Best Fashion of 2012

What really stood out in 2012? I’m trying to think of anything that really grabbed my attention this year and I’m struggling. I don’t know if I have anything other than a gut-feeling to back this up but I believe there is too much fashion right now. And I don’t know where it can go other than down, like, it needs to nose-dive.

 I put most of the blame on the pre-collections which I can’t even be bothered looking at because most of them are garbage, watered down clothes that don’t deserve magazine coverage but do. There’s just so much pressure in the fashion industry now that’s being driven by money and it filters into every facet. The designers have to produce, what, a minimum of four collections a year now? If the idea of designing is to sell then how are we the customer supposed to keep up? I know that a lot of things these days are becoming frenetic and ADD-like and it’s something I’ve noticed being bandied about the media at the moment. I see it in say, a review of Grimes’ new album Genesis, I see how within the past three years blogging has shifted from-at times-considered, thought out articles or musings to rapid fire re-blogging of images and GIFs at Tumblr. I don’t want to give the impression that I’m lamenting old media or anything like that. I love Tumblr but when I type up something on Blogger I feel like a dinosaur or worse, that it’s a waste of time because people don’t want to spend more than a few seconds looking at something.

I also don’t remember ever receiving so many e-mails from online stores. I’ve been buying clothes from Asos for maybe three years now and I don’t think they ever sent me e-mails but now I get them daily. 50% off selected shoes, summer style, blah blah blah. It’s overwhelming how much I choose to expose myself to because after-all I opt in for this shit.

Okay, I just realised I’m ranting so I re-read this and what I could have said about two paragraphs ago is that I’ve allowed myself to be so heavily bombarded by fashion media that I’m struggling to pick what really stood out to me and made a lasting impression.

Update: I’ve been thinking about this overnight and one thing that stood out for me was the Miu Miu spring 2013 collection but not because I thought it was amazing-because it wasn’t. The reviews for this collection weren’t positive. It looked like a mish-mash of past collections and seemed like Miuccia Prada was cherry picking things she liked from the past five years. Duster coats, fur, mid-riff. It was all too familiar and had an ‘oh if I must’ feeling to it. So the collection was quite unremarkable but then over the next couple of months images from the collection began sprouting up on Tumblr and the collection seemed to be picking up some traction. But what’s really topped it off is the ad campaign by Inez and Vinoodh. The ad has models Adriana Lima, Doutzen Kroes, Bette Franke, Tamara Weijenberg, Martha Hunt, and Malgosia Bela (there’s a lot of girls in this campaign, I may have missed one), just hanging out at some sort of beach house set and it is flawless.

Prada Spring Summer 2013 Review

I was very excited to see the new Prada collection and I always am. I think that whether or not Miuccia Prada’s work is intellectual is besides the point because editors and journalists will always discus Prada’s work in an intellectual way. And I think the reason behind this is that each season you see so much commercial garbage spewed out on the runway that your brain switches off and you’re just looking at hemlines and dollar signs. When you see a Prada show on the other hand, you use your mind. I do however feel that at times with a show like Prada journalists use the show as an opportunity to express their own intellectual vanities. Sort of like ‘oh look how smart and clever I am, I picked out stripes as a way to discuss the current political climate.’ But like I said, shows of this calibre are far and few between so people really let rip their impressions and ideas of what a show represents. They’re what I’d describe as these ‘art gallery’ moments.

This season Miuccia Prada took a stark, romantic journey turning out mostly black dresses embellished with a very simple flower motif. There wasn’t a single pair of pants but there were shorts and even a knitted onesie. I think the lack of pants really reinforced that thread of femininity that ran through the collection. But it was balanced. She didn’t need to have flouncy, wispy clothes to get that feminine statement across because she knows many women don’t live in that type of world or want to where they’re restricted by the clothes that they wear. I think the shapes-60’s, boxy-and the fabric choices were modern and tough and gave great balance to the quite crude flower prints.

The shoes garnered a lot of attention and it wouldn’t be a Prada collection without great accessories which really put the icing on the cake. The Japanese inspiration in the collection came through most evidently in the geta-like sandals with metallic tabi socks.  I thought the bags were rather weak this season with the exception of the style that opened the show; a metal framed bag that looked like a little loop of fabric with a kiss lock fastening and tortoise shell chain handle.  

