Armani Privé Haute Couture Catwalk Fashion Show ss2010

It was obvious that Giorgio Armani’s haute couturecollection was all about the moon. It was in the colors – from midnight blue to moon-white – in the buttons and closures, in the rounded silhouette, in the curvy cutting and in the embroideries made to look like craters of the moon. For evening there were sparkling silver beading at dresses, pale metallic pinks and greens and many shiny sequins.

Surely there are some designs we will see again during the Oscar Awards. Especially the long, figure-narrowing dresses in black with white or cream.

Christian Dior Haute Couture Catwalk Fashion Show ss2010

Elegant amazones walked the small runway at the first floor of the Christian Dior store in Paris. Kylie Minogue was sitting front row, as was Dita von Teese and Tavi, the 13 year old fashionblogger from Chicago.

John Galliano took a picture of couturier Charles James as his inspiration for the ss2010 haute couture-collection. And it was a sensory overload as usual. This time Galliano’s researchtrip went to the Metropolitan Museum where the gowns of Charles James caught his eye. There he saw a  picture of the designer – who influenced Monsieur Dior to come up with the New Look – with an image of women riding sidesaddle in the backround. The result is a collection full of riding skirts with nip-waisted jackets, frothy cocktail dresses and satin ballgowns. Colors went from black, white an red to purple, orange, green and pastelshades.

The refined elegance, the strong women and the longer skirts and accent at the waist will influence a whole new silhouette for the coming seasons.

Come back of Thimister

Josephus Thimister (47), from Dutch origins and an promising talent of the Belgian school in the late nineties –  made a come back last sunday with a self financed haute couture collection.

Bloodshed and militairia were the two themes he wove into his haute couturecollection for fall 2010. Thimister took his inspiration from a photograph of Tsarevich Alexei Nikolaevich, Emperor Nicholas II’s murdered 13-year-old son, who was routinely dressed in uniform as a boy. The result was a collection men’s and womenswear mixing romanticism (in red, white, army-green) with a raw-edged minimalism: tank tops and jodhpurs splattered with fake-blood, officer’s jackets, narrow dresses, army cats and jumpsuits. Thimister told style.com he’d used resonances from World War I because “what happened then was the start of modernism: war, sorrow, destruction we’re still dealing with now. And the lack of creativity and spirituality”.

Do you want to know more about Thimister? Read this interview at style.com: www.style.com/stylefile/2009/12/josephus-thimister-has-nothing-to-lose/

Preview Jan Taminiau Couture

Yesterday Jan Taminiau presented his couturecollection in Paris. Tomorrow he will officially open the Amsterdam International Fashionweek with his collection Duality. These are the thoughts of the designer regarding his collection:

“‘Duality’ is based on thoughts of a duel and of duality. A duel between different cultural traditions, heritage and innovation. It is a noble duel, almost dancelike as in fencing. With a duality of seduction, unveiling and hiding.

The dresses are comprised of a duel between two different forms and a duel between different worlds. The antique Chinese fabric is used for the most dominant, sculptural form and is placed in contrast with a more classical silhouette. The dialogue also takes places between the almost organic substance of the heavily embroidered fabric with paillettes and the sensitivity of the antique hand woven fabric.

The sculptural forms can be interpreted as a shield -or protection- for battle, but at the same time they offer intimacy, play their role in a game of concealing and seduction.”

Backstage at Lanvin Menswear fw2010

Peter Stigter went backstage at Lanvin this morning to capture the vibe. He spotted Lucas Ossendrijver – the designer of Lanvin menswear – and Alber Elbaz – creative director of Lanvin – backstage styling the models and giving interviews to journalists like Suzy Menkes (who was lyric about the collection: “Loving Lanvin has become the leitmotif of the 21st century. But there was a good reason why the menswear show Sunday was cheered so fervently. This is a rare historic house where the clothes seem to live in the moment, yet embrace a traditional masculine  only culture.”)

Take a close look at the accessories – those rings and snakeskin bags ! – and the clothes. This is menswear from today – never aggressive or conservative, but self-assured and loving.  And, most important: it brings back the fun in men’s fashion.

