Jil Sander © Copyright 2014
Born under the creative direction of Rodolfo Paglialunga, the Jil Sander Spring/Summer 2015 collection is a coalescence of genders.
Lines are borrowed from sharp masculine and graceful feminine contours. The result is a re-imagined hybrid of the two. The sum of which ebbs and flows delicately between his and hers to find a harmonic balance.
At the heart are mantras which are an extrapolation of Annemarie Schwarzenbach, a Swiss photographer and writer from the 1930’s, who embodied an unconventional and androgynous beauty standard. Her persona was a shift toward elegant indifference, a world traveler and civic pioneer willing to go beyond the norm.
Irreverence for definitions is the conception of beauty that inspires the silhouettes. Layered skirts clad in double gabardine with sheer poplin linings. Clean cut jackets of cotton duchesse, silk and nylon. Asymmetric poplin dresses and oversized bermudas in fil coupé.
Binary lines and geometric jacquards enliven fabrics. Sturdy materials handled with thoughtful intricacy anchor compilations. Officiousness found in utilitarian form and function is muted.
The palette draws on opposites, black with white. Ochre tones, earthy and opaque, stand against steely hues. Sandstone and clay are thrust next to greens oblique with gun-metal grays.
Paired with tensile nappa socks, flat or heeled geometric sandals are hewn from leather and tinted crocodile.
Patchwork leather belts are ensconced with geometric motifs, designed to accentuate and underline the waistline. Re-worked and freshly interpreted satchels, in refined leather, strike between wit and practicality.
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Tags: JIL SANDER, JIL SANDER SS 2015, SPRING SUMMER WOMEN 2015
Thu, September 25 2014 » Fashion Blog
Iceberg © Copyright 2014
Summer, super summer! Palm Springs, Californian summery feeling to an active city woman. It all starts with blocks of intense color – blue, red, pink – and the black and white of the micro prints : patchworks designed as Memphis furniture. High-waisted trousers and lapels with slogans such as popsicles package.
California and color: it can not be more summer! The fuchsia and orange are the uniform of the heroine of a video game. Fully printed mini dresses, jackets and pants.
Step by step, black and white is taking over, graphic prints, stripes and organic shapes for a technoïd turn. In a dream where the dragon fruit is the main character, wardrobe for the night. Black is structuring the fantasy. Virtual versus real movement : video game and sports.
Keyword: canyoning. Water and stone. Cuts and rounded edges like scuba suits: zip and straps. Let’s play, pasting stickers everywhere … fruits, spaceships, cocktails and climbers glitter applications on ultra lightweight chiffon … Sparkling plastron covered by a draping of soft embroidery.
Robust leather strap sandals with solid and curved forms heels, rubber effect to the touch. Belts as climbing gear on each silhouette, bucket bags and eyewear reminding the diving ones.
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Tags: ICEBERG, ICEBERG SS 2015, SPRING SUMMER WOMEN 2015
Thu, September 25 2014 » Fashion Blog
Msgm © Copyright 2014
… for those who have read FREEDOM, and exclusively for JONATHAN FRANZEN fans.
“FREEDOM speaks of the FUTURE”
Walter Berglung’s life is falling apart and he continues undeterred in his obsession for the small warbler, the defenceless symbol of a species threatened by extinction.
And then there is the charming and charismatic Richard Katz with his obsession for indie-rock music which brings him fame and turns him into an international star.
They are obsessions.
MUSIC AND WORDS.
FREEDOM.
THEY ARE THE RULEZ BY MSGM.
BIRDS and MUSIC.
“Je ne suis pas une femme fatale”, Mme Bruni said.
“Je suis la femme ressort”, the French indie-punk group LA FEMME sings.
Woodpeckers are mean and punk on cotton duchesse.
The chaffinch becomes a bold print on mikado, or 3D, embroidered in multicolour plastic.
Hummingbirds and sparrows turn first into geometric prints and then into fake embroidered patches.
The new obsession: LETTERING.
F.R.E.E.D.O.M.
EMBROIDERED. MACRAME. PATCHES. On organza. On tulle. On cotton.
Street Style is not abandoned. It is pushed to its limits.
The old obsession: FLUORESCENCE and STRIPES.
Neon yellow. Neon orange.
FLUORESCENCE IS BACK.
STRIPES ARE BACK.
