If Alexander Wang’s the Superbowl, I guess that makes Yohji Yamamoto the World Cup. This season’s Y-3 extravaganza was all about soccer — which sadly seems to be going the way of “fetch” in the States as hard as people are trying to make it happen. They even dropped a net at the end of the show so Yohji and superstar players Zinedine Zidane tried to score.
Y-3 on the other is always happening. The darling of Fashion Week, Tavi, was there along with somewhat random mix of Rufus Wainwright, Perry Farrell, Russell Simmons and Diggy(!), and Lupe Fiasco. And Jesus [Luz] Walked — everyone’s favorite joke of the day. And we didn’t even know then that Kanye was going to make an ass out of himself mere hours later. As for the clothes, I was especially digging the little jackets and the voluminious tops that looked so incredibly soft and comfortable but still totally chic.
Every season it’s fun to anticipate what kind of major production you’re going to see at the show. And while it wasn’t as out there as the ice, I must say as an obsessive sports fan, I was totally down. I’m loving all this jock action, even though I had to miss opening day in the NFL to see it.
It used to be that at every show your seating assignment was written on blank, white index cards when you checked in, and so it was easy for crafty crashers to simply write “S” or “ST” on a card from Duane Reade across the street, and jump into the standing line of a show without any problems.
But this season, maybe because of all the slashed guest lists, the PR’s have caught on.
At Erin Fetherston last night (which is a much more crashed show than people realize), the BPCM girls handed you your seating assignment on oversized index cards, the kind no one ever buys. At Y-3 earlier in the day, assignments were scrawled on blue cards, which we’d never seen before. And at Alexander Wang on Saturday, the security was the tightest we’d ever seen at any show, with seating assignments on neon green cards, flashlight-wielding security guards blocking off the seating section and actually reading your assignment before letting you in at all (the standing section was not let in, and they basically stood in Siberia).
But no show is going to have this new security quite like Marc Jacobs tonight. What was once the most easily crashed show - you would always see throngs of students just rushing the door with the other 2,000 guests - is now totally uncrashable, as KCD has drawn up such a short invite list that most of the show is mono-rowed, meaning you would easily be picked out just by showing your uninvited face.
Just a sign of that more serious and somber Fashion Week everybody’s been describing so far.
The Y-3 show, a marriage between Yohji Yamamoto and Adidas, is all about the front row, and nobody pretends otherwise. But when we got to Pier 40 and saw how scaled down the show was in comparison to the last time Y-3 showed there, we had a feeling it might be different this time.
We were right: Tyson Beckford, who we saw minutes earlier on the side of a bus for Make Me a Supermodel, was surrounded by photographers as if he was Brad Pitt. Veronica Webb was being treated like she was Veronica Lodge (read: unreal). We were seated behind the “celebrity” section, only to be accosted by a fierce semi-circle of photogs flashing their hearts out over some “celebrity” we didn’t even recognize (indeed, the post-show tip sheet confirms the best celebrities other than Kanye, who slipped in a few minutes before the show’s start, were Kim Kardashian, Rufus Wainwright and somebody named Ricky Jackson).
The video at left is of the nonstop flashes our unknown man induced (it suddenly occurred to us today that celebrities must lose their vision at a much younger age than the rest of us), so you can just imagine what it’s like when JLo shows up.
PS This was the second show to include actual little kids on the runway - the models really are getting younger and younger these days.
Not sure yet, but just in case you thought the band of Spring 08 had fallen off the fashion radar, they’d like to remind you that they’re still going strong.
The Virgins will kick off New York Fashion Week with a performance at the Mercedes Benz party at Shang this Friday, making it (we think) their fourth Fashion Week appearance in a row.
Which means we know we’ll be running into Stam and Behati all over the place and dancing to Rich Girls like it’s summer of 07.
If you have to announce you’re closing a New York office - the morning the world’s talking about Jason Wu might be the best time to do it.
Yohji Yamamoto’s closing his thirteen-year-old stateside press office at the end of this month. One person will stick around until March - probably to help the Adidas team with February’s Fall 09 Y-3 show and make sure all press operations are smoothly transferred to Japan.
Unlike a lot of designers making strategic changes, the Japanese brand has no qualms attributing the close to the rough economy, blaming “the economic situation in the U.S.”
Not to worry though - as of today, Yamamoto’s still planning his Paris shows, and the celebrity extravaganza Y-3 show in New York is definitely still on.
The brand, called SLVR, will come complete with its own stores, Mark Segal shot ad campaigns and international fashion week debuts.
SLVR will offer shoes, accessories and sportswear, (not sportswear for sports but sportswear for looking cute), meant to fill the niche, and the price range, between traditional Adidas gear and the brand’s higher end collaborations with Y-3 and Stella McCartney.
They’re also taking the environment into consideration. The line includes products like the “zero waste T” which is cut from a single piece of fabric and hand-stitched, instead of glued, shoes.
