Etro Fall Winter 2011 Final Walkthrough

Here's the view from my seat at the fall/winter 2011 Etro show yesterday.

Gianfranco Ferre Fall Winter 2011 Final

Here's the view from my seat at the Gianfranco Ferre fall/winter 2011 fashion show.

Versace Fall Winter 2011 Finale

Here's the view from my seat at the fabulous fall/winter 2011 Versace fashion show.

D&G Fall Winter 2011 Finale

Here's the view of the finale from my seat at the fall/winter 2011 D&G fashion show.

Gucci Fall Winter 2011 Final Walkthrough

Here's the view from my front-row seat at the fall/winter 2011 Gucci fashion show.

Retrospective Alexander McQueen

 Photos from the exhibition catalog Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty will leave no one indifferent

 In the Metropolitan Museum in New York, as we have already written, May 4, will host an exhibition of selected works Lee McQueen. Sneak preview of these things, organized by Anna Wintour, was held on 22 February at London's Ritz. They have already seen Stella McCartney, Sarah Burton and photographer Solvay Sundsbo, who made these pictures for the exhibition catalog - and now you do. See all the eyes may be on the second floor of the museum from May 4 to July 31.

Isabelle Blow_A woman on who remember always!

 Blow was the fashion director of Tatler and consulted for DuPont Lycra, Lacoste, and Swarovski. In 2002, she became the subject of an exhibition entitled When Philip met Isabella, featuring sketches and photographs of her wearing Treacy's hat designs.

In 2004, she had a brief acting cameo in the film The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou.

In 2005, Blow starred in a project by artist Matthieu Laurette, commissioned and produced by Frieze Projects 2005 and entitled "What Do They Wear at Frieze Art Fair?" It consisted of daily guided tours of Frieze Art Fair led by Blow and fellow international fashion experts Peter Saville, Kira Joliffe, and Bay Garnett.

Shortly before her death, she was the creative director and stylist of a series of books about beauty in the Arab world; the books were being produced by Kuwaiti fashion entrepreneur Sheikh Majed al-Sabah. Blow was dismissed from the project for unknown reasons and attempted suicide.^{[citation needed]}

 In 1986, Blow returned to London and worked for Michael Roberts, then the fashion director of Tatler and the Sunday Times Style magazine.^[10]

In 1989, Blow married her second husband, art dealer Detmar Hamilton Blow, in Gloucester Cathedral; he is a grandson (and namesake) of the early 20th-century society architectDetmar Blow. Philip Treacy designed the bride's wedding headdress and a now-famous fashion relationship was forged. Realizing Treacy's talent, Blow established Treacy in her London flat, where he worked on his collections. She soon began wearing Treacy's hats, making them a signature part of her flamboyant style^] In a 2002 interview with Tamsin Blanchard, Blow declared that she wore extravagant hats for a practical reason:

"...to keep everyone away from me. They say, Oh, can I kiss you? I say, No, thank you very much. That's why I've worn the hat. Goodbye. I don't want to be kissed by all and sundry. I want to be kissed by the people I love." 

In 1993, Blow worked with the photographer Steven Meisel producing the Babes in London shoot featuring Plum Sykes, Bella Freud, and Honor Fraser. Blow had a natural sense of style and a good feeling for future fashion directions. She discovered Alexander McQueen and purchased his entire graduate collection for ₤5,000, paying it off in weekly ₤100 installments. Spotting Sophie Dahl, Blow described Dahl as "a blow up doll with brains", and launched the model's career.

Blow moved to New York City in 1979 to study Ancient Chinese Art at Columbia University and shared a flat with the actress Catherine Oxenberg. A year later, she left the Art History programme at Columbia, moved to Texas, and worked for Guy Laroche. In 1981, she married her first husband, Nicholas Taylor (whom she divorced in 1983), and was introduced to the fashion director of the U.S. edition of Vogue, Anna Wintour. She was hired initially as Wintour's assistant, but it was not long before she was assisting Andre Leon Talley, now U.S.Vogue's editor-at-large. While working in New York, she befriended Andy Warhol and Jean-Michel Basquiat

Those Prada Shoes...

I've been lusting over those spring/summer 2011 Prada shoes the moment they came out of the runway (both men's and women's) but alas, every single pair in the colors I want (black,, and blue + yellow + brown) are all sold out everywhere. It's the shoe of the season, no doubt.

Lady luck must be on my side because this pair came in my size so I got them at Montenapoleone. It's not exactly the color combination I want but they're super nice nonetheless. I saw something in New York -- silver leather with huge, pink and white platform soles but they're not for sale. Ah well.

RODARTE FALL 2011 FINALE SHOW

Here's the view from my seat at therodarte fall/winter 2011 fashion show. It's one of my top three favourite collections to date.

Finsk Ambassador

 Say hello to the latest addition to my (slowly but surely) growing shoe collection.

The fabulous gals over at Finsk shoes sent me a custom-made, size 41 European, pair, this time in python-embossed leather. Julia Lundsten's ferociously fierce shoes are shamelessly copied but nothing beats the original. can't wait to wear these on my next travels. I've worn my ponyskin Finsk shoes to death. It's time to put them to retirement.

