We all such kindle

Yesterday we went for a walk, and I'm good for a walk

Yohji Wave 1

In other Yamamoto London happenings, the new Y-3 flagship store on 24 Conduit Street opened up.  It's odd how much of a game-changer in the way designers worked with accessible brands was when Yamamoto first started collaborating with adidas and now of course this is all taken for granted.  Now Y-3 is a covetable brand in its own right that is still for me one of the more interesting sports/high fashion intersectioned lines despite the saturation of collabs.  Especially when somehow, it supercedes Yamamoto's own work like it has done this season.  Don't shoot, but I did prefer the Y-3 A/W 11-12 collection to Yamamoto's own mainline which took a weirdly aggressive turn.  Call me a fuddy duddy but I prefer the quiet and historically romantic side to Yamamoto's aesthetic.  For Y-3, a dust-covered country road trip somewhere in America (but you don't quite know where...) was the journey that would take us through protective clothing that doesn't just have the fancy look of a warm cocoon (and there are plenty of those this season...) but also does the real job of coping with the outside elements, with fabrics like 'Cool Mad Wool', a breathable wool that isn't insane but has an evaporative cooling system, and 'Diaplex', a wool herringbone bonded to goretex that moulds itself to the body.  Naturally books like Jack Kerouac’s On the Road and Jon Krakauer’s Into the Wild were on Yamamoto's reading agenda.  I was all for the super low-slung backpacks that were literally hanging on the bum along with the warming slouchiness of it all, indicative of Yamamoto's past work, co-opted into pieces that I'd wear should I ever take such a road trip (I'm still trying to make a Las Vegas to Portland driving holiday happen...).

A magnificent Yohji Yamamoto wave has set upon London and I'm happy to see his work lapping upon the shores of our fickle minds.  We may very easily forget the impact and longevity of his work but a trio of exhibitions at the Victoria & Albert Museum, The Wapping Project and The Wapping Project Bankside will hopefully prevent that from ever happening.  I'll be investigating the main V&A and Bankside exhibitions later but to see the first of the trio, I took a weird and winding bus ride down to The Wapping Project.  Housed in the boiler house of the Wapping Hydraulic Power Station is the installation 'Yohji Making Waves'.  I'm not sure if the title is quite befitting to what I saw.  It wasn't noise or heavy crashing that I saw and heard in that cavernous space.  The famous oversized white silk wedding dress with a bamboo crinoline from Yamamoto's A/W 1998 collection has been overturned and suspended in the boiler house room that has been flooded with water.  You can take the boat moored at the side of the room around for a tranquil turn in the waters that eerily reflect the upside down dress.  I sadly couldn't take the boat to get a closer look.  I may even go back just to say that I went to an exhibition where I rode a boat.  You're sucked in as soon as you're closed into the darkness of the space, illuminated only by the bust of the dress and the lights at the side.  The soundtrack as well as the drip of the water gives you a feeling you're buried underground somewhere with this luminous object before you that looks like it's in motion or multiplying on itself because of the reflection.  You also have no idea how deep the water is which makes the space seem like a bottomless vortex, where you float about on water with the Yamamoto dress as your centre of gravity...

Star collection Cristopher Kane

The ideal story of contemporary fashion

The main advantage of a new exhibition - a huge amount of video material. Frankly, this is something so often lacking in many fashion-shows. It is one thing - look at the mannequins with clothing (albeit incredible), and quite another - there and then see the same clothes in motion. What a treat! Instantly striking difference in the formulation of hits: how far these playful and somewhere even naive fashion show with dancing and smiling models from the inspirational hits from the XXI century! Who would have thought that the shows of Karl Lagerfeld for Chloé a

An anthem of my life

It doesn't matter if you love him, or capital H-I-M
Just put your paws up
'Cause you were born this way, baby


My mama told me when I was young
We are all born superstars
She rolled my hair and put my lipstick on
In the glass of her boudoir
"There's nothin wrong with lovin who you are"
She said, "'cause he made you perfect, babe"
"So hold your head up girl and you'll go far,
Listen to me when I say"


I'm beautiful in my way
'Cause god makes no mistakes
I'm on the right track baby
I was born this way
Don't hide yourself in regret
Just love yourself and you're set
I'm on the right track baby
I was born this way

Ooo there ain't no other way
Baby I was born this way
Baby I was born this way
Ooo there ain't no other way
Baby I was born -
I'm on the right track baby
I was born this way

Don't be a drag - just be a queen
Don't be a drag - just be a queen
Don't be a drag - just be a queen
Don't be!


