The Big Round Up Womenswear FW2014, Part 1

As always we where overwhelmed with the flood of fashion beauty and material excellence coming over us during the global fashion weeks.

There was this continuous feel for sobriety, for real clothes and a new found spirit for informality motivated by utilitarian inspirations. Lot’s of chic citywear icons where given the sporty treatment. The best windbreaker, the most comfortable puff jacket, the most perfect trouser fit. Between those masses of garments some were excellent in their normality, perfect in execution, amazing in materiality. Supreme touch, perfect drape, etc. Technology is helping here and making top tailoring more accessible, performing textiles more sensual and expressive fashion textiles more functional.

Between those real clothes to please us, very close to what woman desire to wear instantly, we did spot some true fashion statements. In percentage not that many, but nevertheless there. Found mostly in expressive materials, holographic coatings, laminations, cuts, fringes, 3D embellishment and eye-catching patterns. Where past seasons were strong on craft we now sense a steady shift towards technology.

Then there is this big (in many ways) offering of the cosy and comfortable. We nearly dare to mention a return of the feel for cocooning. All about enveloping, embracing, sheltering and protecting. Wrapped in plaids, down blankets, furs, felt ponchos and most of all in knits.

Knits where everywhere this season. For separate items as well as total looks. Haider Ackermann uses them long, lean and liquid. Balenciaga is among the designers who experiment by laminating bulky knits; others just cut it as woven material, where many, as The Row, find excellence by use of precious fibre – cashmere has never been that big.

Where we expected previous season a future for narrative sets and spectacular venues this was limited to few. The stupendous supermarket setting of Chanel was the talk of the season, he vacuum-packed his bags where Iris van Herpen left her audience in awe by vacuum-packing her models. Both raised a manifest on consumerism, in Chanel’s case this is likely to be rather ironic. Political or social statements where hardly done. Fashion is where it used to be, fur is back bigger than ever without any thought or comment, quotes were there for a season in summer, but were empty phrases appliquéd on garments as decoration. Now the message was femininity, desire and being beautiful. Back to the core business of fashion.

In general it seems that designers very much care for how women feel, what a girl wants, how fashion makes them feel beautiful. Fall 2014 catwalk season was much more about the exploration of women’s fashion desires then about pushing designers signature looks.
Cherchez la femme!

URBAN TECH

(Alexander Wang, Prada, Christian Wijnants, Balenciaga, Miu Miu)

Outdoor and urban sportswear never looked that glamorous. Alexander Wang showed utilitarian city wear in experimental tech textiles, Prada staged a boxy shearling in mirroring gold. Silver foil jackets at Christian Wijnants cover tech double knit shorts and Alexander Wang laminated cabled knit monty’s to cover chain knit skirts. Miu Miu uplifted normality by adding hologram gloss to quilted shirt jackets.

 

INTER-GALACTIC ROYALTY

(Rodarte, Moschino, Thom Browne, Dolce & Gabanna, Etro)

Bumping into a Princess Leia look-a-like at Rodarte we realized that Starwars is still making waves. Jeremy Scott explored junk culture for Moschino and came up with the bright, brash and ingenious staging their urban princess, Thom Browne evoked the ecclesiastical and went for the sublime, it where king’s that inspired Dolce & Gabanna to dress up this princess, she is showing us the key towards success. Veronica Etro met her royalty during a trip down the Silk Road.

KNIT IT

(Yohji Yamamoto, Céline, The Row, Céline)

Knit is big in all senses. Impressive knit volumes – soft, bulky and warm at Yohji Yamamoto. Sensuality and tenderness is what drove Phoebe Philo towards her all knit wardrobes for Céline. Instant luxury is what the models must have felt when The Row covered them in these super-size double face cashmere knits. Simple, still and ultimately comfortable.

Stylespot is a collaboration with Stijlinstituut Amsterdam

First View Paris Womenswear FW2014: Fearless

A fearless mash-up of fashion tribes, fetish dolls, couture fascination, safari chic and hip-hop style. What binds these collections it the extraordinary level of artisanship. These designers quote freely from their personal oeuvre and find ways to mix these with fresh tempting inspirations without loosing their identity.
Rick Owens stages his family tribes in futuristic war costumes. This silhouette actually being one of the single patterned items he showed, reminiscent of Star Wars snow patrols. Wearing slick leather pants, super power bracelets and protective funnel neck collars
Yohji shows us power dolls wrapped in densely padded pillows. Soft cocooning stealth-wear, fantastically trippy in happy handprints.
Raf Simons arms Christian Dior models with couture. Power dressing in layered vibrancy, linking seemingly endless side splits with embroidered decorations, rewriting the secret codes of couture.
Balmain’s designer Olivier Rousteing dresses his global army of freedom in a dramatic, military-turned-tribal collection. Here with optical leather weave wrap skirt topped with an electric pop of red lamb’s fur.
A story of love (to quote Rick Owens) – love for fashion.