“Tu te poses des questions; n’écoute que la musique. Le ressort ne tient plus le choc”.
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Tags: MSGM, MSGM SS 2015, SPRING SUMMER WOMEN 2015
Thu, September 25 2014 » Fashion Blog
Contemporary Nostalgia
This season is a timeless poem
For a timeless woman
Who is modern and classic
Contemporary and nostalgic
Florals as scarves, denims as coats, stripes as maxis
Transparent dresses to see through the finest woman
And long and longer dresses flow like rivers
A season, a poem, a woman, of colors and directions
With the quiet of an aqua sky blue, and the new energy of the ultramarine
A palette of rich pastels, bright tones, youthful accents
All held in harmony by timeless natural whites
How delicate the artistry
Double face finishing, accented color inners
Wire beads, fine foulards, exquisite belts, constructed handbags
Giant knits, intarsia sequins, techno fabrics, summer cashmere
Wool, cotton, nylon, denim, and the poetry of silk
Our silhouettes widen the imagination
Very mini vs the very long
A-line and volume, straight and boxy, simple shifts
Play on time – with gilets that have lasted centuries
Play on proportions – from head to beautiful toe
With fine handcrafted platforms as well as exciting high heels
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Tags: ANTEPRIMA, ANTEPRIMA SS 2015, SPRING SUMMER WOMEN 2015
Thu, September 25 2014 » Fashion Blog
In his fourth collection, Arthur Arbesser continues his search for a modern aesthetic – a radical elegance that engages daily with society, art and architecture.
During the design phase, Arbesser turned his attention to the work of two German artists: Blinky Palermo and Isa Genzken. The colour palette this season comes from Palermo, who also inspired in Arbesser a general desire for clean design. The work of Isa Genzken, by contrast, pushed him towards trying unusual pairings of materials, with elements such as sponge, honeycomb and waxed nylon.
One of the most interesting experiments here involves the knitwear – an important focus of the collection – with yarns of transparent nylon and 3D viscose jacquard. The uniform remains one of the themes that the designer enjoys working with. So the polo shirt and the denim jacket have been re-worked and improved using innovative solutions. The tailoring is andro- gynous but is combined throughout with a choice of light, evanescent materials, reaffirming the tension between masculine and feminine that is often present in Arbesser’s creations.
The silhouette is well-defined, and its play between space and non-space, colour and transparency, and strength and fragility should be seen as Arbesser’s personal, heartfelt comment on our image and imperfections as human beings.
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Tags: ARTHUR ARBESSER, ARTHUR ARBESSER SS 2015, SPRING SUMMER WOMEN 2015
Thu, September 25 2014 » Fashion Blog
CAROLINA MY CAROLINA
A passionate dedication to Carol Rama
The first time I met Carolina I was terrified … I admit that it does not happen very often, I would say that it happens rarely to be so terrified that I could not think of anything else.
Yes, it was decided: First, we’d go to the gallery to see her artworks, afterwords in the afternoon we’ d go home to Carol’s, just by food as she’s living just round the corner in front of Mollino’s house.
Carol welcomed us in the hallway, crowned by her braid and took us to the bedroom. She was sitting in her armchair and told us where to go: “You here, she there and you, Antonio, come here on the floor just beside me.”
Carol attracts you and she catches you. She was telling us about Man Ray, Warhol, Orson Wells, Carlo Mollino, the frogs, …and the asylum and the french kisses…
She started playing with my rags and at that point I was hoping that time would never pass by. We talked again on the phone, we screamed that we were already missing each other.
She is beautiful, inappropriate, provocative, disturbing and generous. A character from all over the top whose art is incomprehensible, obscene and crazy, just like her. I’ve always loved, she says, things and situations that were used to be rejected with.
There is so much to fall in love with, deeply in love – and I did… From that point on, our first meeting, our never-ending story started. A story of handcraft and silks, embroideries and prints, flowers and colors. The warm colors of the sunset in the mornings and dreams of the night.
Shame and transgression, hands and roses, frogs and hands, hands and … “a rose is a rose is a rose” …from dream to nightmare to extravagance, the extravagance of the avant-garde, powerful and front, poetic, languid and crazy and impredictabel as a magma, as an encounter of love, as a memory … dresses and sweaters and shirts as hugs, sometimes reassuring, sometimes too sensual … silks and pleats and prints and secrets … an extension that hides and exalts for an intimate private vision, for a meeting with yourself … for those who have to deal with the follies and deceptions.
