Givenchy Catwalk Fashion Show New York Womenswear SS2016

This year year is Riccardo Tisci’s tenth at the Givenchy-house, and there was a sense of celebration and coming of age amongst the clothes. It was a collection which spelled out and repeated almost calligraphic black and white variations of the same sentences: Ivory slip dresses and rouleau-strapped camisoles with lace edges, worn over excellently tailored black pants cut to taper gently over pointed shoes. Supple crepe tuxedo jackets with tails, soft kimono coats, and transparent organdy trenches glimmering with jet embroidery. Many, many body-skimming sparkly silver shifts.

Aficionados of Tisci maybe recognized the most spectacular of his couture dresses, one with a degrade feather effect, and another with leather patches applied on tulle in the shape of alligator skin. And then there was the face decoration, taken to another level of beautiful elaboration, in studded golden jewelry, tulle frills, and lace.

Amsterdam Fashion Week SS16 Streetwear Day 4

What are they wearing during the Amsterdam Fashion Week? A Bas Kosters dress, this seasons Spijkers en Spijkers summer suit or an asymmetric Tony Cohen trench? We don’t judge, we’re not the fashion-police, we just enjoy (Dutch) fashion and your own personal style.

Susana Bettencourt Catwalk Fashion Show Amsterdam SS16

The SS16-collection is the beginning of a new cycle for Susana and this one’s the first of another four chapters. And also a new start to experiment with new fabrics and techniques without losing her solid signature. “For me it was about how I can keep on developing my work, but people can still see in a second that this is me.” It resulted in her familiar lace techniques and knitwear details, but with a new embossing technique. The collection is build around the way we see the world. How can we all have so different views? “The first book you get to read on Central Saint Martins is about the human body anatomy and especially the eye. So I totally got involved in that, explored every bit of it, as close as I could to the pupil, the colours and even the whole structure of the vains and translated this to my designs.”

Remarkable this time was the absence of colour and ethical details, something we have seen a lot in all her previous collections. “This time I wanted to keep it really simple and clean, so I’ve chosen white as main colour. The ethical detail was mainly in the white paint around the eyes.”

To understand the path taken by Susana as a fashion designer, we need to go back a few years and travel to the Azores in Portugal, where her passion for knitwear and traditional lace techniques were developed from early in her childhood. Relocating to London, to undertake a BA in Fashion Knitwear at Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design, Susana continued to hone her knitwear and women’s wear skills and translated her sculptural designs into the dimension of seamless knitwear. She explores the boundaries between technology and hand-crafting knitwear techniques, developing the jacquard to the extreme in order to make textures and volume in detail. And it got her pretty far. Her signature collections have won over fans the whole world over, including pop diva Lady Gaga. Will it also in Holland? As Plato once said, beauty is in the eye of the beholder. In that case, she did a pretty good job tonight.

AMWESTEN Catwalk Fashion Show Amsterdam SS16

In a world of fast fashion, designer Annemarie Westen wants to go back to craftsmanship, the point where the fashion process starts from scratch. “My work is never really based on a solid concept, it’s more about the feeling. It surpasses time or age and particular fashion seasons. I aim to give women a certain feeling, I want my clothes to strengthen who they are. Be equal to yourself. Sexyness and confidence is not depending on boobs or butts, but knowing yourself.” Something Annemarie herself has no trouble with, as this collection was full of her familiar signatures. Her designs are simplistic, sophisticated and wearable without losing elegance. She plays with subtle changes in the usual, using sharp graphic layers as a sign of strength, while the soft springy materials such as silk and wool emphasise a woman’s grace. But this time around she added more draping details in maxi-dresses and trousers. For a summer collection though, the colour palette was quite gloomy with only black, white and green. “Black is usually the basic pallet I’m working on, because it’s my favourite colour. And use of colour can cause distraction.” It perfectly fitted the dark, heavy music of Marilyn Manson and Pantera that reached our ears, and gave the show an even stronger heartbeat and a don’t-mess-with-me feeling. Exactly as she had hoped for.

Tailor&Elbaz Catwalk Fashion Show Amsterdam SS16

Two years ago designers slash models slash tv-personalities Maria Tailor and Tamara Elbaz took over Collection PRC, the label of former designer Percy Irausquin. But due to the lack of freedom and design possibilities, especially the lack of space for sporty and super trendy items, made them decide to start their own label. So they did, launching Tailor&Elbaz, a line based on their personal taste, mixing trendy with basic and casual with chic. The exact ingredients they showed today on the Amsterdam Runway. Except, they added a, let’s say, little show element to it. Because how not to go all the way when the theme is Alice in Wonderland. The catwalk was transformed into a dreamy fairytale setting, including a stretch of grass, enormous flowers, mushrooms and rose peddles. All is well, but the question was of course: what is Alice wearing today?

