Fashion News
Lanvin: The Insider's Choice in Menswear
02 Jul, 2010
Paris – Judging from the applause at the end of Lanvin's latest menswear runway show, the best received collection in Europe these past 10 days in either Milan or Paris was that of this storied French brand.
A cunning distillation of several ideas - the revival of the dandy, bohemian tailoring and sensitive chic - the collection won a standing ovation at its finale on the morning of Sunday, June 27, in Paris.
Staged in the Mineralogy Gallery of Paris' elegant Botanical Gardens - the cast got dressed before man-sized crystals in the backstage - the collection was a great statement of libertine French gentleman's style. They were clothes that most every guy in the audience wanted to wear, and which women would love to see their husbands or boyfriends buy.
\"Half the shows in Paris had men skirts; so we thought a little jewelry would not go amiss,\" joked the house's creative director Alber Elbaz post show. It was not shy jewelry, by the way, but massive chokers, leather pendants with grommets and shells on neck chains.
The house - a major trend maker in footwear - also showed striking, new sandals with tire style soles and cloth tops, that will be very influential.
Elbaz is arguably the finest draper currently designing women's clothes, and he lent some of that skill to a natty series of jerseys that curled around the upper torso heroically.
And, just when one felt the looks were getting a bit too much, Elbaz and the house's men's director Lucas Ossendrijver socked you with some active sportswear mixes - like track jackets, vertical stripe jockey tops or brilliantly cut jogging pants.
But the high point was the open-seamed, arty, rascally tailoring; deliberately looking a tad aged and lived-in, climaxing with bubbly crepe suits in dazzling hues of imperial purple and faded gold.
\"We wanted to get away from the whole macho thing, from the stigma of being sensitive,\" added the designer, as models knocked back champagne on the sun-filled gallery steps.
Source: fashionwiredaily.com
Britney Spears designs fashion line
01 Jul, 2010
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Pop princess Britney Spears is joining the growing club of celebrities-turned-designers, launching her own fashion collection that targets the schoolgirl crowd.
Spears, 28, has designed her first collection of clothing and accessories for the Iconix Brand Group Inc's Candie's brand for which she has been the face for the past three seasons.
The juniors' collection, called \"Britney for Candie's,\" will be sold exclusively in Kohl's Department stories from July 1 to kick off the back-to-school season.
\"Designing was a really fun, new way for me to express my creativity and I really wanted to create something by me for my fans,\" Spears said in a statement.
She said the collection, inspired by her favorite music and movies, as a mixture of day and evening looks, ranging from jeans to little black dresses.
A print and television advertising campaign to promote the line features the tagline: \"Designed by me for you!\"
Spears earlier this year ended a world tour to support her 2008 album \"Circus\" which was widely regarded as her comeback after a public meltdown when the singer lost custody of her two children, did stints in rehab and shaved her head.
She rocketed to fame as a teenager 10 years ago with hits like \"Baby One More Time\" and is still one of the best-known celebrities in the world.
Source: Reuters.com
Mexican masks, retro futuristic suits hit Paris
28 Jun, 2010
PARIS – Who says menswear is boring? Paris designers on Friday challenged that notion, fielding retro, futuristic and kinky spring-summer 2011 men's collections featuring skorts, jumpsuits and even Mexican lucha libre masks that completely enveloped the models' heads.
Givenchy's Riccardo Tisci was on top of his subversive S&M game with head-to-toe leopard print and skort-cum-lacey blouse looks given an en extra dose of perversion by vertebrae necklaces and the leather lucha libre masks.
At John Galliano, the stars of silent film walked again. Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton lookalikes emerging from the innerworkings of a giant clock to strut the catwalk in urban variations on \"The Tramp'\"s black suits.
Yves Saint Laurent's Stefano Pilati was all about the waist, fitting the ample '50s-inspired suits with obi belts and strange, misplaced cummerbunds in leopard knits.
Kris Van Assche paid homage to the working man with a collection that channeled blue collar professions from mechanic to butcher. The young Belgian will show another collection on Saturday for Dior Homme, where he designs menswear.
Emerging French designer Romain Kremer fielded retro-futuristic suits worthy of the cast of the original \"Star Trek.\" Jesper Borjesson's second menswear effort at Cerruti was the tamest show of the day, with classic, well-cut suits sure to please professional men who can't show up at work in intergalactic garb or leather S&M staples.
Paris's menswear shows move into their second-to-last day on Saturday with displays by Kenzo, saddlemaker Hermes and emerging talent Damir Doma.
GIVENCHY
Tisci is still the king of kink.
At Givenchy, cat men in head-to-toe leopard print suits and matching pointed shoes shared the catwalk with models in skorts with priest-collar vests. Tisci also delivered an elegant but subverted take on the jumpsuit, a hot item on Paris' menswear runways, serving up onesies that looked as if they were channeling tuxedos.
Tisci, an Italian whose S&M aesthetic has won him critical acclaim, had edged away from his signature hardcore look in seasons past, delivering more ethnic-inspired collections. But Friday's display, held in a gilded and mirrored hall in central Paris, put him firmly back in kinky territory.
