labels, some rather silly and absolutely useless (and fronted by embarrassingly tart-ish showgirls…), that are allowed to showcase their mediocre collections during Milan Fashion Week.

Designers complain about sales going down and people doing some serious compulsory shopping only at cheap high street retailers, and they claim they don’t understand why.

It doesn’t take a genius to understand that the success of cheap retailers is linked to two main reasons: 1) ordinary people can’t afford extremely expensive designs; 2) the fashion media tell us we must follow the current trends and, if that's to believe, it implies throwing out what’s in our wardrobe roughly every 4-6 months (if not every week) and buy supposedly new and trendy stuff, a routine most of us can't sustain because of point number 1.  

From a journalistic point of view it has become extremely hard to be enthusiastic about what you see on the runway: there is a limit to the enthusiastic words you can use to describe a highly commercial, but essentially “uneventful” collection such as Elie Tahari, because that’s the only way you could describe a series of rather unoriginal anoraks, blazers, shorts, linen jumpsuits and drawstring trousers.

Rather than justifiably reeking of Hervé Leger's inspirations, Max and Lubov Azria at BCBG Max Azria went down the Marios Schwab-meets-Rodarte path with their draped and bandaged, and in some cases slightly deconstructed mini-dresses, designed firmly keeping young women in mind.

Lack of inspiration also produced unconscious references to Gianni Versace, from Jen Kao’s sexy chain-mail dresses that called to mind Versace’s iconic oroton numbers (though interesting, her motorcycle jackets with cut-out X-shaped details weren’t simply enough to make you shout for 1) originality, 2) amazing tailoring intuitiveness), to Vena Cava.

The latter mixed subtle South African tribal inspirations (mainly used for prints and for the red and white fabric details on collars and short sleeves) with punk and came out with dresses decorated with safety pin vests or see through shirts kept together by safety pins. Shame Versace did the safety pin trick (re-adapting it from punk) around 14 years ago.      

Africa proved an irresistible excuse for some designers: Gwen Stefani embarrassingly mixed it with 80s references, yet this "inspiration" wasn't enough to justify the need for L.A.M.B.’s umpteenth biker jacket, off-the-shoulder dress and pleated mini-skirt and, above all, abhorrent lace tights (we all remember how hitchy they were in the 80s, don’t we?).

Monique Lhuillier thought Masai warriors were interesting, but halfway through her collection got tempted by Greek caryatids and turned their tunics into rope belted evening dresses (cue: find a haberdashery shop and buy as many curtain tassels as you fancy, then use them as belts, decorations for your shirts or outerwear or hair ornaments, but don't succumb to designer curtain tassels..), then relapsed into Masai mood and over-embellished one or two gowns and also came up with some rather unnecessary leopard printed dresses.

You naturally also wonder why we should be attracted to John Patrick’s Organic’s 40s style floral printed dress and to an insane amount of boyish plain shirts and shorts when we could get the former in a vintage shop or in random members of your family’s wardrobes and could find the latter literally everywhere? Don't come up with the excuse "it's organic!" because quite a few designers have proved you can go organic and eco-friendly and be slightly more alive and original.

Tom Scott's collection also seemed to display a certain lack of research and a couple of useless Spring/Summer versions of his A/W 09 "Shirley" polka dot sweater, while his "Shirley" ra ra dress was turned into a cotton tank top with appliqued ruffles, the perfect trick if you are flat-chested. 

There was a bit more variation in Prabal Gurung’s collection, though the designer went for the YSL-meets-Alexis Mabille approach and, while his tuxedos were interesting enough thanks to details such as a bow tie lapel, his dresses - excluding a one shoulder blue dress and a few numbers with pale blue painted roses - were decorated with an exceedingly ridiculous amount of bows (also used in the trousers ankle ties) that, rather than being good examples of a modern romantic look, were more crossovers between a present box and Viktor & Rolf circa Spring/Summer 2005.

If you have been following this blog you know that I’m a huge fan of Nancy Cunard and Elsa Schiaparelli, but I can assure you they weren't anywhere in sight at Michael Angel’s despite the designer said they were among his inspirations (also Dior was...).

Angel’s only interesting point were his digital prints of oversized gems and jewels, but the cut of his dresses – peplum tops and skirts included – needs to be improved and possibly revisited on a tailoring level.   

You could argue that the first day of New York Fashion Week is always like this, slightly uncertain and at times redundant, yet it's hard to believe in a fantastically original world of fashion after such a day.

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Mr Mademoiselle

Jean Kounen’s Coco Chanel & Igor Stravinsky arrives at the Toronto International Film Festival next week for the joy of the cinema-fashion connection lovers, and to give a final cinematic overdose to Chanel fans with the story of the friendship (affair?) between the famous designer and the revolutionary composer.

Yet I must admit that, in this cinematic Chanel year that started with the perfume ad directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet and continued with Anne Fontaine’s Coco avant Chanel, what gave me a better insight into Chanel's life was actually a recent chat with photographer Douglas Kirkland who recounted me the story behind the Chanel images he shot in the summer of 1962.

The photographs are now available in two volumes, Coco Chanel: Three Weeks/1962 (Glitterati Inc.) and Mademoiselle - Coco Chanel/Summer 1962 (Steidl), the former features a revealing text by Kirkland himself, the latter includes an introduction by Karl Lagerfeld. You can read my interview with Douglas Kirkland here.  
 

