WE ARE MUZE presentation Paris SS2017

WE ARE MUZE is a collective of four individual labels that took its name from a whimsical persona that the designers have sculpted together, their muse, who allows them to showcase their individuality and strength. WE ARE MUZE functions as a platform that offers possibilities to share experience and knowledge and invite upcoming designers to join forces. This season the designers that presented themselves are: BYBROWN from designer Melanie Brown, who is driven by technical tailored design combining engineered craftsmanship with contemporary, raw elegance.
JESSICA JOYCE, whose clothes portray the designer’s fascination with modern angular and geometric shapes, which have been influential in the development of her signature abstract style.
LOVELUHA – designer Natascha Nedoluha – celebrates the creative power of nature. All her jewellery are a reminder of our long-lasting connection with this phenomenon, lovingly laid bare to adorn a woman’s expression and beauty.
ELECTRIC CO from designers Conny Groenewegen unravels the essence of each gesture, utilizing fibres and threads to reassemble the narrative to reach a point where the material starts to create a path that follows its own rules

WE ARE MUZE has a fluid construction allowing it to work with artists in photography, film, dance, graphic design and other fields. The designers aspire to touch the senses, spark the imagination and use their muse as a language to develop new dialogues.
The collective is supported by the Netherlands Enterprise Agency through the Partners for International Business Programme, promoting Dutch fashion in France.

Balmain Fashion Show Womenswear Paris SS2017

As the complete Kardashian clan seemed to have gathered front row Olivier Rousting presented his army of amazons. A spring summer story that took no less than 80 looks to be told. A story on glitz and glam, unfortunately without the detailed handwork we’d gotten so used to see at Balmain. No beading, no crystal embroideries, no thread work; Rousting must have needed all his time to finish of those eighty looks. A pity. Instead of the pieces of art from his former collections we were presented with seductive and powerful ensembles. Endless palazzo pants, floor sweeping snake print coats and maxi bandage dresses gave the models legs for days. Legs that were just as much on display as anything else, due to those thigh high slits. Cut-outs in all kind of places gave the looks a little more air and the models even more of a sexy feel. A collection that truly fits Kim Kardashians (who was by the way not wearing any underwear to the event) fashion needs. Yet perhaps Rousting is designing with the Kardashians on his mind a little too much instead of his actual customer.

Chloé Fashion Show Womenswear Paris SS2017

Chloé felt fresh and vivid as Clare Waight Keller explained she wanted to bring the brand back to the city. And we kind of got that feeling as Martyna Budna appeared in a pair of high waisted pants combined with a striped V-neck. That perfectly fresh and frill free city feel was visible in a jumpsuit worn by Dutch Marte Mei van Haaster and a light pink dress with bows on both shoulders too. Portraying the image of an independent women with an elegant touch. Of course the airy, playful A-line hippie dresses were spot on too. Yet they seemed a better fit for fashion festivals and luxury beaches. On trend touches like long sleeves, underboob potential and pleats probably scored some extra coverage on the magazine trend pages. And in terms of color we loved the yellow and pink in one collection’s palette. Lots to look forward to for next season.

Dries van Noten Fashion Show Womenswear Paris SS2017

“You only see what your eyes want to see..” As an acapella version of Madonna’s Frozen hit began Dries van Noten’s fairytale came to life. Inspired by night frost the Belgium designer showed us a spring collection with a frozen focus. Large ice cubes melting away on the runway had the loveliest of floral ensembles inside of them, created by Japanese flower artist Azuma Makoto. All true pieces of art for which Azuma used nearly a hundred types of rare flowers into 23 different arrangements. An astonishing spectacle on it’s own. Then the SS2017 story began to unravel. Starting off light with a series of white look, followed by a focus on yellow and ending with a line up of dark, black evening looks. All decorated by the loveliest of floral prints from a wide range of exotic flower species. Quite te dressed up spring/summer collection. So if spring is indeed to going to get frosty we’ll be in good hands with Dries van Noten. His patent leather coats, rain jackets, Edwardian blouses, wide-leg jeans, balloon sleeves and camel colored double breasted suit seem perfectly appropriate for a summer in Holland. It’s the kind of sophisticated chic we could really pull of without being extremely uncomfortable. And who could fall in love with such a blooming collection.

Lanvin Fashion Show Womenswear Paris SS2017

A number of long sheer dresses popped up Bouchra Jarrar’s first collection for Lanvin today. Quite the revealing type of dresses, so to say, as the models only wore panties underneath. A daring move for a Lanvin designer debutante (Jarrar quit her own label to focus on Lanvin). Although she introduced some more formal looks too. A striped suit match with a striped blouse for example, adding some masculinity and rigidness to this very seductive and fluid summer collection. Leather jackets decorated by eye catching feather colors gave the collection some extra weight too. As floral embroideries and appliques as well as choker necklaces with matching bracelets and rings kept things playful. Python bags, diamond encrusted slippers, leather belts straps and necklaces with the looks of metallic scarves did the rest of the SS2017 trick. Now let’s elaborate on this new Lanvin look.