Bold colors such as the turquoise of a sky without disorder but filled with flowers and sensual imaginations of antique roses, an orange, warm, hot, bright, direct, so shameless.
Transparent organza, voile and tulle like secrets we do not want to hide, appearing polka dots and bicycle tyres which turn soft, just like surrealist dreams combined with texture sometimes taken from Carol’s pieces of art, some other time freely inspired by her. And hands that hug or tighten or warm or stop …
The jewelry/sculpture born from the meeting of Monica Castiglioni (artist, photographer and designer) and Antonio Marras. Each piece is unique and each element appears to be the fragment of a dictionary which is made up revealing a language.
Objects, rings and necklaces and bracelets, such as prosthesis, present and powerful, visible in their being timeless, enhanced by the luster of bronze.
Pieces conceived for a project which is based on some fundamental connections of the body, Connection between organ and organ, between inside and outside, between full and empty, between visible and invisible, between shyness and arrogance.
Forms that arise from a reference and a definite icon: Carol Rama
Francesca Alfano Miglietti
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Tags: ANTONIO MARRAS, ANTONIO MARRAS SS 2015, SPRING SUMMER WOMEN 2015
Thu, September 25 2014 » Fashion Blog
WOMAN SUMMER 2015
Ennio Capasa, designer:
Persuing the ideas and immagination of my last Resort collection that was presented in June in New York. For my Summer 2015 collection I twisted rock n’ roll and refiniment to describe the free spirited woman of today, still remaining faithful to the hard-edged sophistication of Costume National.
The “Menhir” of the young artist Antonio Forteleoni, brought me to the “Stonehenge free music festival”. This festival represents at his origin, the place of expression to youth culture in search for change, a natural location to gather and immagine the future. A place where the energy accumulates and renews…
SOPHISTICATED FREEDOM
Fabrics and leathers
Structure and fluidity, double suede with soft leather. Laser cut leather, double silk cotton and silk georgette with contrast seams. Double viscose canvas paired with suedeor with silk cady, ribbon embroideries on tulle and silk georgette. Doubled silk cotton with maxi fringes. Viscose and technological fibers, techno macramè made with ultrasound technique.
Colors
Black, chocolate, purple, indigo, turquoise and dust blue.
Dresses
Laser cut asymmetric strapless with metallic eyelets. Collar neck back cleavage with cornily stitching, flowy double layers. Technical embossed crochet.
Top
Laser cut, asymmetric strapless with rouches. One-shoulder tops with metallic eyelets details. Doubled silk cotton with maxi fringes.
Outerwears
Short and long jackets with fringes and studs on leather in laser cut suede. Trench with contrasting seams. Short or over-the-knee waistcoats with metallic belt loops or with contrasting patchwork seams or with suede inlay.
Pants
Five pocket bottom boyish loose jeans turned up at the bottom, skinny with metallic eyelets details. High waist shorts.
Skirts
Mini evasè or long, as well as pant skirts. Foulard skirt.
Bags
In suede and croco printed and bicolour hayes, metallic details with calf fringes. San Francisco, pochette, BurningBag, shoulder bag. Santa Fe, restructured messenger, Palm Springs, bucket bag with metallic corners.
Shoes and accessories
Sandals with heels, both high and lowing, black cowhide and dark brown with ankle straps or with geometric padding. Tubular boots with contrast seams, wide belts in suede with metallic fibers or in calf with leather chains with satined chains details in plexi. Twill foulard plain silk or with contrasted graphic prints, cowhide leather necklaces and bracelets with black ouches and black stone. Sunglasses in acetate with metallic suspension with exclusive ultra-flat lenses.
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Tags: COSTUME NATIONAL, COSTUME NATIONAL SS 2015, SPRING SUMMER WOMEN 2015
Thu, September 25 2014 » Fashion Blog
Wed, September 24 2014 » Fashion Blog
Stella Jean presents this Spring Summer 2015 collection with a strong anthropological story characterized by a succession of cultural trompe-l’oeil. The fabrics and their combinations paint a new narrative landscape, where ethical fashion has a central role.
This explorative creation is born through the growing collaboration with the Ethical Fashion Initiative of the International Trade Centre (ITC), a United Nations agency. The Initiative enabled the use of hand-woven textiles made by women in Burkina Faso and Mali and jewelry made by Haitian artisans.
