This woman knows exactly who she is. She’s travelled all over the world, bringing back images, colours and cultures that have permeated her personality. She could be a reporter, like photographer Marie-Laure de Decker, the icon so dear to Isabel who has captured the reality and beauty of our world for 50 years.
Fed by military inspiration and codes adopted from a masculine wardrobe, celebrates, her adventurer style celebrates cultures, comfort and craft: printed and quilted cotton twills, Indonesian ikats, earthy colours, all-terrain knits, sarong-style draped leather skirts, tie-dye camouflage prints…
The thigh-high boots toy with volumes, the Berber-inspired silver jewellery is worn en masse, the Australian shearling and moleskin down jacket warm up the look, cinched with wide belts in leather and metal. A collection that celebrates freedom, self-confidence and adventure.
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Tags: FALL WINTER WOMEN 2019-20, ISABEL MARANT, ISABEL MARANT FW 2019-20
Thu, March 7 2019 » Fashion Blog
Vivienne Westwood© Copyright 2019
It is a pleasure to design and I’m fortunate and lucky to work in fashion. In this collection we have reduced the product to its essence. To me and many more, what’s truly sustainable is to repurpose what already exists, materials which lie dormant, also making use of by-products which would normally be thrown away.
Another part which I want to extend is working with Africa and for now, we got some hand-painted fabric made in Burkina Faso, working with the United Nations; and I remembered the skills of the village I grew up in, making house slippers and I used my off-cuts to make these slippers to accompany the collection.
What’s most liberating to me is using fabrics I was collecting, sitting on my treasure for more than 30 years because I loved them and I always thought one day I’ll use them. I’m cooking my leftovers, it’s just a great feeling. The world is constipated, the system needs space, you always need to make room. We over produce, we over consume, we overdo everything. We need space.
We have done a small collection which I find more than eloquent because there is going to be another one in 6 months and one should look forward to that. This is the 7th collection I have done as Andreas Kronthaler for Vivienne Westwood and I called it that because it was a difficult one – I reached the 7 season hurdle: transfiguration.
Clothes make us feel better, fashion is a tonic, something which refreshes our individuality. There is a sacred value in making beauty. To finish this all off I would like to quote Vivienne and say that, ‘fashion is about eventually being naked.’
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Tags: ANDREAS KRONTHALER FOR VIVIENNE WESTWOOD, ANDREAS KRONTHALER FOR VIVIENNE WESTWOOD FW 2019-20, FALL WINTER MEN 2019-20, FALL WINTER WOMEN 2019-20
Thu, March 7 2019 » Fashion Blog
‘Défilé’ Co-ed Collection
Degeneration is a decadent process through which an entity is reduced to its purest core. At Maison Margiela, collections are composed through a pyramidical structure where ideas developed in the Artisanal ateliers filter into consolidated form. For the Autumn/Winter 2019 Défilé co-ed collection, creative director John Galliano induces the digital decadence identified in the recent Artisanal show and proposes a purified sense of restraint. From one collection to the other, this image of degeneration is demonstrated through the reduction of garments themselves.
The overstimulation created by a computer-generated culture of artifice alters reality and confuses fabrication for truth. With cyclical centennial timing, a new era of decadence sets in: excess inevitably followed by decay. Oversaturated by impressions, the millennial generations native to life in cyberspace begin to search for authenticity. Through the evolved language established at Maison Margiela, John Galliano employs decadent cutting to reduce familiar garments to their most authentic form – their core, their silhouette, their proportion – retaining only the memory of what once was.
Appropriating the inappropriate, traditional wardrobe staples fragmentise and migrate to new areas of the body. A flannel coat transforms into a dress, an equestrian trouser mutates into a bustier with a skirt, and a faux leather trench coat morphs into shorts with decortiqué hems. Trousers cut open and flattened become skirts, dresses or capes, their voids filled in with fabric. Flat cutting appears in jackets and dresses brought to life in strategic cuts from which three- dimensional shapes are raised and back-panelled in contrasting lining.
Through degeneration, conventionally gender-specific garments become truly genderless, heralding the combinaison: a top and bottom in one. Excess rears its head in the decadent symbol of pink flamingos, illustrated in the flamingo sequence print fabricated entirely from computerised textures and forms. Exercised in the juxtaposing panels of black or grey outerwear, its sensory overload highlights the contrast between overflow and degeneration. Through this inverted excess, Maison Margiela proposes a new idea of purity.
