The Telegraph got a quickie interview backstage with Marc Jacobs, and while everyone was admonished to not speak of, you know, that little Dior rumor, the video gives a bit of insight into MJ’s mindset. We don’t get to hear him speak very often, so it’s fun to hear him tell stories–some things just don’t Read more →
Long Nguyen is the co-founder/style director of Flaunt.
PARIS–You never know what to expect when entering a Chanel show. Chanel is the last fashion house in Paris that consistently stages shows on the grandest of scales–one season it was a giant golden lion, another a farmhouse done to scale, another time an actual iceberg imported from Sweden, and last season, a volcanic eruption.
This time the Grand Palais (that massive exhibition hall built for the 1900 World’s Fair), was done all in white, the floor covered in sparkling white sand, the seating curved like ocean waves. An aquatic scene was set: there was a whale’s tail, seaweed in various states of submersion, giant clams, coral reef, a giant stingray, snails and shells scattered throughout.
Oftentimes, décor and spectacle can overwhelm the fashion, but that was not the case here. On the contrary, the tranquility of the aquatic scene, the feeling of being under water, only served to enhance the collection. Models walked out from what appeared to be the mouth of a giant octopus while Florence Welch sang a la Botticelli, on the half shell. The clothes seemed to flow on the body like the movement of water.
Last season for Louis Vuitton, Marc Jacobs sent his models to the runway in caged elevators complete with uniformed operators to open the doors. Kate Moss closed the show while smoking a cigarette. You might have thought (like I thought), ‘Well, he’ll never top that.” But you’d be wrong. For Louis Vuitton’s spring 2012 collection, Read more →
The shows may be almost over, but that doesn’t mean we’re tired of looking at outfits. And since everyone knows the real fashion show takes place outside the tents, we scoured the street style shots to find our faves.
From style icon editors like Taylor Tomasi Hill and Anna Dello Russo to models Hanne Gaby Odiele and Iekeliene Stange, check out our favorite street style looks from Paris Fashion Week.
The summer of skinny belts is over. The big houses in Paris are showing wide statement belts with pants, dresses, skirts, and just about everything else. From Jean Paul Gaultier’s corset-like option, to Balmain’s gold buckle that rivals a WWF belt, to Céline’s buzzed-about classic trench belts, everyone has a vision for how to hold Read more →
PARIS–Vanessa Bruno’s girl for spring is a bit boho, a bit mod, a bit DIY, and always cool. Mod minis looked like they were made of hipster quilts–nostalgic floral prints I had as my bedspread when I was five sewn together with squares of shimmering silver. Bruno amped up the mod-factor with open-toe knee-high boots. Shagadellic. Images of trucks then wove their way onto patchwork tops and dresses for a literal boy-meets-girl vibe.
PARIS–Thank goodness Giambattista Valli is doing a collection for Macy’s that we can all afford because if his Impulse line for the mass retailer is even remotely like what he just showed for spring 2012 (or any of his latest collections for that matter), you’re gonna want a piece of it.
At the Couvent des Cordeliers yesterday, Valli showed a festive collection true to his ’60s mod-couture style. Where last spring he ran strips of leopard at the bottom of his shift dresses, this season he’s hemmed his white minis in feathers and shimmering silver brocade. More is more with Valli, and he took it even further by adding strips of light pink, lemon yellow, and hot pink florals around dresses and day coats. Wavy little gills were attached at the sides of tops and wrapped around dresses, and when looks weren’t a mash up of cotton candy prints, they were loudly zebra striped. And for some more splashes of color, the designer offered up a fringed coat in a bubble gum pink Ikat print. If that wasn’t enough, models’ arms were stacked past their elbows with serpent cuffs.
The Chanel spring 2012 show walked a few hours ago, and the theme was “under the sea.” No surprise then that pearls–already a classic Chanel motif–were featured prominently on the clothes and in the beauty looks. What we were most interested in (I mean, duh) was the nail polish. See above for the pearly white Read more →
PARIS–Some fashion labels, a few French ones among them, have been slow to embrace the digital world as a legitimate and influential voice in the industry. “Online” and “blog” are sometimes dirty, cringe-inducing words around here (though fortunately, that’s less and less the case). But, still, how refreshing, that Chloe’s new creative director Clare Waight Keller, not only looks at blogs, but says she was inspired by the real girls on street style blogs for her debut collection for the storied French house.
“For me Chloe is about what’s real, what’s now and it was about really capturing the spirit of how women dress today,” she told us after the show. “Actually, I looked at a lot of blogs [because] those are cool girls, out there, right now, wearing clothes. It’s really inspiring to see how women put things together–it gave me a sense of what I should try to achieve in this show.”
To that end she showed easy breezy dresses and separates in lighter than air pleated chiffons done in vertical stripes in a palette of cream, camel, brown, dusty rose and aqua. Pants and skirts sat boyishly low on the hips with wide belts, while blouses were a bit loose and boxy. That sexy, Chloe femininity was inserted by way of thigh high slits on dresses. Girly touches were added in floral prints on white button downs and shorts. Alexa Chung was a perfect poster-girl for the collection in the front row (though you might need her body to pull some of this stuff off).
PARIS–Every fashion season a few things are guaranteed: a model will fall, Anna Dello Russo will change outfits approximately 647,329 times, and a rumor will circulate that Stefano Pilati is out at YSL. This season was no exception. After the IHT’s Suzy Menkes implied in an article that Jil Sander designer Raf Simons might someday be headed for YSL, Twitter and then the blogosphere (yep, that’s us) buzzed with news that Simons was taking Pilati’s place at YSL. YSL subsequently (this is old hat to them now) issued a statement disclaiming the the report.
Last night, Pilati presented his spring 2012 collection for YSL through several ornate salons at the lavish Hôtel Salomon de Rothschild. It was a strong, confident, collection–firmly grounded in YSL’s DNA, particularly in the jewel-toned color palette–and one that didn’t hint at a designer shaken by rumors, or worse, on his way out. These were clothes for a lady of means, one who is maybe a little bored with her fancy life and who might be nasty to her waiter. She keeps her hair in a tight, low bun, cradled by a gold clip, and never lets her hair down. Her clothes are structured, especially in the shoulders, and voluminous; her pants are unforgivingly straight and skinny; and her skirts are stiff and flared, except, of course, when they’re to the floor, paisley printed, and paired with a simple white blouse.
Long Nguyen is the co-founder/style director of Flaunt.
PARIS–On a divided stage–one side covered in red fabrics and the other in black–a model emerged from backstage onto a raised runway inside the Marcel Cerdan at Bercy. The model was in a purple tank dress with a long train that fell to the side and a massive circular top hat with bow. As she came towards the end of the platform, she pulled on the long train that fell to the side, posed, and turned and walked back. These gestures and her long flowing dress recalled memories of past Yohji Yamamoto shows, particularly those held at the Sorbonne in the late 1990’s.
Long Nguyen is the Co-Founder/Style Director of Flaunt.
PARIS–Over the sounds of Argentinian music evoking the atmosphere of a morning in the Gaucho plains, Junya Watanabe sent out a stunning collection of romantic and emotional clothes early Saturday morning. The show started with deep colored lace transparent dresses with black spaghetti strap slips and ended with the most elegant transformation of the trench coat seen on any runway.
But if there were any references to Argentina and its southern mythical plains so romanticized in literature, it was just the coming and going of the Spanish vocals on the soundtrack throughout the show, rather than any literal translation in the clothes.