Stylespot is a collaboration with Stijlinstituut Amsterdam

First View Paris Womenswear FW2014: Rave!

Great to see some power and vibrancy coming to stage. Where glamour, sportswear and technology meet, energy sparks and flickers. Demure, slightly unhinged optical illusions and psychedelic swirl in hybrid cloths coming straight from the fashion laboratory. With swirling spirals, mish meshed two-dimensional flowers – all flavoured with unexpected elegance.
Dries van Noten is inspired by Bridget Riley, an English painter who is one of the foremost exponents of Op art. The most optical and delirious patterns where inspired by her works, that had a disorienting physical effect on the eye. This art part being whole-heartedly alternated with true fashion icons – as brilliant flat flowers, supersize 3-D corsages and chic sliver shoes.
At Balenciaga texture is the story. Referencing American sportswear in a playful and experimental way. Re-imagined cabled knits are laminated with latex and bonded with leather. Hefty zippers crisscross jackets and pants.
Fashion with a bold, cartoonish edge and a healthy touch of humor.

Stylespot is a collaboration with Stijlinstituut Amsterdam

 

 

First View Milan Womenswear Fw2014: Avant Garde

Where other designers stage fashion, Prada treats us on tales and inspirations. A holistic experience, theatrical performance, and an inspirational happening. As always firm-rooted in cultural heritage she reflects on Germany’s cultural avant-garde and the oeuvre of director Rainer Werner Fassbinder.

It was a scenery flooding with vibrating contrasts – black, gold and furious red – transparency and opaque – veils and shearlings – matt and shimmer.

Deco-influenced patterns and silver trimmings among others at Prada. Bold gold-fringed starlets at Just Cavalli, corsage accessorized furs covering veils at Fendi and constructivist shearlings covering slink sheer shifts at Prada.

Inspired by Fassbinder’s love for culture and telling a story, he also showed her the darker sides of life. She mused on the opposite of rich, the doom and gloom of glam and casted sensual and eccentric she-devils wearing Prada.

Stylespot is a collaboration with Stijlinstituut Amsterdam

 

First View Milan Womenswear FW2014: Touch me Feel Me

 

The FENDI show, by Karl Lagerfeld, opened with fitted dresses erupting into tufts of fur at their seams. Lagerfeld punned that the effect was a “fur escape”. No escape though when it comes to fur this season. Puzzled we are spotting the overwhelming flood of critique-less fur. Gone are the days of manifest, consideration and reflection. Strong felt when it comes to the multidisciplinary, industrial and less known fashion designers of this era, so little when it comes to the globes powerful fashion stages.

Hairy surfaces are favoured and savoured in many ways this season. The superior quality of Italian craftsmanship demonstrated in pixel patch-working puff and fluff at Fendi. Strolling the Highlands in Max

Mara’s discreet and natural precious knits. Where Just Cavalli rocks in rich tapestry brocades and manipulated hair and fluff patterns.

‘Violets for Your Furs’ was the Billie Holiday’s song that inspired Lagerfeld – cold comfort for our furry friends.

Stylespot is a collaboration with Stijlinstituut Amsterdam

 

 

First View Milan Womenswear FW2014: Soft Spo(r)t

Here the accessible side of fashion on show during fashion week Milan. Soft touch comfy wear with a sporty esprit in plain and simple near-traditional shapes. Parka’s, trenches and woollen shirt-dresses reflect the spirit of the 60s neat and polite society, as exclaimed by Gucci. Orderly details and subtly shifted proportions, jut raising or lowering the waistlines. In sophisticated off-color-combinations that add that contemporary touch so much needed to trigger the desire-and-buy-me-machine.
Just Cavalli in general went for the hairy fluff, but here he wrapped his model in snug short shearling in a pretty pale pastel. At Fendi zippered skirts and parka’s, sporty as well as romantic, with tufts of fur on luxurious casual coats. And also Gucci tapped into the casual side of its heritage, with smart double-breasted coats, short high-waisted dresses in sugary macaron-shaded and faded pastels. To quote Suzy Menkes for NYTimes: ‘All good and luxurious stuff’.

