Oda Pausma Catwalk Fashion Show SS2011

‘Hobohemian Heaven’ was the title of Oda Pausma’s collection, she presented on Thursday. It was based on the fusion of two worlds: poetical and rebellion. Imagine live under the roof of the boheme, artists haven, the Chelsea Hotel New York of the seventies….

Jiska van Rossum Catwalk Fashion Show SS2011

Designer Jiska van Rossum presented her collection ‘Adorned in Elegance’ this week. Like in al her clothes sensuality and temptation were important aspects of her menswear clothes.

Graduation Shows: Artez – Arnhem

As the last fashion academy Artez held it’s graduation show last Friday. And the saying last but not least does apply here, cause we saw a lotttt of talent.

It was probably the hottest day of the year. Yet the 38 degrees didn’t stop the students, the models and everyone else involved from delivering a great show.

Kris Berden
Kris Berden was one of the students who proved to understand fashion. Her collection was fully built around pleats in al kinds of shapes and size. They were there on a skirt, a top and a dress, which were all in black. The pleats came back in Berden’s grey coats. One ultra-thin and slightly transparent, the other somewhat thicker. All outfits looked great, but maybe the jute top and the black transparent ‘cape’ could have had some pleat-details as well. That way the collection would have been slightly more cohesive.

Britt Tan & Fred Farrow
Two students really dared to experiment with their graduation collections. Britt Tan and Fred Farrow both used a great variaty of colors, materials, shapes and techniques. Britt Tan showed us a bright yellow jumpsuit, a loose knitted orange dress, a skirt made out of all kinds of different pieces of fabric with frayed ends. Her models all wore head scarves. Fred Farrow came up with a few light-colored coats. He used some trenchcoat-inspiration and showed one example with fur and checks. He mixed his coats with printed, colored skirts and tights. On all looks loose pieces of fabric were hanging.
We appreciate the fact that Tan & Farrow both showed some gut with their experimental collections. Yet we feel there collections could have been more cohesive and better tailored. Cause both collections came across as a little messy.

Lotte van Schijndel
Before Lotte van Schijndel’s the models started walking they all stood still on stage in a certain pose. We then could already see some great designs. Lotte van Schijndel made a collection with a classic feeling. Loose clothes, long silhouettes and plain fabrics. The blouses and coats were all without buttons. A few waistcoats gave the models some shape. There was no fuss; Van Schijndel didn’t add anything unnecessary. And that’s a good thing cause minimalism is hot in fashion these days!

Piotrek Panszezyk
Piotrek Panszezyk took the hottest fashion item of the moment, the jumpsuit, and gave it a whole new classy image. He gave all (of his many) designs a feminine, classic twist by adding some sort of airy trail to them. He showed one in black, one with lace on the sides, one white, one red, one purple. All looks varied slightly from each other, yet were still an obvious collection. The only misplaced item was an animal printed fur design. It didn’t look feminine or classy and had no connection to the rest of the collection. One other thing we didn’t understand were the loose ends on – for example – the olive green short and the collar of the purple outfit. But altogether Panszezyk’s collection was pretty impressive.

Melissa Siegrist
One last great collection we want to highlight was that of Melissa Siegrist. She designed womenswear with a very masculine touch. She mostly used grey and showed some perfectly-tailored shorts and blouses. She gave her collection a sporty vibe by adding polo’s and shorts made of jersey fabric. And her transparent pair of navy-colored pants just fit in perfectly.

Thom Browne Catwalk Fashion Show SS2011

The die-hard fashionpack already knew where Thom Browne was capable of. They’ve seen his shows from New York, for the Italian Moncler-label in Milan and his presentation at Firenze a few years ago. Browne’s shows are set up like a military operation, a huge set, models acting as a group on stage and all dressed alike.

So the set of of his first menswearshow in Paris was not surprising, but still overwhelming. The location was a large conference room at the official headquarters of the French Communist Party in Paris, designed by Oscar Niemeyer. The audience had to sit behinds the desks where party-members used to sit an debate about the cold war. As an American in Paris, the choice for the venue was – well – daring. Also because Browne kept pointing at historical ‘fights’ between the USA and USSR. For example the army of astronauts which opened the show by marching into the room. The models were hidden in the space-suits, and they all stepped out  at the same time dressed identically.

Their dress-code was boyish, and typical Thom Browne: a tight jacket with shorts, socks and brogues. They came in checks, blue, black, khaki, stripes or decorated with little bows, some had a flash of sequins. Eye-catching were the knee-high socks, the gold-frosted lips and the gold-colored mirroring sunglasses. Browne made himself clear.

Lanvin Catwalk Fashion Show SS2011

No matter what the Lanvin man is doing – working, hiking, travelling, dating – you name it – he looks stylish and chic. But very low profile. “It’s active clothing in a sartorial environment, but not sportswear,” said Ossendrijver in an interview. “Everything is in movement – almost aerodynamic.”

