One more time Alexander McQueen

No more dark, romantic fairytales.

No more beautiful tailored clothes.

No more amazing runway productions.

No more fighting for invitations.

No more stunning strong women on ultra high heels.

No more imagination without limits.

Alexander McQueen (1969-2010)

Linda Valkeman Amsterdam Fashion Week fw2010

The winter collection of Linda Valkeman had some handmade materials mixed with futuristic shapes. We saw patchwork clothes with frayed ends and large visible seams. The models walked the runway in a slow pace wearing clog-like shoes. Linda Valkeman used diverse colors like faded blue and green.

Linda Valkeman (25) is a graduate of School of Arts in Utrecht and followed the master-program at the Fashion Institute Arnhem. At her website she tells more about herself in a short, telegram-like way. She is a night-reveller, a huge fan of Maison Margiela, born blond, lives in structured chaos, is inventive, fashionated by timelessness and searching for a clash. And she likes  vintage, the 20-ties, new york, simplicity and deadlines. Well, enough things a good designer needs to get somewhere.

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.

Christopher Bailey: Designer of the Year at BFA

Christopher Bailey, the creative whirlwind who has helped turn the heritage brand, Burberry, into a global luxury label, was wednesdaynight named ‘Designer of the Year’ 2009, at the British Fashion Awards. It is the second win for Bailey who previously was awarded the title in 2005.

Last night’s fashion “oscar” capped a remarkable year for Bailey, the 38-year-old Yorkshireman, who received the MBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours earlier this year, and whose spring/summer 2010 Burberry Prorsum collection was the highlight of London Fashion Week, in September.

In addition, Burberry took home the Designer Brand award. In his acceptance speech, Bailey, who is chief creative officer, announced that Burberry Prorsum would continue to show at London Fashion Week in February.

You want to know why we like Christopher?

Bailey knows how to mix classic and modern and his particular skill is to cleverly update the brand stalwarts, like the trench, with enough fashion flair to make them seem fresh and wantable, season after season. The figures speak for themselves: while other brands languish in the recession, Burberry saw its revenue rise by 21% in the last financial year.  That translates into a lot of product sold — and Bailey is in control of it all. Everything you see ath Burberry’s headquarters has been passed by Bailey, not just the building, but the website and the furniture, right down to the bottles of water. He micromanages some areas, such as a new store concept, and macromanages the rest.

So is Bailey a scary control freak, unable to let go of even the smallest detail? “I’m so lucky,” he told Colin McDowell at The Sunday Times. “My role is challenging. It is so multifaceted, but that enables me to absorb many things that really interest me: the music for the shows, the website, the ad campaigns, the fragrances — and the clothes, of course.”

Bailey was brought up in Yorkshire; his father was a carpenter and his mother worked as a window-dresser for Marks & Spencer. Direct, natural and always articulate, he is a true Yorkshireman and no pushover. He trained in a tough school, working with Donna Karan, then as chief womenswear designer for Tom Ford at Gucci, before being chosen by Rose Marie Bravo, the chief executive at the time, to design for Burberry.

Despite all appearances — he is always in jeans and a T-shirt, but rarely without a jacket — Bailey is a fashion businessman as well as a designer. “The power that my job gives me is huge,” he says. “It would be so easy to be overwhelmed by the pressure. The deadlines, the budgets, the fact that my life at Burberry is so scheduled, and my days are full from 8.30am until late, usually well after 8pm. And the meetings. I’m always conscious that Burberry is much bigger than I am. It’s 153 years old. My life here hasn’t even reached 10 years yet, but I have been here long enough to say that Burberry flows in my veins. I love its values. I respond to its strong foundations and, of course, its history is a constant inspiration.”

According to Bailey, there is a knack to being a fashion polymath. “I can compartmentalise different aspects of my life in my head, so that, on one side, I have work and all the different projects we are involved in at any one moment, and on the other, my personal life. Keeping them in separate boxes contains them so they can both be made manageable. At work, I need order: cool, clean spaces that really help me to think clearly. But at home, I want that order to be scrambled.”

He has learnt how to go into performance mode in public, but he likes his private life to be private. “You know, I often think I could easily become a hermit,” he says. “I certainly know I can live by myself, although I would always choose to live in a loving relationship.” He is in one now, having recovered from an earlier relationship that ended in tragedy when his lover died. Maybe that’s why he claims: “The most wonderful thing is being happy with someone. Someone who can give you mental stimulation as well as emotional support.”

And he is very loyal. “My best friend is Rebecca. She was my best friend at school and she is still the person I ring more often than anybody, apart from my family. I go to Yorkshire whenever I can, have Sunday dinner with my parents, talk to Mum in the kitchen while she’s making the gravy. That’s when I feel totally happy and content.” He has a house not far from his parents; it’s an old farm, and he loves driving up there from his flat in Chelsea in what he claims is “a really clapped-out old Mini”.

Once he’s there, he has his way of unwinding. “I put on my wellies — I love my wellies — get the wheelbarrow out of the shed and bring in the logs and the coals. My great luxury is that I have a fire in the bedroom. Then I go to see the cows. I usually have friends to stay. We often end up at the local in the evening, having a few drinks.” It’s the same with holidays. “Nothing glamorous,” he says. “I just don’t need it.”

“It’s not looks, it’s character that counts with me. And really, I suppose, I like people in the same way that I like houses: a bit rambly and slouchy. People I can put my feet up with.”

See, that’s why we like him.

Au revoir Christian !

This week, a French court approved a restructuring plan for bankrupt label Christian Lacroix that will reduce the house to a licensing operation. Only about a dozen of the roughly 100 employees will keep their jobs. The label’s problems culminated with the parties that expressed interest in buying the label but failed to produce financial guarantees in time to rescue it.

Experts say Lacroix focused too much on haute couture collections. Successful labels use couture nowadays as marketing efforts. No label sells enough couture clothes to justify it. Lacroix was notoriously insistent on maintaining its high-end approach to clothing. Under LVMH’s ownership, Lacroix made lower-priced Canal and Jeans lines. When the Falic group bought the label in 2005, they were quick to do away with those. Lacroix was happy because he didn’t want to be bothered with the more affordable things. But still, where were the Lacroix sunglasses? Perfumes? “It” bags? Sales of items like those account for the bulk of profits for luxury labels. Lacroix’s C’est La Vie fragrance never even took off. Fragrances are powerful profit drivers, but we shouldn’t forget fashion’s other highly potent force: divas. Look at Lady Gaga. She’s in Vogue, she was the first non-model to wear Alexander McQueen’s spring 2010 Alien shoes, and she was the highlight of New York Fashion Week and plenty of other things.
There should have been a diva out there for Lacroix to dress.

For me Lacroix was the beginning of my career as a journalist in fashion. I still remember my first fashionshow ever, Christian Haute Couture spring 1989 in hotel Intercontinental in Paris. It was breathtaking. Powerful, colorful, and very French joie de vivre. But times changed, as did women, fashion and the business.

So for old times sake: some highlights of past collections.

Jetty Ferwerda

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