Materials
The idea of degenerating garments down to their purest core embraces the use of humble fabrics from the classic men’s wardrobe. Here, herringbone, flannel, equestrian and cavalry twills, Harris tweed, felt and coats created in collaboration with Mackintosh represent a feeling of authenticity. Wadding overlaid with chiffon, in outerwear evoking Maison Margiela’s Glam Slam bag, links to the idea of nomadic glamour. The honest character of these materials is contrasted by the over-satiation of a flamingo sequence motif made up of pink flamingos and artificial textures and structures, woven in jacquard as well as printed on nylon. Echoing a sense of excess, embroideries composed of beads, pearls and sequins adorn lace, a glamorous element reflected in plume trims. Organza features in overlay on chunky knitwear and cotton poplin shirting. Next to elements of chiffon, duchesse and tulle, it cements the Maison Margiela codes of unconscious glamour and reverse dressing.
Technique
The decadent cutting first proposed in the Spring/Summer 2019 Artisanal collection informs techniques. As classic garments are deconstructed, their components migrate on the body: a trouser becomes a cape, a coat morphs into a short, another coat transforms into a halter-neck dress. Employing the Maison Margiela code of shadow play, one garment is evoked within another through stitching or the placement of components associated with other parts of the body. In flat-cut jackets and skirts, strategic cuts form three-dimensional shapes raised and back-panelled in contrasting lining. Capitonnage jackets – one bonded to bias-cut chiffon – bring to mind Maison Margiela’s signature Glam Slam bag. Reflecting the artisanal vocabulary established by John Galliano at the house, techniques such as decortiqué, unconscious glamour, reverse dressing, dressing in haste, anonymity of the lining, nomadic cutting and the memory of garments are intrinsic parts of the collection’s genetics. Keeping in line with the gender-nonconformist philosophy of the house, every look was fitted without attention to gender.
Palette
The palette sees a contrast between excess and degeneration. A multi-coloured sequence motif features bright pink flamingos among a sea of oversaturated hues. It is juxtaposed by the authenticity and purity of blacks, greys and ivory.
Accessories
Jewellery draws on the futuristic language of cyberspace in silver-plated palladium display rings and cuffs worn on gloves featuring the flamingo sequence motif. Echoing those codes, necklaces and ear cuffs constructed in the image of flattened bicycle chains also draw on the image of inverse excess. Detached collars in flamingo sequence printed neoprene with clear material detailing appear inverted. Mary Janes draw on the unnerving idea of magnified doll shoes introduced in the Artisanal collection, and appear in rubber, leather and patent leather. The Louis 22, a square- toe heeled boot in flamingo sequence print satin, nods at the shoes of Louis XIV and further takes its name from Maison Margiela’s numeric code for shoes. Finally, a round-toe heeled boot features in leather. Alongside the Glam Slam and the NDN, the collection launches a new take on the existing 5AC bag in a fabric that reacts to UV rays and changes colour accordingly.
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Tags: FALL WINTER MEN 2019-20, FALL WINTER WOMEN 2019-20, MAISON MARGIELA, MAISON MARGIELA FW 2019-20
Wed, March 6 2019 » Fashion Blog
Wed, March 6 2019 » Fashion Blog
Wed, March 6 2019 » Fashion Blog
Wed, March 6 2019 » Fashion Blog
Chain of Inspiration
A sudden inspiration invites you into a journey, where unknown sceneries take your breath away; unknown scents captivate you. You find yourself humming songs and getting to know unforgettable taste, thinking thoughts you never had before. Chance encounters continue to stimulate our creativity.
“DOUGH DOUGH” is a free and flexible textile with outstanding shape memory, and the ability to stimulate a person’s imagination, turning them into artist and creator. New for this season is the inclusion of a wool-like fibre into the fabric mix, in a variety of colors, allowing for a softer feel and texture.
The new fabric this season is called: “BLINK” and has a color palette reminiscent of layers of colored lights. This resin printed fabric creates a new pattern, resembling a kaleidoscope. Through our unique discoveries, new possibilities arise.
« DOUGH DOUGH » est une matière que l’on peut modeler librement et qui possède une mémoire de forme exceptionnelle permettant de stimuler l’imagination de chacun en révélant leur fibre artistique et créatrice. Cette saison, DOUGH DOUGH évolue encore : des fibres d’une grande douceur telles de la laine sont incorporées au tissu, dans une large variété de couleurs.
« BLINK », l’innovation textile de cette saison offre une palette de couleurs rappelant celle des spectres lumineux. Des motifs en résine sont imprimés sur le tissu formant ainsi un effet kaléidoscope. À travers nos innovations, de nouvelles possibilités de porter le vêtement apparaissent.
ISSEY MIYAKE x UN Continuing our shoe project with UNITED NUDE in its sixth season, two new styles are introduced.
