Altuzarra Fall 2012 Review

My opinion on Joseph Altuzarra tends to waver somewhere between awful and point of interest. I've not forgotten his dubious spring 2011 show that featured tribal snakeskin appliqué nor his penchant for liberally borrowing from his design idol Tom Ford.
However with less than ten shows under his belt his latest collection is his most accomplished. He showed military coats, cargo pants, French-style skirts and jackets, along with trimmings such as coins and pom-poms. It all sounds like a lot to juggle into one collection but there was restraint and a sense of reality to most of the pieces. He delved-rather unsuccessfully-back into velvet with a pair of flared trousers and a bottle green jacket that somehow managed to add about 20kg to the model thanks to the way it was cut to pull away from the body. Though I enjoyed most of this collection I still got whiffs of other designers work, most notably Nicolas Ghesquiere's fall 2007 collection for Balenciaga.

DW Kanye West SS 2012 Review

 Ugggh this is so mundane

  And what is up with those jeeeeans?!

Eniko Mihalik's tits wear dress by Kanye West

By now you’ve probably read a ton of reviews on Kanye West’s debut womenswear collection. My impression is that he thinks that by doing things (in what he believes to be) the right way will win approval from (what he believes to be) his peers. This is seemingly all he wants to do, to seek approval. Where is his interest in dressing women because I don’t see it in this collection?
Apparently the clothes were made by Central Saint Martins graduates in London. The inspiration was like, let’s take a Givenchy print but bead it like a Balmain dress and then cut it like a Céline jacket. Everything looked familiar and that always breeds contempt. A lot of fashion journalists are focussing on the major fit issues but honestly they were no shittier than Joseph Altuzarra’s. There was an awful pair of Céline inspired colour blocked pants with zippers running down the front and back of the thigh. These pants were in desperate need of a waistband. This was paired with a white long sleeved top that for some reason appeared to have no buttons to close it. Tits in a blanket. And a black long sleeved mini dress with a very wide and very deep cut in the front was almost tits falling out of a blanket. That was probably the most offensive look in the collection and I don’t mean that in a pro-feminist kind of way. It was just so poorly designed that it should have been vetoed but I’m thinking a lot of other shit was culled before show day and he may have felt forced to throw it in to flesh things out.
Another issue I have. A lot of reviewers are harping on about how there was too much fur and too much leather. Prada did fur last season and everyone chuckled and thought how marvellous and clever Miuccia Prada was to do so. So in Kanye’s defence, show as much fur as you want. And for all my Kanye bashing you’d think I could consider that this was his debut collection and I should ease up on the guy. No. This isn’t baby's first step. This is a career and sitting front row at a handful of fashion shows for 6 years is not adequate training. Neither is picking leather swatches at Louis Vuitton for a line of sneakers.
Also he should not have shown in Paris because he doesn’t deserve to. Designers work for years before they show in Paris because it’s the tippy top, the big league. Did Alexander McQueen debut in Paris? Marc Jacobs? Vivienne Westwood? A showroom in London would’ve been more appropriate. And here’s an abbreviated transcript from the after party where West had a rant and begged for a chance.

Thank you for anybody that didn’t believe, because they motivated us to break our boundaries ... we don’t know what the reviews will be, we don’t know what they will say, but I got a chance to go to Italy and feel those fabrics....This is my first collection. Please be easy. Please give me a chance to grow. This is not some celebrity shit. I don’t fuck with celebrities. I fuck with the creatives in this room, the amazing people who spend every day of their life trying to make the world a more beautiful place.

Other celebrities that have clothing lines such as the Olsen twins and Victoria Beckham faced the same criticism, scepticism and derision that West got. And to be fair, many fashion journalists were quite tame in their reviews (except for Eric Wilson of NYT). To do fashion you need to be incredibly focussed and determined and it is your sole career. You can’t be a rapper and a fashion designer and expect sparkling results. If he is truly committed to womenswear design-and I believe he is not-he would quit the music business. Currently this looks like a poorly conceived vanity project.

Altuzarra spring summer 2012

From the opening look, a short, black leather dress with a sliced detail exposed the skin, Altuzarra had sex on the brain. The swoop of fringe covering part of the model’s faces and the pointy mid-heel stilettos were reminiscent of Tom Ford’s debut at YSL. Perforated leather tops added to the sports trend emerging from New York and after last summer’s excessive and unfavourable use of white I’m surprised to see designers-Altuzarra included- turning out more white looks. That’s racist!

So what worked? The dresses with a flounce hem and slits exposing a brightly coloured jungle print. The print appeared on a tailored jacket and in panels on a dress. The mid riff has to make a comeback. His knit version was a 90’s wet dream and I think I could pull this look off. With Spanx. The nylon belts with plastic sports clips were cool but managed to even make the models look thick in the waist which is ironic considering sport and obesity are like chalk and cheese. You know when you see a chunky person wearing Nike Shox and you’re thinking the only thing you’d run for is dollar day at 7-11 bitch. It’s like that. Speaking of chunky, I loved the bold knit jumpers in yellow and green but the rasta knit dresses missed the mark.

Some of the jackets appeared to suffer from fit issues. I don’t know if this was intentional but they looked heavy and lumpy. And the less said about those squidgy clay vests the better. No one wants to look like they fashioned their clothes from Fimo. The skirts that accompanied the Fimo vests were sexy and plenty of girls will want them. By girls I mean Carine Roitfeld. Because of these fit issues, Altuzarra’s collections have a janky quality to them. He borders so close to vulgar that it’s easy to see why people such as Carine Roitfeld love his clothes. I don’t mean that as an insult to Altuzarra or Roitfeld. It is what it is and bad taste can be fun right Christie?

Lisa Luder, associate fashion editor for Vogue magazine

Below The Knee Is Where It's At

Top from left: Altuzarra, I can't remember!!!, BCBG Max Azria

Above from left: Prabal Gurung, United Bamboo, Victoria Beckham

This is the new skirt/dress length I've been yammering on about. Pair with knee high boots for that perfect late 60's Lou Lou de la Falaise chilling with Yves Saint Laurent and Betty Catroux look.

From left: Betty Catroux, Yves Saint Laurent, Lou Lou de la Falaise. 1969.

ALTUZARRA

The fall collection from Joseph Altuzarra, the young 25 year old Frenchman, cannilly appeared ghost-designed by Tom Ford. At first I thought maybe I was just being a snide jealous pig because the clothes are amazing but then I did a little research and it turns out Mr Ford is one of Altuzarra's idols. When I saw the first 3 looks I instantly thought of Carine Roitfeld, all pencil skirts and shaggy black goat hair jackets.

Above: Altuzarra, Below: Gucci fall 01
It was almost like a best-of Ford. There were influences from the Gucci goth fall 02 show, the shaggy goat hair from Gucci fall 2002, the belted jacket from fall 2004, even with a turned up collar too. The Ford signature velvet pantsuit and even the strappy pointy heels.
Above: Altuzarra. Below: Gucci Fall 04, Ford's signature velvet
Above: Altuzarra belted jacket. Below: Gucci belted jacket, Fall 03
Altuzarra has so much talent and it's too soon to be paying homage to Ford, plus he doesn't need to. His stellar spring collection had editors and buyers drooling for his Swiss dot lace confections.