It’s all about direction babes

Babes is my new ironic word du jour but I use it way too often that people think that I’m for real using it. Not
so babes. I like to use it when I’m feeling like a trash bag so if you compare the frequency of it’s use
to how trashy I’m feeling then I must be pure trash baggery 90% of the time.
The spring 2012 shows are soon and I’m excited. In the lead up it’s quite a good time to log on to Style.com or Vogue and look over the winter collections but I feel like I’ve been seeing them for months now. Like the Prada collection which I’m soooo over. If I have to see another shaggy plastic fish scale coat I’ll just.. I don’t know. I’ll probably just cross my arms and make a displeased hrmph sound. I didn’t hate that collection but Prada always get so much magazine coverage that the clothes become grating. And those stupid fucking hats. Infuriating. I dunno, that collection is everywhere at the moment and it doesn't deserve the coverage it’s getting unlike their last spring show which was amazeballs.

Here's my round up of what I'm looking out for at this seasons shows...

Balmain-Olivier Rousteing
Since Christophe Decarnin left the house due to health reasons Olivier Rousteing is now the head designer. I’d like to think that he’ll forge a new direction for the house but I don’t think it’s gonna happen. I mean, where will Emanuelle Alt get her pants from? Certainly not Balenciaga.

Left: Olivier Rousteing. Hnnng. Right: Carine Roitfeld and Emmanuelle Alt in zebra print Balmain skinnys. 

Sophmore Mugler show
As head creative director, Nicola Formichetti admitted he’s not a designer but I have a feeling he believes this gives him an edge and a freedom that trained designers don’t have. There’s no doubt that he’s talented and perhaps he’ll bring Mugler to a new, much younger audience (with a little help from Lady Gaga of course) but what he's doing isn't fashion, nor does it have to be. Mugler is a different animal now and is more of a product than it used to be under the creative direction of Thierry Mugler. Instead of feathered dresses and motorcycle bodices it’s mesh tops and mint flares (which I’ve commented on before. Le meow). Sure I think the new direction is disappointing but at the same time what the house stood for is mostly forgotten and most consumers have little knowledge of what Mugler was like (except for people I guess who went to fashion shows in the 80’s. How amazing right?).

     From this............................................................................to this. Yeah, it's $6000. Get yours now.


Chloé-ClareWaight-Keller
So Chloé threw out Hannah Macgibbon after a few seasons and brought in Clare Waight-Keller. CWK was at Pringle of Scotland which is a nice enough label but Chloé has a cool factor that Pringle doesn’t so presumably CWK jumped at the opportunity. I’m guessing Chloé CEO Geoffroy de la Bourdonnaye wants to bring the brand back into the fold because it’s slipped since Phoebe Philo’s departure. Though Macgibbon produced some great stuff it never reached the realms of say, the Paddington bag or the knockout dresses Philo designed.

What's with these black and white studio portraits of designers? 

Dior-Bill Gaytten.
More fun? More clowns? After Gaytten’s Miami movement train wreck I don’t know where it’s going to go. I’m kind of hoping for more train wreckage because it’s highly entertaining. And it throws into sharp relief how talented Galliano is and what he was capable of doing (even when he was apparently high and drunk).
Galliano always talked about how the couture shows informed the ready to wear collections. Certain shapes or colours would spill over from couture to ready to wear. I always got the impression that he used this as a defense for couture. Something to ensure its relevancy. I wonder if Gaytten will do the same.

Tootle. Exactly as I remember it

GET INSPIRED

Boot by Jil Sander. Bag by Alexander McQueen. Would you just look at that little skull nesting in fur! So cute. 

Long flowy coaty shit is best for next fall or if you're like me and live in the Southern hemisphere it's best for right now. From top left: Theyskens Theory, Antonio Berardi, Gucci, Gareth Pugh, Alexander Wang, Doo Ri. 

Camilla Skovgaard. I diiiie

Creepy 40's flesh boot by Prada. Weiiiird. And glittery, suede bootie from Miu Miu. Coooool.

