Rick Owens Catwalk Fashion Show Paris Menswear SS2017

Rick Owens goes soft next spring. He carried over his big pants from last fall, also continuing with bloblike drapes and whorled volumes. Indeed, his opening looks in gauzy gray fabrics approximated the gargantuan folds of blubber of this season’s mascot — a walrus.
Yet there was something regal about the cone-shaped silhouettes and the elaborate, sashlike folds worked into T-shirts and tops.
As the show progressed, Owens capped his pyramid-shaped pants with tiny, taut bomber jackets and leather blousons that stopped at the ribcage.

Owens also added shiny embroideries with radiant lines, like depictions of the Sacred Heart, to loose black robes and sculpted tuxedo jackets. It’s a descriptor coming up more frequently as the Paris season picks up steam. Owens’ priestly take on black-tie was certainly divine.

Louis Vuitton Catwalk Fashion Show Paris Menswear SS2017

Imagine a young boy touring the savanna in Kenya and alighting upon the Massai people in their vivid red and blue clothing. It’s one of Kim Jones’ strongest and most treasured memories — and it inspired one of his first hit collections as men’s style director at Louis Vuitton five years ago.

For his brisk open-air spring show, the designer got savanna heat and blazing sun, which didn’t seem to phase front-row guests David Beckham or Victor Cruz, both dressed in long-sleeve sweaters, styles that appeared on the runway in shaggy mohair with springbok fur patterns.

The mohair styles looked cool over checkered pants licked with silver zips, among the punk accents that spiked the African theme. The collection had a youthful zing, interspersed with luxury marvels, including a “denim” jacket made of matte crocodile, a molded leather vest with a diagonal zip and a Perspex blanket trunk etched with a giraffe drawing by Dinos and Jake Chapman.

Balenciaga Catwalk Fashion Show Paris Menswear SS2017

It was Demna Gvasalia’s debut men’s collection for Balenciaga — and the brand’s first men’s show in its 99-year history. Not since Hedi Slimane’s rockers stormed down the runway some 15 years ago has anyone at a major house paraded a silhouette this severe: coats and suits with shoulders as wide as a fridge, immediately followed by the opposite: suffocating, shrunken styles on models with ironing-board physiques, most of them cast on Instagram.

Time will tell if the David Byrne look makes any sense to young generations weaned on droopy jeans and sloppy hoodies. While challenging, these Balenciaga clothes had such conviction behind them — and a peerless execution — that they commanded attention, and are bound to be influential.

HKU Graduation show 2016

The Fashion Graduation Show of Hogeschool vd Kunsten Utrecht is one of the annual highlights during the Graduation period of presentations at HKU. The edition of 2016 took place in an industrial setting under the building of Hoog Catharijne. The collections were varied and very outspoken. Most collections had one thing in common: the layered silhouettes.And they were also very wearable. Laure Meyers and Suzanne Barten presented a refined and feminine image. The outspoken and striped coats of Yasmina Ajbilou covered neat, long shirts and told the story of where rebellion and limitations meet.
Malu Versteeg and Marleen van Egmond developed their own knitwear. In the womenswear collection of Malu big, finely knit turtlenecks with transparent parts were the centerpieces. The men in Marleens ‘Modification of Time’ were wearing cable knit sweaters and pants.
Wendy Cornelis transferred her research in material and sustainability into a womenswear-collection with big silhouettes. Laura Meijering made her sustainable collection in quiet colors and simple, long silhouettes, the excitement though came by fraying all materials to the thread as a comment to holding on to your stuff.

INDIVIDUALS SS2017

Yesterday iNDiViDUALS presented its latest S/S 2017 collection. It’s already the 21st collection of this Dutch womenswear brand. The brand is a platform for fashion creativity, managed by third and fourth year students of Amfi, allowing them to experience the demand of the fashion industry. It provides them with an unmatched experience for future endeavours post-graduation.

The brand is a collective of 27 creative minds changing every season. This creates a continuing narrative, responding to the evolving Zeitgeist. All tasks and responsibilities are covered by the design, management and branding departments. Fusing these three departments makes for the successful formula that is iNDiViDUALS.

iNDiViDUALS is an initiative of AMFI – Amsterdam Fashion Institute and the Hogeschool van Amsterdam, Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences.

 

 

The Kingpins Show Hong Kong

After Amsterdam and New York Hong Kong is the capital of denim for two days. In the Innocentre mills and denim-related companies present their latest products and innovations to (denim)professionals in the industry.

MENSWEAR TREND ss2016: Gettin’ beggy with it

When it comes down to menswear trends you need to know for spring, this one definitely needs to be included. The baggy trouser (or wide-legged pants) was always shining through the mens collections and have been making a slow but definite return on the men’s catwalk for the past few seasons. It’s having its big big breakthrough with a vast majority of designers showing loosened-up silhouettes. And by that we mean not only smaller companies, but the actual big boys. Giorgio Armani, Etro, Fendi, Versace, Yamamoto, Lanvin, Raf Simons and Bally. Not only in casual ensembles, but also in a suiting and shorts. Comfort is playing a major role right now, with the hems becoming lower and wider. Why always in tight and skinny jeans, seems to be the question. In the end, wide-leg pants have always been one of the most important staples in men’s style history. From Russian troops till Sinatra in the 1950s.

