Kids Frontrow – Amsterdam Fashion Week

All those busy mothers/fashion-pro’s, they take their job serious. They work, no matter what, even during the weekend. And no nanny’s or babysitters, they just take their kids to the shows.  And so tomorrow’s fashionpro’s are born. Or paparazzi, there was this cute little girl who took pictures from every vip sitting frontrow at the show of Supertrash.

Paris Menswear fw2010 Impressions: Kayneeee!

Isn’t that? No it couldn’t be. Yes, it’s him! It’s Kanye West on his way to another show. He just can’t get enough of fashion!

backstage world ss2010: tension

It’s a whole different world backstage at the fashionshows. A world of fun, excitement and creativity. Today: backstage at Christian Dior, where John Galliano  takes a zip of champagne while the rest is waiting for the show to end.

groupielove, the end

In his time away in New York, Williamson learned something about putting on a show. Honed by exposure to that city’s demand for brevity in design, his show in London was a much more focused, slim-contoured collection consisting of leather-inserted polished-linen sheath dresses, super-skinny pants, and paper-bag-waisted shorts.

Groupielove # 15

A piece of paper displaying eco-slogans greeted guests on their seats at Vivienne Westwood. The same messages (“Act fast, slow down, stop climate change”) appeared on the clothes, sometimes pinned to the models’ chests as if they were competitors in a running race.

This is nothing new for a Westwood show; Dame Viv has been spreading her anti-consumerism and pro-green beliefs via the runway for years. The collection trod mostly familiar ground as well. There were the clingy intarsia knits, the wrapped and draped dresses with odd volumes, the bustiers with the deflated bra cups.

The unfinished edges and hems on almost everything reminded you that Westwood did them, if not first, then decades before this season’s manifestations.

groupielove #14

After Fall’s long, almost clerical lengths and the fifties ball skirts of the season before, he went short and leggy for Spring. The recurring silhouette was a drop-waist frothy minidress reminiscent of the twenties. Smothered in dense fringe or feathers (both real and represented in trompe l’oeil prints) or swirls of jeweled embroideries, these jazzy numbers were interspersed with the egg-shaped dresses and cocoon coats that have become a signature of Valli’s nearly five-year-old collection. This season, those came in graphic color-blocking or overscale prints and embroideries inspired by antique carpets. Bold leopard-stamped ponyskin was also in the mix; a short-sleeved jacket and shorts suit in the stuff seemed to attract particularly strong interest from his socialite fan club.

Groupielove # 12

Narciso Rodriguez embraced his softer side for spring summer 2010. And it made for a stronger collection. The vibe was still plenty sexy, like the killer sheath color-blocked from jute linen canvas and black silk jacquard.  A pair of shifts, one in white, the other pink, came with graphic cutouts on the upper back, while another dress was essentially a mesh tank with strategically placed ovals of printed fuchsia silk. All three were revealing without being vulgar, a balance other designers have had some difficulty achieving this season.

But Rodriguez also loosened up the silhouette dramatically, letting the air in, so to speak, on everything from a white silk, linen, and organza bubble dress to a silk mud-cloth coat. The show ended with a trio of short-in-front, long-in-back tent dresses that took this concept to the extreme. Chic, modern propositions for a black-tie evening, they billowed dramatically behind the models in the runway breeze.

Dutch Models: Bregje Heinen

One of the new faces we spotted at the catwalk was that of Dutch model Bregje Heinen. At the (young) age of sixteen she is already strutting the catwalks of many great fashion brands.

With her big eyes and lips looking as if she’s constantly pursing them, she has the perfect model-look.

We saw her in the fashion shows of Balenciaga, Fendi, Gucci, Lagerfeld, Donna Karan, Prada and Louis Vuitton. At the Stella McCartney show Bregje was even the only new model that was added to the model line-up.

Though people from abroad are struggling with the name Bregje (It’s pronounced brechk-ye) she’s bound to become a Dutch super model.

Dutch Models: Mirte Maas

A new face conquered the catwalk during the last fashion weeks. It was the face of the Dutch model Mirte Maas. She is just seventeen years old, yet she participated in countless fashion shows for ss2010.

Mirte is signed with Women Management in New York (Kate Moss and Natasha Poly were also signed there), butalso  has contracts with modelling agencies in Milan and Paris.

During the New York fashion week Mirte was the first girl in the Alexander Wang fashion show. Although many people talked about her frightened look during the opening of that show, it didn’t stop her.

Later on we spotted Mirte in Milan and Paris at almost every big show. Roberto Cavalli, Chanel, Chloé, Fendi, Givenchy, Hermes, Marc Jacobs, Donna Karan, Michael Kors, Lagerfeld, Lanvin, Yves Saint Laurent, Marni, Missoni, Moschino, Prada, Nina Ricci and Valentino, to name a few (few? That’s a full agenda! It’s a wonder she was still looking fresh)

Style.com named Mirte Maas as one of the Ten New Faces in fashion. We’ll be seeing a lot more from her.

Groupielove # 7

Turning out refined day looks and eveningwear since 1981, the house of Herrera specializes in classic shapes (lean trousers, pencil skirts, A-line ball dresses, and nipped-waist jackets) stitched up in soigné silk faille and jacquard, luxurious taffeta and mink. In recent seasons, Oscar regulars like Renée Zellweger have splashed this most Park Avenue of labels with a starry dash of Hollywood Boulevard.

Carolina Herrera made a name for herself by dressing well before she began designing well. (And she is still recognized for her chic uniform of crisp white shirts and tailored black trousers.) She was born in 1939 to a family of Venezuelan aristocrats and, with her second husband, Reinaldo Herrera, partied with a coterie of 1970’s jet-setters that included Mick Jagger and Andy Warhol. Herrera landed on the International Best-Dressed List time and again during those years, and was named to its Hall of Fame in 1980. The same yearHerrera designed her first line of ready-to-wear as a “test.” She aced it.

Herrera was named the CFDA Womenswear Designer of the Year in 2004, and in 2008 the organization gave her the Geoffrey Beene Lifetime Achievement Award.

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