Give yourself prudence
And love your friends
Subway kid, rejoice your truth
In the religion of the insecure
I must be myself, respect my youth
A different lover is not a sin
Believe capital H-I-M (hey hey hey)
I love my life I love this record and
Mi amore vole fe yah (love needs faith)


I'm beautiful in my way
'Cause god makes no mistakes
I'm on the right track baby
I was born this way
Don't hide yourself in regret
Just love yourself and you're set
I'm on the right track baby
I was born this way

Ooo there ain't no other way
Baby I was born this way
Baby I was born this way
Ooo there ain't no other way
Baby I was born -
I'm on the right track baby
I was born this way

Don't be a drag - just be a queen
Don't be a drag - just be a queen
Don't be a drag - just be a queen
Don't be!


Don't be a drag, just be a queen
Whether you're broke or evergreen
You're black, white, beige, chola descent
You're lebanese, you're orient
Whether life's disabilities
Left you outcast, bullied, or teased
Rejoice and love yourself today
'Cause baby you were born this way

No matter gay, straight, or bi,
Lesbian, transgendered life
I'm on the right track baby
I was born to survive
No matter black, white or beige
Chola or orient made
I'm on the right track baby
I was born to be brave


I'm beautiful in my way
'Cause god makes no mistakes
I'm on the right track baby
I was born this way
Don't hide yourself in regret
Just love yourself and you're set
I'm on the right track baby
I was born this way

I was born this way hey!
I was born this way hey!
I'm on the right track baby
I was born this way hey!

Anna Dello Russo at Paris Fashion Week Fall 2011

Alexander Mcqueen Fall 2011

Still, these were scarcely clothes for the real world. That wasn't really the point. It felt much more like Burton wanted to remind the planet that she isn't channeling the McQueen DNA, she is the McQueen DNA. Hence, those heritage silhouettes with their buoyant trains of silk organza or undulating threads of tulle or the harnesses that evoked such deliberately troubling associations. The most (quietly) spectacular piece was a gown with a body collaged from broken china, which erupted into a froth of organza. McQueen himself might have injected an edge of barely suppressed violence into such a piece. Here, serenity ruled. Which, in the interests of future princesses everywhere, is probably a wise option. 

 

Sarah Burton definitely isn't shying away from the weight of legacy she's inherited. Her venue was La Conciergerie, Marie Antoinette's prison and the site of an Alexander "Lee" McQueen show that was made memorable by the presence on the catwalk of live wolves (doped-up wolves or perhaps just some particularly lupine dogs, but still). No such threat of danger tonight, though the crackling neon lights were a reminder of McQueen's asylum show and the theme—"The Ice Queen and her court"—had the suitably chilly ring of a vintage McQueen ritual. The collection furthermore drew on what the show notes called "heritage silhouettes."What this all boiled down to was Burton skimming off the top of her vast reconceptualization of the house aesthetic to produce three dozen couture pieces reflecting that aesthetic at its purest. Literally. As in white-light burning bright. In the frenzied backstage press of congratulations, the designer could barely gasp one word to define her intent: "Icy." But it wasn't really that cold. What Burton designed had a blurry-edged softness, which came from the fur that lined hems, cuffs, and shoulder seams. The material wrapped the skirt of a drop-waist halterneck dress or swathed the hood of a sleeveless sheath. And when it wasn't fur, it was frayed, streaming organza that blurred the lines. (Amid such extravagant touches, you weren't likely to forget the rumor that Kate Middleton has selected the house to design her wedding gown.)