We can imagine Alice her wardrobe isn’t that surprising, but what would happen if you add some Tailor and Elbaz to it? The answer: she would definitely be more glamorous, rock ‘n roll and sporty. She would wear more polo dresses, blossoming skirts, pencil skirts, varsity jackets, ‘love’ and ‘queen’tops and denim shorts covered with hearts. Their color palette of choice existed of shades of black, white, blue and pink. After so much fairtytale sweetness and romance on the tennis court, the rock ‘n roll was mainly found in the many earrings, heavy cat eye make-up and severe ponytails.

This is not a collection that will make heads turn or still you fashion cravings, but if you’re in desperate need of some easy-going daywear glamour, stop searching.

Saint Laurent Menswear Catwalk Fashion Show Paris SS2016

Fashion followers know that Hedi Slimane has been photographing the California beach scene for years — long before he replaced Paris for  Los Angeles. So now wonder his ss16 menswear collection has its roots in the “Surf Sounds” .

The pitch-black show venue was covered in kitschy palm-trees-at-sunset wallpaper. And similar motifs turned up on satin jackets and mohair granny cardigans, which the young models wore with the same nonchalance as black leather jackets.

There was plenty of Kurt Cobain in the men’s looks: the shaggy hairstyles; the white plastic sunglasses, the plaid shirts; the denim with blown-out knees. And there were plenty of literal thrift-shop styles.

 

 

Balmain Menswear Catwalk Fashion Show Paris SS2016

For his debut men’s wear show for Balmain, Olivier Rousteing was pretty good prepared. He kicked off with the hardcore techno track “Prepare for Glory.” He tapped the world’s most successful male model, Sean O’Pry, to open and close the show. And he stacked the catwalk with beauties like Alessandra Ambrosio, dressed in women’s resort. For inspiration, Rousteing looked to the great adventurers of the early 20th century — but this was safari male to the max.

Leather jackets were intricately latticed and laced, while a tobacco-hued explorer suit came spliced with a double-breasted jacket with gold buttons. In a nod to hip-hop culture, butter-soft suede was draped into a cowl-necked vest and slouchy drop-crotched pants, while a black sweatshirt glistened with a web of gold hardware. Rousteing plastered his signature gold crests, some featuring a lion’s head or a Union Jack flag, on jackets, including a tiger-striped ponyskin bomber with black leather sleeves, and a trim black blazer with satin lapels

Louis Vuitton Menswear Catwalk Fashion Show Paris SS2016

Kim Jones, menswear designer of Louis Vuitton, likes to travel. Looking for rare animals, hidden crafts and remote landscapes. In Myanmar last year, Jones came across a tribe whose handmade costumes — loosely cut and bearing dynamic stripes — brought to mind modern streetwear and a whiff of the Eighties hip-hop scene. More recently in Japan, he discovered Kobe leather, named after the pampered cows that produce that prized beef.

Jones dappled exotic prints and embroideries, mainly plucked from Southeast Asia, across traditional Ivy League silhouettes. He hit on souvenir jackets, also sending out sweatshirt versions and similar pajama sets decorated with birds of paradise, cranes and monkeys lodged in bamboo.

Accessories were mostly  totes in supple versions of monogram canvas that are, like the souvenir jackets and those coats in the thinnest leather, reversible.

Givenchy Menswear Catwalk Fashion Show Paris SS2016

Raf Simons Menswear Catwalk Fashion Show Paris FW2015

The flared black trouser legs puddled around the feet. The models’ heads were cloaked in checkered scarves, obstructing their view.  The space glowed red and the rave music rumbled. Raf Simons still knows how to set a mood of youthful rebellion, and the electricity of a fashion happening. There was certainly a punk spirit to his oversize macs riddled with grommets in geometric formations.  Edgy too were his oversize grommet-studded nylon rucksacks, which models lugged on heavy chains draped over one shoulder, dragging around their belongings like a burden.

The rest of the collection felt more familiar, as Simons continued to experiment with the narrow, elongated shapes he introduced for fall. There was his shrunken Seventies sweater vests, which helped exaggerate the oversized pants. Tailored jackets were either lean or gently oversized in sturdy woolens.

Next Page »