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Tags: FALL WINTER WOMEN 2019-20, ISSEY MIYAKE, ISSEY MIYAKE FW 2019-20
Wed, March 6 2019 » Fashion Blog
Hermès© Copyright 2019
LA GARDE RÉPUBLICAINE
She heads out into the night. The late afternoon light has given way to a constellation in the sky. Her clothes feel different; the air is electric. She strides under the neon lights in a casaque jacket with a cosmic pattern. The night has patiently deconstructed each element of her Couvertures et tenues de jour carré.
Long or short; focal lengths reveal secret details. Cockades and equestrian browbands punctuate her closets. Reins trace the curves of her ultra-pencil skirt. She walks with a resolute gait, through shadows and light.
Knickerbocker jumpsuits, shorts and black leather jackets, dressage bodysuits, glove-fit trousers, sharply tailored day dresses, rhythmically pleated casaque blouses, and double-faced coats: the classic and the eccentric — hand in hand.
Here she is, at the very heart of her long journey. Everything appears more clearly defined. She makes her way through the charcoal night, surrounded by the sounds of romance.
Bathed in red moonlight, she smiles. The night belongs solely to her.
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Tags: FALL WINTER WOMEN 2019-20, hermès, HERMÈS FW 2019-20
Tue, March 5 2019 » Fashion Blog
“I went home for this collection, back to where I grew up in the North of England, surrounded by mill towns and wild countryside. I took my team to those mills, to a landscape that I remember from my childhood. The heart of the collection is inspired by the bolts of cloth we saw woven both by man and machine.”
Sarah Burton
Creative Director
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Tags: ALEXANDER MCQUEEN, ALEXANDER MCQUEEN FW 2019-20, FALL WINTER WOMEN 2019-20
Tue, March 5 2019 » Fashion Blog
Y/PROJECT BRINGS A RENEWED SENSE OF ELEGANCE AND DRAMA
La Maison de la Chimie was the setting of Y/PROJECT’s AW19 FEMME collection, presented on Thursday, February 28th. The classic XVIIIth century architecture of this hôtel particulier mixed with its authentic Art Déco design features mirrors Martens’ eclectic historical and aesthetic references that are trickling through the collection.
Glenn Martens creates a renewed sense of evening elegance, sensuality and drama, executed with the craft and wit Y/PROJECT is renowned for. Inspirations run from the Middle Ages to the 70s, bringing in an incredibly rich variety of fabrics, textures, colors and prints. The blending of corduroy, iridescent velvet, linen, faux-leather and fur, pearls, rhinestones, embroidery and Renaissance floral prints gives an extra bohemian accent to this prolific collection.
The opening look set the tone this new season: a skin-tight dress made of transparent latex strips creating a liquid effect, revealing a fierce, confident woman.
True to Y/PROJECT’s constructionist ethos, deconstructed pieces remain the brand’s main signature: panel, pop up, doubling features continue to punctuate the collection. Panelled shoulders are adapted to a variety of pieces throughout the collection: oversized cardigans, tweed coats with faux-fur details, silk shirt dresses and elegant sweater dresses. The trompe l’oeil hot pants are re-imagined in a tulle stirrup legging version.
The superposition of printed overlays, first explored during SS19 and continued for the AW19 HOMME collection, is taken further this season with tulle wrapping added to knit dresses, polo shirts and tops.
One of the show highlights this season was the surprise appearance of Dutch-Iranian singer Sevdaliza who captivated the audience in a Renaissance faux-leather and faux-fur pleated dress.
Accessories perfectly channel this season’s more dramatic take on fashion, with jewelry at the forefront. Oyster pearl earrings and multi-hoop necklaces, introduced for AW19 HOMME, lights up the runway with rhinestone and pearl embellishments for the womens collection. Erotic sculpture jewelry inject Y/PROJECT’ irony into the collection, with “explicit” bracelets, earrings and necklaces.
The oversize thigh-high heeled boots, now integral to the brand identity, are proposed in a wide ankle version, just like the waders that stole the show at Pitti in January. Lace up sandals brings extra sexiness to the show. A new shoe form, patent leather pointy mules appear to have been sliced open, are have also been revealed.
The best-selling accordion bags from the SS19 collection are now developed in new mini and oversized versions, colorways and floral prints. The collection’s undisputable elegance is accentuated by a new trapezium-shaped bag with chrome-plated details.
In a last ironic nod to traditional French couture, ever the historical enthusiast Glenn Martens completes the show with a dramatic Tudor-inspired wedding dress.
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Tags: FALL WINTER WOMEN 2019-20, Y/PROJECT, Y/PROJECT FW 2019-20
Tue, March 5 2019 » Fashion Blog
