This season’s all about the leather pants - a wonderful change from last season’s wannabe leather liquid leggings - but it looks like next season’ll welcome the leather top.
In New York, Phillip Lim showed leather tanks and tees over slouchy pants and tucked into little skirts. In Paris, Phoebe Philo showed more structured leather tees in both black and brown and Daria Werbowy poured herself into Christophe Decarnin’s studded leather top at Balmain.
I squeezed Frankie’s Alexander Wang look into that graphic because, though there is leather on top, it fits the trend of turning a total basic - t-shirt, sweatshirt, legging - into a luxury item; a successful runway idea that always earns the “comfortable chic” label. But practically speaking, leather tops sound miserably uncomfortable and unflattering unless made out of the absolute best leather.
We’re praying to the high street gods to leave this one alone.
At the Balmain show this morning in Paris, Twitter was again on fire. From Derek “@dizzyblazeberg” Blasberg’s: “‘This is some hooker military shit,’ the stylist next to me observed” and “It’s a slutty sexy tent city over here” to @TheMoment’s “Savage Balmain! Think G.I. Jane meets Cher! Super sexy- again.”
And then we came to Joe Zee’s TwitPic of the sequined jeans. We’ve seen lots of sequins already this season, but I can only recall one other, Ralph Lauren, that involved a pair of jeans. I believe I stand alone at the office in liking this particular Ralph look (and the entire collection for that matter.) But I cannot be swayed. The sequins on those jeans are cool.
Now the Balmain version is of course much flashier, and will indeed cost a phenomenal amount more money. But these are definitely going to be all over the Beyoncés and Rihannas of the world. Riri even watched them go by in person from the front row.
And granted there could be some ugly trickle down versions that happen that happen as a result of this trend. But I’m on board so far. What about you?
Last night, while half the world lived it up at yet another September Issue screening and the rest of us ate cotton candy and danced to The Rumble Strips at Charlotte Ronson’s JC Penney bash, The Daily reported that Jean Paul Gaultier might be stepping down from his role as Creative Director of Hermes.
He’s been running the storied French house since Martin Margiela left in 2003 and done quite the successful job of maintaining Hermes’ status while increasing its high fashion credibility, not to mention profitability. They announced that their second quarter sales were up 12% this year, a good amount, a great amount given the economic climate. And Hermes has a stake in Gaultier’s own line which means the break will probably be amicable, or at least less messy than the recent Cortazar/Ungaro debacle.
So now the fun part, if it’s true and he goes on his way, who will take his spot? In our wildest dreams someone with a purely rock n’ roll aesthetic would take on the classics. Christophe Decarnin? Giles? Chris Kane? We know it’ll never happen, but the imaginary results are awesome.
Balmain, which WWD describes as “a hot ready-to-wear brand” is showing buyers and editors a very tight selection of bags during their pre-collection previews.
Christophe Decarnin’s clothes are in fact pretty damn hot, though the designer suffered a few critical stings last season when his AW09 clothes looked just like the SS09 clothes everyone else had already ripped off, or sorry, taken inspiration from. So now, while the world waits to make sure he can in fact do something new, they’ll also anticipate a handbag or two.
Continue reading Bags of Balmania…
The downward spiral began when Victoria Beckham wore it.
Then we read that Moscow housewives are “shipping them in by the truckload” - the official death knell.
We’re talking, of course, about Balmania - the fastest spreading fashion virus ever.
Let’s talk about the “design genius” that made Christophe Decarnin famous in the first place: Very suspect looking shoulders on Michael Jackson jackets. And how about the ten, eleven thousand dollar price tags? We didn’t understand until we decided that editors rave and obsess because mere mortals simply cannot have them. And really, neither can actual journalists - unless of course they’re married to a tycoon. So they fawn over Balmain, even though Decarnin makes his darlings look like fashion robot victims.
A point driven home at Selfridges this morning when three very cool London girls stood over the (full) Balmain rack and squealed,”Ewww!”
—CHARLEY B.
There was a universal call-out yesterday of all the designer’s who’ve riffed on Balmain’s distinct Fall 08 and Spring 09 designs - the reviews of Christophe Decarnin’s Fall 09 clothes called for something new so that all the other houses would have something fresh to copy.
With that in mind, it was all the more interesting to watch Isabel Marant’s homage walk down the runway this afternoon. Granted, her stiff shouldered mini-jackets started out in colorful tweeds and florals on Erin Wasson and Lily Donaldson, they were black on Lara Stone and Carmen Kass in no time.