The collection is a declaration of intent and confirms Stella Jean’s commitment to testifying, sharing and tracing back unimaginable and secular traditions through narrative images. The tones, sometimes epic, at others descriptive or ironic, reveal more than what history books can tell.
Here, the textiles act as reporters conveying a collective memory. As a testimony to this engagement, the collection introduces the elegant and retro Doctor Bag – borrowed from an Italian doctor – revisited with the colours of bogolan, the traditional mud-cloth from Mali, and the striped hand-woven fabric from Burkina Faso.
Yet this Stella Jean’s Spring Summer 2015 collection is characterized by something new: the emotional return of the designer to her home: Haiti. A country described by André Malraux as “the most amazing experience of the magic art of the 20th century”, Haiti was unveiled like never before through ‘Art Naïf’, a movement marked by active observation built around a simple soul.
This artistic perspective is an expression of life, nature and spirit, animated by the market women and their daily multi-coloured vanity, full of dignity. The market, acting as social barometers, is where we can meet these proud vendors adorned with scarves enhancing femininity.
Adding to the hustle and bustle of the market, “tap-tap” buses also have a strong presence in recreate this unique atmosphere. The “tap-tap”, the traditional means of public transport, are also described as “pop art on wheels”. Adorned with subjects belonging to religious, popular and historical tradition; ironic phrases, proverbs or messages; the tap-tap are painted by artists who attend art schools specialized in tap-tap painting.
Donkeys, another important means of transportation and labor, and sugar cane, are also recurring Haitian elements that reappear on prints and hand-painted fabrics, completing the visual landscape of this collection.
Thus, this collection is an authentic cultural symposium: a conversation of visions and expressions of distant and contrasting worlds only in appearance, united under an impeccable aesthetic linking Burkina Faso, Haiti, Mali and Italy. A reversal of Babel.
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Tags: SPRING SUMMER WOMEN 2015, STELLA JEAN, STELLA JEAN SS 2015
Wed, September 24 2014 » Fashion Blog
“My new collection – affirms Angelos Bratis – is inspired by the pared down architectural modernism and the last erotic paintings of renowned artist Yannis Moralis, one of the important figures in painting and the cultural debate in Greece between the late 50’s and 70’s.”
The contemporary poetry of Angelos Bratis does in fact share the pure and abstract mathematical approach of Moralis’ work applied to dynamic compositions of simple and rough geometric shapes, researching the same necessary tension of balance and conceptual harmony; ultimately embracing the same powerful and minimal graphic vision.
Ultra-versatile dresses and kaftans created for every female type. Crêpe de Chine, semi-stretch cady and essential foulards in silk twill constitute the intentionally limited, mathematical vocabulary which the Hellenic designer explores to render yet more evident the characteristic, unmistakable codes of his luminous aesthetic: basic and yet extremely sophisticated.
The password is the mastery of cut, the significant lightness, the independent and sinuous movement of material around the body which suddenly appears freed from all restraint or restriction whilst continuing to maintain an absolute control. A tinge of sensuality interlaced with almost stately linear substraction; rarified and distant, ultra-modern and timeless.
“The bias cut – adds Angelos Bratis – the play of the diagonal which is the unceasing foundation and the real passionate cypher for my design journey, finds fresh possibilities which are explored and declined in this collection.”
Triangles, rectangles and semi-circles are starting points for diverse and elusive patterns. A composition which is the synthesis of a study of triangular morphologies, kaftans made from rhomboidal puzzles to arrive at ultra-complex drapings which liberate rigid and plastic constructions in a final radiant and vibratile liquid dimension.
A suspended light and tonal colour palette, again close to the pictorial vision and special tones of Moralis: beige, gold, an electric pink, the energy of sunshine yellow and the unfathomable depths of white. Spurred on by touches of black and by various nuances of blue, a blue ranging from ultramarine to the enveloping mystery of the night sky.
In the same spirit as the dresses are the jewels by Maria Mastori, sculptural pieces in wood, gold-leaf and brass have organic impact. Morphologies with ancestral and linear echoes, as if made smooth by seawater.
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Tags: ANGELOS BRATIS, ANGELOS BRATIS SS 2015, SPRING SUMMER WOMEN 2015
Wed, September 24 2014 » Fashion Blog
