First View Paris Womenswear FW2014: Knitdressing

 

Knitting is clearly a theme. We list here 4 designers, but can give you many more, who opt for the soft and cuddly. Staging strong women in tender knits, in all its textural and shapely variations.
Sonia Rykiel, plays with traditional body-wraps, all with a Rykiel wink and twist. Sleeve-scarves and semi-pelerines on layers of velours touch crafted jerseys. Stella McCartney’s chunky knit pyjama-style pants might become the seasonal must-have item. She manages to add some sex appeal to this snug look. Wrapping and knotting in a semi-relaxed way is obviously on trend.
Celine shows her knits sleek, lean and slender, in subtle glitz, vibrantly accessorized with crafted jewellery.
We see more artful knit representations at Issey Miyake. Mixing masterful layers of exquisite monochrome textured variations. Oversized blanket wraps, fluffy sweaters over silver sculpted pants.
But there is more – among them the surreal knitting at Viktor & Rolf combining crafted knits with digital cable-knit prints, and Haider Ackermann with sumptuous longer then long rib knitted sweaters and matching pants.
Knits intertwine the tough and the tender.

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: New Understatement

 

There are alternative ways to make a woman look beautiful. We saw brave and masterful innovative cut and pattern-making, smart updating of traditional skins and silks and an intelligent play with shades and light. The outcome looks new, modern and understated – sophisticated elegance with a self-evident comfort and natural flair in shapes that are not all that natural. What we look at are complex drapes, mathematical mosaics, intelligent coupes and smart technical finishing.

Tomas Maier, for Bottega Veneta, called these fab outcomes “puzzles’ – simple silhouettes with clever nips, skilful pleats and intelligent trompe l’oeil illusions. Ending up to be comfortable dresses in a sensual cosmetic pallet, to make women feel good.

Alessandra Facchinetti for Tod’s found ways to use leather less like skin and more like fabric which leads to streamlined, modern, women friendly outfits in lacquered patent leather.

Where Bottega Veneta uses ‘puzzles’, Tod’s mentions ‘mosaics’, both as results of in-depth explorations of pattern-making. Their efforts are inventive, unorthodox and challenging classical tailoring standards.

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: 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

 

Trend Report FW2013: Get your Tartan!

The tartan has proven to be the most versatile print of the season. It popped up on menswear inspired attires at Dolce & Gabbana, we saw different grunge versions appear at Saint Laurent and we got a more feminine/minimalistic vibe at Céline.
Yet many, many more designers interpreted the Scottish tartan in different ways, making the old school kilt fabric a true fall musthave.
Whether your sporting the check on an oversize shopping bag, a woolen winter coat or a skater or midi skirt; you can’t go wrong with this one.
Not the type to go for that typical statement, oversize, red and black (Terry Richardson) shirt? The color options are endless, though the light pink and blue tartan pieces seem to get the highest rate from the industry’s insiders.
And if one tartan creation isn’t enough; try mixing multiple checked items in one look, as seen at Céline and Stella McCartney. Get your tartan!

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