Really, who besides Tisci could get away with pairing a razor cut black business suit with a face-shrouding leather mask fitted with bugged-out fly eyes?
JOHN GALLIANO
Models in twitching faux mustaches and bowler hats sported urban interpretations of \"The Tramp'\"s black suits — microfiber jackets paired with drop-crotched pinstripe shorts. Rope belts, dangling pocket watches and dandified suspenders were the season's must-have accessories.
Standout looks included a Buster Keaton lookalike in a razor-cut gray suit and a little, flat straw hat and a jumpsuit worn with briefs in fish-printed silk.
The show was held inside a former bank on Paris' tony Place Vendome, a windowless vault of a space that with the warm weather and crush of bodies turned into a sauna. Makeup dripped down faces that had taken hours to prepare as the audience of fashion editors, stylists and journalists melted as they waited for the show to begin.
But as soon as the show-cum-spectacle started, all was forgiven. And when Galliano himself emerged from the inner workings of the timepiece, strutting his stuff in a wife-beater and bluejeans, the sweat-soaked crowd roared with approval.
YVES SAINT LAURENT
The French heritage house looked to the 1950s for a collection of crisp, belted pantsuits and high-waisted shorts paired with jaunty toques and sensible sandals.
Designer Pilati sent out beautifully tailored blazers in nubby brown and oatmeal fabrics, cinched tight at the waist with patent leather belts or obi belts that looked like misplaced cummerbunds. Short shorts, cut high through the waist and with generous front pleats, were worn with thin, short-sleeved sweaters.
Some of the models, with slicked back hair and horn-rimmed sunglasses, wore bizarre but somehow compelling swaths of leopard print knit around their midriffs. Jaunty little toques, like shrunken fezzes, and sandals that looked like they'd be grandpa's Florida pool-side favorites, topped off the looks.
ROMAIN KREMER
France's Romain Kremer was lost in space with a retro-futuristic collection of colorblock shorts, skirts and briefs that looked like they could outfit the crew of the original Star Trek. Microfiber culottes were fitted with elastic bands at the waist that conjured a back brace; orange crosswalk guard vests were paired with lame Speedos. The show closed with models in wide-brimmed straw hats hung with full-body veils in iridescent fabrics and worn over tiny leotard to resemble futurists beekeepers in scuba gear.
CERRUTI
For his second menswear collection at Cerruti, designer Borjesson delivered clean, classic suits in somber microfibers, paired with leather jackets and overcoats. It was a cool, confident collection that looked sure to please professionals casting about for something they really could wear to work.
FRANCK BOCLET
Frank Boclet, who recently left his post as menswear designer at foundering Paris label Emanuel Ungaro, launched his own signature line, a mix of dandified suits and separates with a rocker edge. Boclet, a Frenchman who cut his teeth at suitmaker Smalto, served up classic blazers with a twist — like metal piping along the lapel or a detachable flap that winds around the front for an edgy twist. Boclet said he plans to sell the line at multi-mark stores, starting in France, Russia and Ukraine.
Source: ap.org
Dresses good enough to eat
24 Jun, 2010
WASHINGTON (AFP) – At first glance the train on the dress designed by Maria Chaconas appeared to be made from crystals, and the necklace sported by a former Miss DC looked as if it were fashioned from beads and wood.
But the fluffy material trailing Chaconas's \"Chronicles of Narnia\"-inspired White Witch dress was actually sugar, and the baubles adorning the onetime Miss DC were a mixture of chocolate and sugar.
At Monday's charity Des Alpes Chocolate Fashion Show, only the name gave away what these culinary experts were really using to cook up their dream gowns.
While walking down a runway swathed in confectionery might seem challenging, none of the models had any trouble controlling their costumes and Miss DC, who modeled a Cruella De Vil-inspired costume, was even accompanied by a dalmatian.
The this annual Sweet Charity event, which benefits DC school libraries, and the corresponding fashion show challenges local chefs to take on the daunting task of creating an outfit from edible treats.
Each outfit must correspond to an annually-selected theme -- \"Literacy on the Silver Screen\" being this year's task.
Katie Musser, a first-time competitor, took first place with her Cruella De Vil-inspired creation, featuring a chocolate-covered dress cinched with a chocolate belt, and a fur stole edged with hanging chocolate balls.
\"Everything about this challenge is hard,\" Musser said. \"A lot of chemistry is involved when creating an outfit. Chocolate when making a dress is more complex, because it is going to start melting as soon as she puts it on.\"
She found a way to combat the problem by backing every one of her chocolate pieces with felt.
Chef Chad Dunkin used the theme for this year to create an outfit inspired by Alfred Hitchcock's \"The Birds.\"
He created chocolate-dipped crows, which he perched around the model's dress, and designed a chocolate purse, only to have it melt on the way to the show.
