Friday, January 31, 2014

Designer Of The Day - Nicomede Talavera Fall '14

A solid, cool and composed reinvention of menswear. Nicomede Talavera gets the balance right between being obviously new and different and the same old same old. 






Thursday, January 30, 2014

Designer Of The Day - Roksanda Ilincic Pre Fall '14

Maybe it's all those years in the punk & industrial music scene or maybe it's the fact that wearing black has come to symbolize in act of fear to me but I'm addicted to bright, beautiful, big color. Add in play with shape, textures, and structures and you leap to the top of my, "If I was a girl this is what I'd wear list." Roksanda Ilincic's Pre Fall certainly adds to my jealousy of the fairer sex which is an occupational hazard when you work in the fashion industry. The collection is exuberant, clever, and sophisticated. 







Wednesday, January 29, 2014

Designer Of The Day - Gabriele Colangelo Pre Fall '14

Gabriele Colangelo is one of my favorite younger designers working from Italy today. His play with structure and shape is in many ways less "classic" than you will usually find from Italy. 






Tuesday, January 28, 2014

Designer Of The Day - Fausto Puglisi Pre Fall '14

It's often true in fashion that we don't know where a market or niche is until a designer exposes it. Recall Alexander Wang and "luxury sportswear" and you'll know what I mean. There's been a lot of brands lately zeroing on the fusion of urban streetwear and luxury clothing with a lot of success. En Noir, KTZ, Juun J, and more have garnered a lot of press and sales by exploring the growing taste for this odd cross class mix. It's often just as present in attitude via styling and model choices as it is in design as it is below in Fausto Puglisi's Pre Fall '14. The colorblocking is fairly traditional in some pieces but I love the razor sharp geometry and the mixing of fabrics.






Monday, January 27, 2014

Designers Of The Day - Cushnie Et Ochs - Pre Fall '14

When I last spoke to Carly Cushnie and Michelle Ochs they were working to finish their Pre Fall. I can tell that they were working hard because of the obvious evolution in the designs below. Everything that a brand must do in order to be successful comes with a warning, do it badly and it'll wreck you. The "signature" is one of the trickiest of all of those balancing acts. Buyers want collections to feel consistent and it certainly helps to build fan loyalty as well. Do it without imagination and you become stale. However once you accept that this is what people want to see and more importantly buy from you then you will be surprised to find how much room their actually can be inside of your signature. Cushnie Et Ochs = cut outs, but check out how refined they've become inside of a seemingly simplistic idea. 





Sunday, January 26, 2014

Designer Of The Day - Olivier Rousteing - Balmain Pre Fall '14 - '15

Luxurious, confident, sexual, aggressive. Phenomenal work with ruching, contrast trim, asymmetry and silhouette. Also a great job of carrying a thematic throughout a collection to create consistency without getting mired in it.







Saturday, January 25, 2014

Designs Of The Day - Couture Spring '14 Fin

I hate how the major fashion publications decide that some of the couture shows aren't worth covering. It's Paris couture, every single person who is showing is far more talented at their profession than you are at yours. 

Rad Hourani

Serkan Cura

Franck Sorbier


Yiqing Yin
YIQING YIN HCSS14 07

Ralph & Russo

Friday, January 24, 2014

Designs Of The Day - Paris Couture S/S '14

The saddest thing about the couture shows is the last one.

Oscar Carvallo

Stephane Rolland

Jean Paul Gaultier

Zuhair Murad

Thursday, January 23, 2014

Designs Of The Day - Paris Couture S/S '14



Couture is akin to Olympic diving. There is a drive for a "degree of difficulty". Couture creations should push the boundaries of the possible. Whether it be subtle or screaming, fabric control, experimental structure and even the "cloth" itself are subject to and only limited by the imagination of the designers and their teams. Enjoy as art.

Oscar Carvallo

Stephane Rolland

Victor & Rolf

Valentino (Maria Grazia Chiuri and Pierpaolo Piccioli)

Elie Saab

Wednesday, January 22, 2014

Designs Of The Day - Paris Couture, Day Two

On a day that people who matter very little announced they were going to attempt to matter again in this country. It was refreshing to be able to look at beautiful fashion from France. We had flash, the 20th Century noun not the 21st century program, nor the verb, from MMM. Flashes of brilliance, literally the lights dancing and spinning off of a glittering Armani Prive collection. The proper attitude from Hussein Chalayan, "There are so many brands that are old, that are being revived," he explained beforehand. "It shouldn't be about revisiting the archives." And Olympian imagination and construction from Alexandre Vauthier and Ulyana Sergeenko. 

Maison Martin Margiela (?) 

Armani Prive

Vionnet (Hussein Chalayan)

Alexandre Vauthier

Ulyana Seergenko

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