Beneath them lay navy pants, grey jersey minis and tees, ruched silk skirts, zippered leggings, leopard print flounces and of course thigh-high boots. There was also fur, which looked too fake - even from the fourth row.
The great thing about Isabel Marant is that it’s wearable and chic, but the shiny leopard pants were trying too hard for the latter. We should have been looking at the collection, instead we were focused on the A-list models and Julia Roitfeld’s Christopher Kane sequins.
See all the images…
Those Balmain shoulders, the sharp eighties silhouette Christophe Decarnin so successfully reinvented last season, popped up on almost every runway, from Behnaz to Topshop, from Herve to Pringle. But a few designers weren’t satisfied with mere shoulder pads and actually ballooned their silks into real life leg-of-mutton sleeves.
Roksanda Ilincic’s silver, almost angular sleeves added an edge to her glamourous pastel shifts while Dolce & Gabbana’s worked in the opposite direction. Their rounded shoulders gave linear dresses womanly curves.
Julien Macdonald’s steroid sleeves are a bit less dramatic but maintain the bubbly upper arm that skinnies at the elbow - because a sleeve of Dolce’s proportions on Macdonald’s already 80’s-loving, zippered, bedazzled mini might be a bit much.
Think you can write your own magazine?
Vice wants to give you a shot.
They’ve titled their latest issue The ______ Issue - as in, you can call it whatever you want.
They know you love a good DIY, they know your submissions will be about fashion and they’re dying to see what you, Fashionista readers, come up with.
The core of the challenge lies in the feature story. The winner, aka the best writer, gets either an internship at the magazine or $1000 - winner’s choice. The top one hundred entries receive a year’s subscription and because it’s Vice, there will be loser prizes, too.
Have you been dying to tell the world your theories on the evolution of Balenciaga? Are you bursting with fashion criticism? Have you spent the year drawing comparisons between Christophe Decarnin and Christopher Kane? Do you think you know the fate of our prehistoric Fashion Week traditions?
Here’s your chance to share - have fun!
(And tell us if you win).
Gareth Pugh is taking on menswear.
The very important and semi-surprising piece of information was kept under wraps until the official announcement of the Paris Men’s Fashion Week schedule yesterday. In the past month, Matthew Wiliamson, Carlos Miele, Christophe Decarnin and Roland Mouret have all announced plans to introduce menswear. Pugh, the least commercial of them all, will close the week with his show at Palais de Tokyo, the same venue in which he showed his women’s collection last September.
Pugh’s incorporated menswear into past collections but never produced a full line. We can’t help but picture a more masculine version of his Spring 09 collection - very tight, futuristic, entirely black and white and hopefully no where near Jay-Z’s next tour.
It’s a risky move - Fendi, Valentino and Marni have all cancelled their men’s shows thanks to the tanking economy and Zac Posen told WWD that he will absolutely not move forward with plans for a secondary line despite wanting to for years.
But Rick Owens, who with his wife Michelle Lamy has a 49% stake in Pugh’s brand and is also showing a full men’s collection in Paris, would rather we just go with it.
“Just come with an open mind,” he says.
No problem. A ticket to Paris, however, not so easily done.
Today, WWD confirms the year-long rumor that Christophe Decarnin will extend his designs for Balmain to menswear, with a presentation at men’s Fashion Week this January in Paris, officially making him a part of the growing list of womenswear designers turning to the men.
While Christophe has certainly proven himself to be a designer customers love (it’s not everyone that can command a $1,400 price tag for a pair of jeans), we’re compelled to weigh both sides:
- Could a designer best known for slashed skirts, metallics, ass-grazing hemlines and a look Cathy Horyn so aptly summarized as “elegant trash” appropriate translate his general aesthetic to menswear? Because a work-appropriate suit could only really include zebra print if it was somehow worked into the lining, and where’s the fun in that?
- Are $20,000 suits (because you know that’s what they’ll cost) really a good idea right now anyway?
- Or will the line be the perfect complement to his womenswear, meant for the boy that parties between LA and Rome, who DJ’s and maybe paints to explain his living, making bejeweled tees and motorcycle jackets right at home in his Cavalli closet?
And most importantly, will it make it past a season? We all know Balmain men’s will get all the editorial support in the world, but what about the real world?
Guess he could surprise us all and make sharp, super-fitted, classic clothes - but then, why pay for that name tag?