Stylespot is a collaboration with Stijlinstituut Amsterdam

First View New York Womenswear FW2014: Stillness

Stillness and quietude might be the one true luxury. We spot gorgeous drapes and wraps and composed kimono volumes. The absence of detail exposes the best in materials. Square cut nearly monumental silhouettes gain feminine spree through the drape quality of compact and chunky yet gorgeously supple wovens. Subtle surfaces where brush effects, felted looks and heather aspects add liveliness and a natural appeal.

BCBG Max Azria takes advantage of the endless layering opportunities that fall permits. The Row shows a range that is quietly spectacular made with 900-gram double-face cashmere. From soft and fluffy to a tranquil sculptural quality. Michael Kors plays with proportions and adds a firm grip to the choice of materials where Wang for Hugo Boss exercises his tailoring qualities with strong rigueur.

Once more the quality of cut and drape defined by the exceptional characteristics of the materials.

Stijlspot is a collaboration with Stijlinstituut Amsterdam

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

First View New York Womenswear FW2014: Cocooning

No one could anticipate the Polar Vortex but still the supersize hand-knit sweaters are warm and prodigious as were so many silhouettes this season. Chunky shearlings, and curly bold sweaters are round and sheltering above flapping skirt layers and drapy pants. Super lush and luxurious materials flourish best in simple understated shapes. Roomy and relaxed like comforting cocoons.
Michael Kors shows masterful shag furs, chunky cardigans and deluxe cashmere sweats on A-line skirts. The Row luxury wraps as cowl-neck cashmere sweaters and matching asymmetric hand-knit skirts. Love for comfort, exquisite materials and a soothing calmness and ease drives this look.
Marc Jacobs dyed his shearlings in sunset hues. Light and calm, a cosmetic neutral palette and a play on pastels like the fabrics had undergone a beauty treatment.
Inspired by the cosmetics of animal skins rather then ours.

Stylespot is a collaboration with Stijlinstituut Amsterdam

First View New York Womenswear FW2014: Body Heat

 

Heating up the body was not the only reason to source for warming spice shades, bundles of Mongolian lamb, cashmere wraps and joyful faux fur. Where fashion increasingly tends to blend seasons, designers of today adore the extremes of winterly wild textures, fluffy organics and the voluminous sculptural aspects of pile surfaces, brushed hairy woolens and fizzy fringe.

Prabal Gurung wraps pashminas high around the neck, collaging cashmere throws, woven knits and tribal trims in yellow, rust and orange. And that all in one outfit. Crimson and ginger for meditative drapes inspired by native Nepal, his homeland.

Custo confirms the love for pattern. Showing clashing prints, plays with textures and lots of faux furs. Altazurra adds fire to tapestry pieces, beautifully artful flourishes, inspired by textile artist Sheila Hicks.

Let’s hope the high streets tap into this superb inspiration.

Stylespot is a collaboration with Stijlinstituut Amsterdam

 

First View Paris Womenswear SS2014: Shine On

‘A graceful quality with a touch of gorgeousness’. ‘Whimsical and charming femininity’. ‘Light as a rainbow after a brief shower on a sun-bright spring morning’. These where some of the qualifications dropped by the experts reflecting on the runway revelations of Lanvin, Rochas and Dries van Noten.
It was all shining bright with layers of pearlescent lamé, crystalline finishing, reflective organza’s shot with metal and airy fabrications in shiny nylon-filament yarns. The loveliest of these shimmering lamé fabrics sparkled in bleached lemon yellow and pistachio.
The Lanvin looks have a vast party quality – festive cocktail dresses and skirts and lush lamé total-looks in space-age jewel shades cheap generic viagra came splendidly glittering down the runway. The Rochas outfits are meant to capture the translucent qualities of glass, frost, and crystals. Rochas designer Zannini freaks out in jacquard velvet bonded to duchess satin and thermo-sealed with Swarovski crystals. Everything glows and glistens, from pleated lamé to chartreuse technical fibre and spun sugar knits. The detail of the Dries van Noten collection is nearing haute couture quality. From micro-beaded gold shifts to simple cream skirts with tinselly gold ruffles.
In this first Paris style spot artistic embellishment and intergalactic textile technology add magic to otherwise modern and wearable clothes.
Stylespot is a collaboration with Stijlinstituut Amsterdam

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