Prada's Sex Reduction

For fall Miuccia Prada used fabrics and colours that would more often than not be seen in a gentleman's club (or a Roberto Cavalli collection) and presented them in such a way as to stunt their effect and drain any notion of raw sexuality.
So think of those stripper cliches like python, sequins, red, pink etc. The collection was most definitely unsexy but in a good way. The coats with their giant lapels and low slung belts were a highlight as were the grid-like patterns on a trio of dresses.
Miuccia Prada is the last person I would imagine wearing sexy clothes like python jackets or a tight sequined dress so maybe she's taking all these sexy clothes that she secretly wishes she could wear and warping them beyond recognition to satisfy her inner sexual beast. Miuccia you dirty bitch!

Ima bad bitch Ima, Ima bad bitch

Monkeys Are The New Cats

If you keep up with fashion like a massive loser (like me) then you'll know that cats have been HUGE lately thanks to Miuccia Prada's Spring 2010 show for Miu Miu and the there was the Lanvin ad campaign with crazy cat lady Kristen Mcmenamy.

Well forget what you know about cats because now it's all about monkeys. That's right, bundle the cat stuff off to the vet and have it put down.

It's over? Just like that? 

The spring Prada collection is amazing. It was bright colours, bananas, monkeys, baroque, FUR!!!!! stripes and black dresses. I like that it was done entirely in Japanese cotton. I don’t know what’s so special about this type of cotton and if anyone knows then leave a comment. I can only presume it’s super-soft and prohibitively expensive. I think this ebbed over nicely from the men’s collection which had a uniform theme and cotton is the all-round hard-wearing fabric of workwear. 

The workmanship appeared rather simple but that's Prada, they’re not synonomous with impeccably made clothes-not to say that they’re badly made but come on-if you want top-notch sewing/pattern skill and technique you go Dior, Balmain, Hermes.
Prada is intellectual fashion and you can poo-poo that statement all you like but it’s true. People, including myself, like Prada because it appeals to their intellectual vanity. Oh look minimal baroque, what a mindf*ck. I'll take ten skirts and a monkey top thanks.

So I can see why some people would look at this collection and say that a first year fashion student could construct these basic skirts and dresses and that’s quite true they could but they didn't. Miuccia Prada did and that’s what makes my heart skip a beat at the electric furs, the absurd baroque monkeys, the finale of black dresses.

Srsly you guys, look at the shape of that jacket, the curving shoulder, the nipped waist, the bulbous sleeve. And that BLUE!!!!! I'm dying here. ps, if you look at the Prada Men's show for 2011 you'll see the same shoes. 

Prada & that Lumpy Blue Sweater

"Stuff? Oh, okay. I see. You think this has nothing to do with you. You go to your closet, and you select, I don't know, that lumpy blue sweater because you're trying to tell the world that you take yourself too seriously to care what you put on your back. But what you don't know is that sweater is not just blue. It's not turquoise. It's not lapis. It's actually cerulean. And you're also blithely unaware of the fact that in 2002 Oscar de la Renta did a collection of cerulean gowns. And then I think it was Yves Saint Laurent, wasn't it, who showed a selection of cerulean military jackets. And then cerulean quickly showed up in collections of eight different designers. It filtered down through the department stores, and then trickled down into some tragic Casual Corner where you undoubtedly fished it out of some clearance bin. However, that blue represents millions of dollars and countless jobs and it's sort of comical how you think you've made a choice that exempts you from the fashion industry, when in fact, you're wearing a sweater that was selected for you by the people in this room... from "a pile of stuff."-Miranda Priestly, The Devil Wears Prada

That's all

MIU MIU SPRING 2010

After taking a better look at the Miu Miu spring collection by Miuccia Prada I’ve decided it makes up for the disappointing Prada show. This collection was cool. I could imagine Alexa Chung wearing anything from this.
There was a remarkable mottled fabric that looked like the models had been dipped in tree bark. This was used most effectively on pants that had a turned down waistband. The cat and bird prints were very cute and it looked like something Luella or Karen Walker would do. The skirts with smocked waistbands were standout pieces.