It’s like bringing sexy back (thank you Justin), but in a new and different way. We know, take a deep breath, because it may sound scary and it won’t be the most easy and comfortable trend to integrate for a lot of men, but all these baggy trousers are really important for the development and change of men’s style. Make sure it has a high waist so you won’t look overweight or seem to drown in it. And make sure that you wear on top is either cropped or slim, so it balances each other out. It may feel uncertain at first, but wide-legged trousers are more wearable than you can probably imagine.

Stella McCartney Catwalk Fashion Show Womenswear FW2016

No fuss clothing. Understated seduction. Practical chic. Sports meet sexy. That’s Stella McCartney. But also, how to look good and harm less. For almost fifteen years McCartney thrives on her mother’s vegetarian principles, tackling the challenges of trying to be slightly more responsible as a luxury fashion brand in the highest regions of the industry. No use of any skins. And until this very day, she has proven what’s she’s capable of. No lack of quality or style whatsoever. And this show was yet another what she does best: creating more and more moments of awareness towards our planet. But as complicated her brand might be, graceful simplicity is what we see on the catwalk. While Snaxx’ tune ‘Get on ya tofu’ echoes from the speakers, the models strutted down the runway in her signature slouchy but feminine looks. Plissé flares, pleated skirts, cheeky but romantic graphics of swans on dresses and skirts. She played a lot with layers and proportion, from bomber jackets worn over a coat, a deep blue knee-length sweater over a skirt, fluid dresses with ruffled strokes or silk and lace metallic slipdresses. And of course we spotted those big puffer jackets and parka’s. No surprise there, as we’ve seen them already many times here in Paris. But she did surprise us a little though, as they were made from velvet fabric and stuffed with feather-free wadding. Quite a statement to make. Needless to say though, as the music already scouted ‘I’m vegan bitch’, the show notes were right. This collection was absolutely signature Stella.

Rick Owens Catwalk Fashion Show Paris Womenswear FW2016

When going to a Rick Owens show you can expect two things: disruptive runway spectacles, but in a way that will stick to your mind, tickles your subconscious. And perhaps your sense of responsibility. At least, we hope it will this time. It was less shocking than his last shows, but it definitely got a big message to tell you. Because it wasn’t only Leonardo Dicrapio who expressed his big concerns about the worldly environment. Rick Owens is so too. His autumn 2016 show was called Mastodon, in which he translated his feelings of uneasiness and discomfort about the environmental change, the way we treat our planet and especially that we don’t seem to care.

Although the message seems pretty clear, for the models the way through it wasn’t clear at all. Fourteen different women walked down the runway with their vision completely blurred by a cloud of hair that ballooned around their heads. Like magnificent hair balls from your cat (ugh!). Although the message of this collection might be hard, the execution was pretty soft. Soft leathers, lots of draping, twisting and folding, soft lines and silhouettes, fuzzed-out knit mohair, bubble-shaped jackets, crushed velvet capes and sleeveless tunics. Colors ranged from creamy white to splashes of pistachio green, pink, vermilion, orange, eggplant, brown and black. Even the shoes seem to be pretty comfortable: thigh-high leather sneakers. We really appreciate and support his concerns, but even more so his clothes and sense of timelessness and style.

Dries van Noten Catwalk Fashion Show Paris Womenswear FW2016

If you’re planning on making autumn 2016 a opulent season, then make Dries van Noten your date. Without going too much into detail (or heaving a seat in the front row) you could immediately feel this collection had a wild and mad sense to it. The reason? Dries his muse this time was Marchesa Luisa Casati (1881-1957) the heiress, socialite and countless artist’s muse. A beacon of the belle époque and considered the brightest star in European society as she was well-known for her legendary parties in Venice and Paris. So for this collection to really feel and understand it, every bit of a sense of drama is more than welcome.

The tall and skinny Casati was not considered a beauty, but she was very often the perfect subject for artists as they vainly tried to capture her aristocratic eccentricity. She led a life just as unusual and extraordinary as her outfits. Which resulted in a bold and definite luxurious collection full of leopard prints(it seemed she sometimes was completely naked beneath her furs), rich coloured velvet boots and trousers, decorative pearls not only on gloves but also as an ornate lattice pearl tabard coming from underneath a oversized sweater, sequins, ornate jacquards, flared cream coloured trousers, sporting blazers, heavy mannish overcoats, flowing pyjama’s, silk dresses and feather chokers (it is said that she once wore a freshly-killed chicken as a stole or that her driver had to kill a chicken to pour the blood down her long white arms). Not to mention those black smooched eyes on a pale skin. Like we said: every bit of a sense of drama is more than welcome.

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