Our menswear contributor extraordinaire, Long Nguyen, co-founder and style director of Flaunt magazine, has just wrapped up the menswear shows in Paris. Check out his review of Kim Jones’ nautical-inspired collection (think surf not sailing) for Louis Vuitton; Riccardo Tisci’s usual but nonetheless thrilling collection mixing themes of sex, the Gothic, and Catholicism; and Rei Read more →
Last night, Opening Ceremony threw a block party on Howard Street (where their flagship is located) to celebrate the stateside launch of Kim Jones’ collaboration with Bean Pole, a South Korean retailer. Thus, the party was sort of Korean-themed with a Korean taco truck and cocktails made with soju. To round out the block party vibe, Brooklyn MC Theophilus London performed to a fashionable crowd that included Shala Monroque, Jen Brill, Phil Oh, and Rachel Chandler. Even new Kenzo creative directors (and Opening Ceremony co-founders) Humberto Leon and Carol Lim made time to stop by.
The always stylish and multi-talented Solange Knowles was also there and joined London on stage for two songs after doing a three-hour DJ set. Even though she was probably pretty exhausted from all that, Solange, who is becoming a regular here on Fashionista, was nice enough to chat with us briefly after her awesome performance. Here’s what she had to say about dj’ing, stealing clothes from her sister and doing a clothing line.
Kim Jones recently stepped into the spotlight when he debuted his first collection for Louis Vuitton at Men’s Fashion Week in Paris. He replaced Paul Helbers as style director of the house’s men’s ready-to-wear division, leaving his previous position as creative director at Alfred Dunhill. The Central St. Martin’s grad started quietly garnering a cult following back in the early aughts, when he produced a collection under his own name for eight consecutive seasons.
Since then he’s remained pretty under-the-radar, designing for various labels including Uniqlo, Mulberry, Alexander McQueen, Hugo Boss, Umbro and Topman, until his Louis Vuitton collection debuted to rave reviews. However, he has another project coming out that we are super excited about, especially because it includes womenswear and will probably be pretty affordable–a collaboration with hip Korean brand Bean Pole. Scott Sternberg recently designed a collection with the retailer that I was obsessed with and to my grave disappointment, it was only available in Korea.
Thanks to the clued in buyers at Opening Ceremony, this August, Jones’ Bean Pole collection will at least be available in New York.
Usually, it’s editorial shakeups that get us all confused and inspire us to create befuddling charts and guides to recap and (at least attempt to) make sense of movement within the fashion industry. Lately, however, it seems that most of the movement is taking place at big fashion houses. Whether it’s the economy or designers getting burnt-out, it seems like a top level position opens (or gets filled) every week.
From Galliano’s exit from Dior to Marios Schwab’s from Halston (which happened so recently we didn’t have a chance to include it), here’s our little visual guide to the recent ins and outs at major fashion houses.
Kim Jones’ debut collection for Louis Vuitton men’s yesterday was inspired by tribes in Africa, the same inspiration that Thakoon Panichgul looked to for his Fall 2011 womenswear show. But not only were the two designers inspired by African tribes, they used the same red and blue buffalo check print in their collections.
So would you rather sport Vuitton’s checked separates or Thakoon’s? Or maybe you’re more of a tartan girl anyway….
Gaga to Debut New Song at Thierry Mugler Show: Little Monsters rejoice, Gaga will sing another song from her upcoming album live at pal Nicola Formichetti’s first show for Thierry Mugler tomorrow in Paris. The show will be live streamed on the Mugler Facebook page at 3pm EST. {Grazia}
Garance Doré’s Guide to Getting Assaulted by a Street Style Photog: Take it from Garance. The street style blogger writes that the key to getting snapped by the likes of her, Tommy Ton, or the Sartorialist this season is to wear enormous furs, bizarre shoes, and something “WTF.” {Garance Doré}