Many, many thanks to Dannell and Julia!

Finsk shoes are available at Farfetch.

RODARTE FALL 2011 RTW SHOW

 

 You didn't need to know that Kate and Laura Mulleavy had been watching the Terrence Malick movie Days of Heaven to ascertain that the sisters had taken the American Plains as their latest inspiration. The clues weren't exactly hard to follow on today's runway: silk gowns printed with a wheat field at the hem, ankle-grazing prairie coats, leather and ponyskin separates with geometric insets that called to mind quilts. The only items that might have thrown you off the scent were the pair of ruby red party dresses at the end. But as Kate explained afterward, "We couldn't go to Nebraska and Kansas and not do a Wizard of Oz reference."

 Malick's film is a fashion favorite, but the Mulleavy sisters made the reference their own via their signature devotion to craft. The quilting on the pinafore tops and apron skirts was appliquéd by hand, and the wool and mohair sweaters likewise never saw the inside of a knitting machine. The question is this: Will these clothes, with their countrified starting points, entrance the label's clientele of urban sophisticates the way previous collections have? Dr. Lisa Airan, after all, walked into the 12 p.m. show in a sheer ivory Rodarte cocktail dress studded with gold crystals. The answer? Yes, with the exception perhaps of the sentimental floral embroideries. .

 Commercial is the wrong word for it, but there's no debating the fact that Kate and Laura are steadily getting savvier about the business end while maintaining their singular vision.

 For one, the show's longer silhouettes jibed with the current fashion Zeitgeist. And for another, the Mulleavys continue to push into categories that they've ignored before. It's hard to recall a single coat from their last several Fall collections; here there were plenty to choose from—and thanks to technically accomplished cutouts at the sides of the torso, they looked quite unique.

 

Preen Fall Winter 2011 Finale

Here's the view from my seat at the Preen fall/winter 2011 fashion show. It's one of my top three favourite collections to date.

show was very good

Rag & Bone Fall Winter 2011 Finale

Here's the view from my seat at the fall/winter 2011 Rag & Bone fashion show.

show was very goood

Alexander Wang fall 2011 2012 video finale

Jason Wu Fall Winter 2011 Final Walkthrough Video

Here's the view from my seat at the fall/winter 2011 Jason Wu fashion show.

Quite an incredibly slick collection if you ask me. I also love his now-trademark feather dresses

More Giffy-Wiffy

>> I thought I was escaping that horrible feeling of being anxious about nabbing high-low collaborations what with David Koma x Topshop landing in two days, but apparently it's relentless especially as I'm now in New York with Rodarte x Opening Ceremony having just descended upon us.  Still with price points that are certainly not low by any stretch of the imagination, there are less heart palpitations about things selling out in an instant.  However there is one particular tapestry cape that you can just about spot in this psychedelic speedy animated GIF (I'll take it down in a bit - don't want to cause any seizures) that is just about the most spectacular thing in the world that I think will ensnare any lovers of a garments made up in upholstery fabrics...

BCBG Max Azria Fall Winter 2011 Finale Video

Here's the view from my seat at the BCBG Max Azria fall winter 2011 fashion show about two hours ago.

Photos to follow!

Sunoooooooooo!

What can I say about Suno that I haven't said before?  This could so easily have been a straight forward image post, with a brief addendum to add to the last review of the S/S 11 collection.  Except it wasn't a case of outputting more of the same as the Suno duo Max Osterweis and Erin Beatty didn't rest on their printed laurels and somehow have come up with a fresh solution for mixed prints for the season that is still distinctively recognisable as Suno, a feat for such a young label. 

Moving well and away from the Africana nods of earlier collections, Suno instead turn to a hotchpotch mix that takes rustic or chintzy florals and apply them with precision so the effect is never wishy washy, something that those types of florals can often manifest themselves as.  Certain floral motifs are enlarged, repeated, warped with stripes or checks so that there's always a common denominator that ties the different print stories together into cohesion, which is probably why no ensemble ever comes off looking like a batty print mix (I should know given my own tendency of batty print mixing…). 

Away from print mixing hocus pocus, the themes are also wildly eclectic - English tea dresses, Peruvian knits, woolen throws from a ski chalet, 70s sequinned tops, colourful paste brooches, country hunting outfits, Ikat weave, deer trappers and 1930s wallpaper are just some of the things that come to my mind when being presented with this collection and whilst a few of these elements are used in a literal way, most are reprocessed and manage to be both familiar and comforting as well as exciting and fresh at the same time.  It's probably wishful thinking for Suno to maintain their presentation method for the forseeable future but it has afforded me the joys of zooming into models' 'female' areas for mixed-print money shots that will never fail to make me excited about print mixology.  I am also the print disciple that's truly humbled in the presence of a Suno collection and suddenly all the florals that I have in my wardrobe, are suddenly looking like inferior wastes of space...

 

RODARTE and Elle Fanning - ss 2011 Trailer by Todd Cole