\"The transport for me is the hardest part,\" he said. \"It's hard to work with chocolate because it melts.\"
Dunkin recommended that competitors try things out their outfits first on dummies to work out what is feasible. \"I don't think that many people practice before they come,\" he said. \"It can show when you see parts starting to fall off.\"
Chaconas opted to avoid chocolate, using pulled sugar and pastiche for her outfit.
\"It's key to think about the materials and can they last for three hours,\" she said. \"You have to be in costume three hours before the show starts and that is one of the most difficult parts about it.\"
Source: afp.com
Gilt Groupe styles runway for everyday
20 Jun, 2010
Racks upon racks of designer clothes line the most unlikely warehouse inside the industrial Brooklyn Navy Yard, swarming with chic models, stylists, photographers and makeup artists.
Hundreds of pairs of covetable shoes, handbags and belts are lined up neatly on nearby shelves to be parsed out to seven photo studios that buzz nonstop from 8 a.m. to 1 a.m. every single day.
This space belongs to Gilt Groupe, a sample sale website that converts often avant garde runway looks into reality — bought and worn by regular folks who feel comfortable dropping a load of money, even with the discount, on things they can't see, let alone try on.
Through their expansive photo shoots, new ones posted each day at noon, Gilt has to bring clothes to life, explains company co-founder Alexandra Wilkis Wilson. Otherwise, she says, the garments literally lie flat.
\"This is about the purchase that's highly emotional,\" she says. \"We want you to be swept away. We want it to have all the visual cues, show you how to wear it, how you might transform yourself.\"
\"None of this,\" she says, pointing to the vast office and commotion of people, \"would happen if it was done on a hanger.\"
Sample sales — with garments askew on hangers if not tossed haphazardly in cartons — aren't uncommon in a place like New York. It's a way for designers to subtly sell off inventory to a basically pre-selected crowd since they're mostly advertised by word of mouth in neighborhoods where stylish consumers live or work.
Typical shoppers probably already have an appreciation for the more fashion-forward items that seem to be left over at the end of the season, and they'll figure out how to make these pieces work in their already eclectic wardrobes.
But Gilt, which invites new members through existing users, opens up this little secret to many more people — more than 1 million shoppers a month — some of whom might not know quite what to do with a magenta Christian Lacroix bell-shaped cocktail frock, for example.
\"We have to answer the question, `How do I translate Chloe to Pasadena, California, or Marni in Fort Lauderdale (Fla.)?'\" explains co-founder Alexis Maybank.
Longtime friends Maybank and Wilson launched Gilt in 2007, building on their combined career experience in e-commerce and fashion. Their gut, they say, told them that there was a broader audience out there for runway clothes, even if the appetite didn't extend to runway style.
On a recent day, Gilt plucked four runway looks and interpreted them for everyday life:
Strapless Lacroix cocktail dress with cascade of bows down the front and bubble hem.
No doubt, the hot pink color is intimidating, says womenswear stylist Tammy Eckenswiller, and the silhouette could be too — especially if you only saw it on a hanger.
Seeing it on a body, even a model's body, helps a shopper picture what it might look in person, she adds. \"It's actually a forgiving dress, and a great color for a party.\"
Eckenswiller grabs some peep-toe shoe-booties with towering heels and a black chunky collarlike necklace as accessories. \"By rooting it in black, it makes most of us feel more comfortable. It's a very bare neckline, so it's fun to put on a statement necklace, and most people already have black shoes.\"
The substantial accessories dress down the dress so it doesn't have to be worn only to a fancy black-tie event, Eckenswiller says. She says she could imagine this look at a gallery opening, a cocktail party, even to dinner — if you tossed over the shoulders a black boyfriend blazer.
For mass appeal, this jacket needs to be toned down and paired with something conservative, menswear stylist Seth Howard advises, suggesting a classic white button-down shirt and a gray flannel tie. A plain gray V-neck sweater provides extra contrast to the somewhat flashy piece, he says.
With dark denim jeans and gray lace-up shoes, he says, this is an outfit that goes from day-to-night, something often talked about in a woman's wardrobe but something men need, too.
This men's jacket has a short, fitted shape, which, says Howard, risks looking feminine. Khaki pants and a ribbed white tank help \"beef it up.\" With a button-down shirt and dress shoes, this can even be worn to work, he says, and it goes with jeans for weekends.
\"This is probably for someone in L.A. or a metro environment, but everyone loves leather. It's actually a simple jacket, just the cut is a little unusual.\"
Even though the dress is flat-out wearable, it can be a little \"too uptown\" for some women, Eckenswiller says. The addition of a black Valentino coat with a laser-cut lace bottom gives it edge without going over the top.
The cluster of black around the bodice has a corsetlike slimming effect, while the contrast of the black and red against white creates enough visual interest that jewelry and makeup can be kept to a minimum, she says.
Again, this dress is paired with a black shoe, the most relatable option. But don't fall into rut, either, particularly at this level of designer clothes, Eckenswiller says. \"These are about aspirational pieces. Don't be afraid of being bold.\"
Source: ap.org