But it’s not just a new line, it’s meant to be an entirely new business model, with new advertising techniques, a completely different product theme and totally different retail plans according to an Adidas spokesman. Which means, it’s totally insane in this economic climate and will have to face a seriously uphill battle toward survival.
I’ve been carrying around a zippered Y-3 wallet under my arm for a week, and suddenly, life is easier. I grab everything I need, all at once on my way out the door, which is too much to fit into a pocket-sized wallet.
So I’m particularly delighted with the newest unexpected twist from this season’s menswear runways - the introduction of clutches to men’s wardrobes.
If you think about it, it’s really not far-fetched. Men carry briefcases and portfolios, which are just as hard to carry as a clutch. So why not switch out an attaché case for a sleek Marni envelope? Plus, these days, we’re carrying cell phones, wallets, Blackberries, keys and a bajillion other things. A giant messenger bag isn’t always a convenient, or appropriate, accessory for a night out.
Dries Van Noten’s zippered patent leather option is pretty basic without adding too many buckles or other distractions we’re sure most guys wouldn’t approve of. We love the blood red Ferragamo, left - it’s big but not annoying.
“At least twice a year, a fashion reporter will write an article about ‘The New Modesty,’ declaring that clothes are finally returning to well-constructed tailoring of subtlety and restraint. Then, in the same publication, you will see a fashion spread of an impossibly chiseled man in a python codpiece straddling a Russian supermodel wearing a bikini made of pink dental floss, and you wonder (1) what that writer was on; and (2) if humanity will ever be sophisticated again.” - Writer Mike Albo, in a funny intro as to why Y-3 is cool for the clothes (not just the fashion show,) in the New York Times.
If you are so lucky as to find your name on the guest list, you’ll be able to pick up cult-favorite sneakers from labels like Jordan, Y-3, Clae, and Supra and suitably fancy sporty clothes to wear with them.
Each month, the store will stock the products featured in the current issue of the magazine. Anyone who feels that they may have been unjustly overlooked during the initial round of invitations can sign up online to join the “waiting list.”
We don’t know if we would be that excited to be invited to head up to 41st street to buy clothes at full retail price, but if Vogue ever wants to spearhead an invite-only sample sale they know where to find us!
There may be a bodice influence on the runways this season, but so far, the makeup rooms are all about one thing:
Eyelids streaked with shiny light colors, especially in the corners.
At Y-3, it was a hot pink gel smeared over the lids and under the lashes.
At DVF, it was a subtle shimmer that dotted the corners and the edges.
And at BCBG, it was a full on border of bright white cream, painted carefully along everyone’s lash line and worn with barely anything else on the face. Ben Cho repeated the trend in gold, and Erin Fetherston went one step further, coating her girls with white lids and white eyelashes.
Photos of the trend are below, and you can do it at home with some white eye cream from M.A.C or NARS, plus a makeup brush or - this is how I do it - a pointy Q-tip.
The one thing we’ve noticed this Fashion Week is that everyone wears their best shoes. Towering pieces of overpriced sculpture clack the floor before shows, and if the clothes are bad or boring, you can just look down.
So at the Y-3 show yesterday, we had a little “oooh” moment when a throng of fashion editors had to wade through puddles on the way to their seat.
“Yohji told us he wants water everywhere, and little standing pools on the floor.”
That’s fun for the models in sneakers, but maybe not that great for the pairs of Balenciaga, Prada, and Louboutin coming to witness the spectacle.
The show began with a loud clap of thunder, and rain poured down the walls behind us. Then came the clothes - long swoops of sweatpants and shirts, worn like superhero capes and stomped carelessly down the wet runway.
The stream of models plomped through the stream of water, and we realized Mr. Yamamoto and the Adidas crew don’t care if your shoes get wet -
This is the show about not dressing up, and instead about just getting dressed for whatever you need to do. Like shop for new sneakers.
Got her: Listening to Planningtorock on Lafayette and Prince. “Weird but great. Wanna listen?”
Stalked her: Because her look is avant-garde… in a good way and not a wow-you-need-attention way.
Shot her: Because she combined vintage and contemporary pieces, and ended up refreshingly modern.
She says: “The coat is vintage Marithe + Francois Girbaud— I really like the shape. The top is by Raf Simons because I love to wear menswear, shoes are DKNY, and the bag is Y-3.”
We say: The futurism is now.
We also say: In that “only in New York” way, we saw Daul this weekend at a party. A bonus shot of her - and her party food of choice - follows…
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If Alexander Wang’s the Superbowl, I guess that makes Yohji Yamamoto the World Cup. This season’s Y-3 extravaganza was all about soccer — which sadly seems to be going the way of “fetch” in the States as hard as people are trying to make it happen. They even dropped a net at the end of the show so Yohji and superstar players Zinedine Zidane tried to score. 