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Pascal Gautrand and the art of being unique

In a previous post on Luchino Visconti’s The Leopard I wrote about the painstakingly difficult process that allowed tailor Umberto Tirelli to create the shirts worn by the Garibaldini soldiers in the film. The tailor reproduced the uniqueness of the soldiers’ uniforms by assigning ten different dressmakers the job of making 30 different shirts each.

It was almost impossible for me not to think about this story when I first heard about Pascal Gautrand’s project. 

The French freelance designer specialised in Textile Conception and Design at Roubaix's ESSAT and with a master in  Fashion and Design Management at the Institut Français de la Mode in Paris, developed in the last few years various projects involving also  photography, video and installations.

In February Gautrand organised a rather peculiar exhibition at the Rome-based Valentina Moncada Gallery.

Gautrand asked 30 Rome-based “camiciai” (shirt-makers) to make the same shirt basing their design on a man’s shirt bought at Zara's.

This mass-produced item inspired 30 shirts, all very different one from the other.

Gautrand also created a sort of map of shirt-makers tracing an itinerary through Rome that can lead a visitor to the doorstep of 30 tailors, from Angelo Cenci to Sergio Nesci, passing through Battistoni, Borrelli and Franco Litrico (you can find the entire list of tailors here).

While working on this project, Gautrand met shirt-maker Roberto Marino and together they settled onto creating a special collaboration launching a brand, Made in Roma, producing unique men’s shirts.  

Question: Rome lost its fame of "tailoring capital" in the last few years, what inspired you to try and re-launch the local made-to-measure industry? 
Pascal Gautrand: I arrived in Rome around a year ago, but I have been working for ten years now on fashion projects about the process of standardisation, a theme I have also tackled in a recent installation of 18 dummies made of fabrics, unique pieces produced in series by a group of 20 students from the Lycée Paul Poiret in Paris. Many years ago we had some fantastic tailors and dressmakers in France and it was possible to have your own clothes made to measure. As the years passed everything changed and things were reduced down to two different markets, prêt-à-porter and luxury, though the latter is only accessible to a limited part of our society. In Italy people are lucky because there is still somehow a tailoring culture, though it needs to be regenerated.

Question: What makes the Made in Roma shirts unique?
Pascal Gautrand: A shirt for a man is even more important than a pair of trousers or a coat, as it symbolises the essence of masculinity. We worked on the proportions of the collar and picked up the fabrics carefully, creating clashes between button down and tuxedo shirts or adding patchwork inserts. Roberto makes 14 shirts a day and the prices are rather affordable for such a unique item (€160). Another unique yet quirky detail is the motto that we hid in the inside part of the collar and that refers to three popular sayings about Rome – “Rome wasn’t build in a day”, “All roads take to Rome” and “When in Rome, do as Romans do”. 

Question: What’s the aim of the Made in Roma designs?
Pascal Gautrand: We have lost knowledge of the production, we don’t know where what we wear comes from, what kind of work goes on behind it or how long does it take to make it nor who are the people who make our clothes. These concepts have become irrelevant, we just get into a shop and find everything we need, while, when someone chooses to have an item made to measure, a sort of bond is established between that person and the artisan creating that specific item. Trying to understand what goes on behind what we wear would help us all understanding better what we wear and taking the craftsmanship aspect of production back into fashion. This is what we aim to do with the Made in Roma label. 
 
"Il lato invisibile della moda" (The Invisible Side of Fashion), an exhibition by Pascal Gautrand divided in three parts, started yesterday at Milan’s Centre culturel français and will be open to the public until 20th October 2009.

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That Art Nouveau connection

For some critics the Art Nouveau age produced narcissistic art for art’s sake. Yet I can’t deny that the beauty of line and graceful forms of some pieces of Art Nouveau architecture or furniture really fascinate me.

Many artists, architects and interior designers considered part of this movement took delight in ornamentation and injected creative and dynamic energies into their pieces.

The first time I visited Charles Rennie Mackintosh’s Hill House in Helensburgh, I absolutely fell in love with it, I loved the dark wood lining of the study and living room, but also the lighter stencilled motifs of abstract forms in pink, purple and green in the hall.

I also find rather fascinating the stylised metal tendrils inspired by vegetable forms designed by French architect Hector Guimard for Paris’ Metro, and Eugène Gaillard’s pieces of furniture with their sinuous and flowing lines. 

I usually found links between footwear and architecture in previous posts, but I recently discovered a link between footwear and the pure lines of Art Nouveau in Kerrie Luft’s collection.

The designer based her latest collection on lines abstracted from nature, coming up with delicate creamy heels that reproduce in their shapes a sense of abstract dynamism, or elaborate metal cage-like heels, with a colour scheme that calls back to mind boudoir or dressing room atmospheres.

Luft’s “Alaia”, “Ava”, “Celiene”, “Diana”, “Eden”, “Saffron”, “Sienna” and “Stella” shoes preserve a structural and decorative harmony and you can try to spot further connections between the forms of Art Nouveau and Luft's footwear or get to know more about her inspirations in my interview with her on Dazed Digital.

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