Paris Catwalk Fashion Show fw2010: Paul Smith

Looking at the diverse types of models that walked in Paul Smith’s fashion show, you’d think he must have wanted to reach a large audience. The models were as different as they could be:  young, old, pale, bold, long, bearded, red-haired etc.

The clothes were just as diverse. Shirts with floral prints, checked jackets, colorful trousers and bowler hats were easily combined in one look. And while some clothes were appropriate for punky students other seemed perfect for late night dinners.

In this collection Paul Smith mixed natural colors like brown, gray and beige with bright ones like pink, blue, red and purple.

A few jackets had decorated safety pins attached and we saw sunglasses in some of the breast pockets.

Items that really caught our eye were a black poncho, a long cobalt blue overcoat and a turquoise colored suit. The show ended with some slick black dinner jackets.

Then Paul Smith and all his models came on to the runway in a chaotic manner that matched the fashion show’s overall vibe.

Paris Catwalk Fashion Show fw2010: Lanvin

If I were a man I would wear Lanvin. The clothes are modern yet friendly, soft but tough enough and extremely normal. It’s not only the quality of the fabrics, first of all it’s the quality of design. And Lucas Ossendrijver has a great talent.

This season Lanvin looks tougher and more out-in-the-world with dark wools, raw-edge seams, some belted coats that lent a military feeling. The strappy backpack added a contemporary, city-warrior touch.

Ossendrijver went away from the too soft and poetic style, but still he was able to put emotion (a certain awareness of vulnerability) into the clothes. All this season’s trends were in the collection, done in a Lanvin-way: beautiful shoes that seem boots, the layering, the leather coats, the fluid silhouette, the grays and blacks.

Paris Catwalk Fashion Show fw2010: Raf Simons

After two seasons of modern suits with that typical Belgian edge, Raf Simons pushed again the boundaries of menswear. He already played the game of closures at his collection for Jil Sander (with mixed results), but it worked out much better for his own fall collection. Still suits form the center part (but as the designer said earlier: he and his clients are grown up men now), Raf still favors dark colors, but he replaced the buttons with metallic magnetic closures and velcro strips which made a pretty tight silhouette and clean image.  Simons also re-made the traditional trench by separating the coat into halfs and using the lower half as a skirt or protective shield. Besides that he played an interesting graphic game with red, white and blue.

Paris Catwalk Fashion Show fw2010: Hermès

For next winter Veronique Nichanian designed a qualitative and diversified menswear collection for Hermès. Just like many desigers Veronique opted for gray as the main color. Though she added some red, blue, green and black.

The Hermès models were well-dressed and much attention was paid to every little detail. From the floral scarfs to the handkerchiefs in the breast-pockets and the chains attached to the trousers.

The collection had velours jackets, turtle necks, woolly cardigans, leather pants and jackets with zippers that were only zipped in the middle.

Over a few coats the models wore a sophisticated leather belt and their large scarfs were tied in a particular way. Two snake leather jackets were real showpieces.

Altogether it was a solid collection with very wearable designs.

Paris Catwalk Fashion Show fw2010: Kenzo

With the fw2010 fashion show Antonio Marras proved that after forty years of fashion Kenzo is still on top of the game.

The show started off with models dressed in warm-colored clothes, perfect for fall. A lot of woolly designs were shown. We also saw many checks, long overcoats, sunglasses, hats and some floral prints.

Then the clothes turned gray. At first the gray was combined with leopard printed gloves, shoes and bags. A leopard printed coat definitely stood out, yet not necessarily in a good way.
Other eye-catching pieces were a denim overall and a shiny hounds-tooth coat.

Marras designed many loose-fitting clothes. Especially his pants were much wider than the pants we saw at other fashion shows.

Towards the end all models headed outside for the show’s finale. There Place des Victoires was transformed into a film set, inspired by the movie Traffic (1971). Thirty vintage Citroën cars were driving around in the same direction as the models were walking. An old bus was picking them up.

What a great finale!

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