The show started with slim fitted, tailored jackets with visible seams. The fabrics looked light and modern in one way but also used and almost antique the other way. Like the jackets in a reworked and remixed tapestry-print. There were lots of knitted stuff, very thin, sometimes sheer – like biker shorts, tank tops and leggings. New were the sneaker/sandal hybrids.

It was the mix of rich fabrics and sport-references that made this collection very contemporary and wearable The accessories just added the right dose of artsy stuff as did some colors like blue, yellow and red.

Hermès Catwalk Fashion Show SS2011

The Hermès show was as quiet and luxurious as the label can be. It just simply doesn’t need to scream fashion. It whispers. But when you listen carefully it tells you all everything you should know about next season’s way of dressing: the white suits, the lightweight fabrics, the shorts, the honey-colors,  the sandals, the summer-leather and suede and an accent in an intense color. The modern touch was added by ‘hybrid’ clothing: a shirt with a blouson back or diagonal zip-closure.

Jackets were unlined, scarves were knotted around the neck and the pleated trousers looks casual but dressed. Tobacco brown and emerald-green spiced up the mineral-base palette.

Dior Homme Catwalk Fashion Show SS2011

Kris van Assche seems capable of letting his severe, sartorial look go en soften it with lightweight and youthful tailoring. ‘Simplicity is the true luxury’, according to the designer. And so he presented sleeveless trenchcoats, lightweight linen parkas and paper-light jackets. Black, gray and sandywhite were his main colors. Low-slung trousers were tucked into sandals.

To add a different touch to his simplicity Van Assche used samurai references, like Mao-collars or V-shaped necklines similar to kimonos. Some tops reminded of Hedi Slimane’s first collection for Dior, with the sleeveless faux-wrap shirts. Those were wonderful and new and they still seem appropriate in their renewed version.

John Galliano Catwalk Fashion Show SS2011

The set at John Galliano’s menswear-show looked like Charlie Chaplin’s movie Modern Times, and hey – who opened the show? The legendary filmmaker/actor himself – well, a look-a-like. And later on he was followed by Buster Keaton.

Galliano wanted to make a statement about new proportions in menswear and the shrunken jacket and baggy pants – which were the signature look of Chaplin – were a good start. As was the three-piece suit and all Buster Keaton used to wear. These two looks dominated the show, dropped crotch pants, jackets fitted to the body, a little dandyism in lurex trench-coats and pale suits. The movie Death in Venice inspired Galliano and his team for the bathing-suits and bathrobes.

Funny that after so many decades a frumpy suit of two almost forgotten actors are feeling new after the slick, made to measure fashion of the past years. That’s the power of fashion. You’ll get fed up with perfect clothes and suddely you realize you are longing for imperfection and a different style. Et voila, your prayers are heard.

Comme des Garcons Catwalk Fashion Show SS2011

It was a beautiful and scary collection Comme des Garcons presented today. Skulls were everywhere: at the back of the model’s head, but mainly as an Escher-like print at skirts, shirts, suits. In black and white and – ha ha, very funny – with glasses in contrasting blue or covered by flowers you’ll find on a graveyard.

What was the deeper meaning of this collection? The only explanation designer Rei Kawakubo gave was ‘ Skull of Life’. Yeah, right. I mean, Alexander McQueen did it a long time ago and even recently at his last menswearcollection. He even made skulls of flowers. And this CdG-collection didn’t seem as an homage to the British designer. He never used it so ubiquitously.

Checkered flag-prints accentuated the punkisch vibe of the collection. The clothes were kept simple: blazers, cropped trousers, shirts and full skirts. No, I think Kawakubo just don’t want us to be afraid of skulls, she wants us to embrace them. From now on skulls are no longer meant for hard rockers, goths or whatever dark subculture.

Walter van Beirendonck Catwalk Fashion Show SS2011

Hope. Read my skin. That was the message at Van Beirendonck’s invitation for his ss2011-show in Paris this afternoon. The Belgian designer always tries to put his worries about certain thing in society in his collections. And he always tries to be optimistic and make you at least smile a little.

With is humor, colorful prints and exaggerated styles he makes his men into characters from a comic-book. But exaggerating gets the best attention and so does Van Beirendonck. This time he aimed at violence and war and he dressed his models in innocent white overalls or happy combinations of jackets and pants with colorful checks or flowers  all over. He decorated the clothes with huge bullet-straps or used the straps as accessories. There were also shirts with applications and words like Fear and Faith and T-shirts reading “Courage, Never give up Hope”.

Intriguing was the part made of fabric with little holes in it. Suits, shirts, cargo-pants and T-shirts had holes all over as if a hundred bullets had hit them. It was not  only decorating but the holes also formed the words we already saw in the rest of the collection. Well, this is something we will see again in the big fashion-chains  within a few months.

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