Saint Laurent Paris Fashion Show Womenswear Paris SS2017

It must be though for anyone to fill Hedi Slimane’s shoes as the new head designer of Saint Laurent. Yet Anthony Vaccarello dared to take the plunge as he presented his first collection for the brand. In line with what Slimane has been doing for the past couple of seasons Vaccarello came up with an all black, tough ‘n sexy collection. Looks with a rebellious touch. The kind of rebel chick that would cut up a vintage Yves Saint Laurent dress and have her way with it, as Vaccarello did. Both heavy leather and sheer fabrics alternated each other as metallic touches and leopard prints made their way onto the runway. We counted three blue denim trousers. And we felt like looking at an eighties collection meant to be worn underneath the disco ball. Sexy tuxedo suits and revealing dresses. Asymmetry and pointy shoulders. And some colored XL tassle earings to take the collection home. Vaccarello seems of to a good start.

Milan Fashion Week SS2017 Trend Round-up

Three cities down, one to go. Yet before we head over to Paris, we’d like to recap Milan Fashion Week. A week full of fashion abundance. From Prada’s seventies inspired co-ords (including that fur cropped top) to Fendi’s airy aprons. And while Jil Sander and Marni kept things quiet, Gucci and Roberto Cavalli turned things up a notch. If it’s up to the Italian fashion houses colors are going to be vivid (candy pink, royal blue and sunrise yellow, anyone). Both pajama styles as well as military influences (with some eighties shoulders in the mix) are a big theme. We can dress as nomads as well as lolitas next season. And sporty details are to be found in almost any collection. Some Prada shorts and a Versace parka perhaps? Chic leisure it is. Getaway prints (from Dolce’s Italy promotion to the tropical leave prints at MaxMara) that make you dream of next year’s holiday destination. And those clever leather belt bags make it a lot easier to dance the night away in your full on glitter outfit. SS2017 is about celebration fashion in just about any style direction with trends to match anyone’s taste or mood.

Pleats please
As seen at Marni, Versace and Jil Sander

Parka chic
As seen at MaxMara, Sportmax, Versace

Military mood
As seen at Tommy Hilfiger, Dolce & Gabbana, Roberto Cavalli

Branding
Dolce & Gabbana, Gucci, Versace

Disco Dolly
As seen at Dolce & Gabbana, Gucci and Vincenzo

Belt bag
As seen at Marni, Jil Sander and Tods

Oh dear, so sheer
As seen at Prada, Fendi and Emilio Pucci

Liselore Frowijn Backstage Catwalk Show Paris SS2017

It’s always exciting to watch the mayhem backstage at a fashion-show. Dutch designer Liselore Frowijn presented her collection for the second time in the capital of fashion yesrday. We checked what went on behind the scenes.

Liselore Frowijn Catwalk Fashion Show Paris SS2017

The SS17 collection ’SAGOI’, is an homage to an old canal house in Amsterdam with beautifully contained ‘Delft Blue’ tiles dated 1667. Liselore Frowijn has interpreted the iconic hand-painted ceramics by tracing them with her signature style, both painting the illustrations directly on silk and using blown-up graphics in bold overall prints.
The illustrations display mythical scenes of an escape to a pastoral lifestyle of farmers in the Dutch 17th century. Research on these tiles’ topography brought Frowijn to the Japanese island of Kyūshū, where Dutch-Japanese exchange started around 400 years ago. Liselore Frowijn visited the Japanese island this summer to work with local artisans in the indigo-workshops on developing several textiles and implementing techniques that have been used for decades.
Next to the abstracted pastoral scenes, the pieces feature nude figure drawings inspired on the traditional Japanese Shunga erotic woodcut prints, combined with flower-dessins from the Mantero archive. With additional screenprinted graphic layers of blown-up Japanese masks, shibori-indigo dyes, woven kasuri textiles and Delft Blue paintings, the entire collection embodies the story of two worlds meeting once again in intermixed cultural traditions.
Using the tunic as a base piece, the collection has grown into a semi-couture extravagance of where each look presents a new layer and playfully stacked bold prints. Each garment can be worn as a canvas depending on your mood, with a dazzling richness in combination as a result, balancing on luxury-couture and sporty details. The woman Liselore admires embraces the unknown with a sweltering sensuality and as you imagine the Amsterdam house, she takes you to an idyllic realm where two worlds collide.

Marni Fashion Show Womenswear Milan SS2017

Away from the noisy over the top collections of Milan fashion week Consuelo Castiglioni presented a pieceful Marni collection on Sunday morning. Starting off with a range of eight all white looks. Eight structured classic looks including a crispy white shirt with XL sleeves and a trenchcoat. They were followed by a series of draped one shoulder creations as pops of color (mint, raspberry, chocolate, bleached yellow, white) and subtle micro floral prints were added to the collection. A variety of wrinkled, pleated pieces versus stiff and structured alternated each other. Though this was a collection low on accessories Castiglioni managed to make a big statement with a selection of hip-widening strap on poacher-pocket bags. It’s hard to think of anyone wanting to rock these after the fashion week madness is over. But we got the message. These are clothes for women with a true fashion sense who don’t rely on anyone’s opinion. In Marni you don’t necessarily have to look sexy or on trend, you can just dress comfy and look cool.

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