A little 30 Rock should knock this collection back into shape

Punk initially appeared to be a main theme for Balenciaga mixed with traditional labour-intensive couture techniques.

It’s not obvious punk. There’s not a single stud or safety pin in sight but there is leather, grommets, houndstooth and romper stomper boots. What’s interesting is that you can pick out the punk references but the overall look is decidedly free of aggression. So it’s not really punk at all. I still don’t know what it is. The woman in this collection is strong but she’s romantic too. You just need to look for those traits.

Overall it fell a bit flat and well, a little boring. I know if I were to see these clothes in person I’d have an aneurysm because they’re so beautifully made and I love Nicolas Ghesquiere. He’s a fucking genius and a fashion legend. I would have one of these if I ever met him.

Followed by this 

The red and black plasticky houndstooth gave me flashbacks of Prada’s horrid Fall 2010 bags which is purely coincidental but nonetheless unfortunate. The shoes were designed by long-time collaborator Pierre Hardy. They were all flat Doc Marten inspired boots which were nice but I die for his heels. The collection also-unfairly in my opinion- drew comparison to Comme Des Garcons. Unfair because some people wrote it off instantly as homage but I think these conclusions were lazy and inevitable. If he’d done skulls would he have been ripping off McQueen? But perhaps the derision was earned. Ghesquiere has been known on more than one occasion to steal from other designers work.

Fucking hideous

The highlights of the show were the jackets and the shirts. The vivid blue reptile skin jackets (what the hell was that?) are going to be bestsellers. They were new yet still had a recognizable Ghesquiere silhouette with that raised shoulder. The shirts had elongated tails in the front. Ghesquiere managed to make something as informal as an untucked shirt look chic and smart. The fabrics were baffling. Were the black dots printed? Applique? The lace. Was it hand painted or done by machine? Though the collection had some bright moments, Ghesquiere got too carried away and geeked out on fabric technology. If clothes make you feel something then does it matter if it was printed, painted or machine made?

Death Star Demeulemeester

Irl a scary lesbian art critic would wear these clothes but in my own world I get to wear them and look awesome.

Not a clue what the inspiration was but it didn’t matter. Why? Did you see those boots? Those boooooots mindsploded me the second I saw them. Sweet almond toed delicious deliciousness.

My mind as a house sploding. Pretty fuckin deep right?

At times the tops got too busy with piping, top-stitching and fastenings flailing about but they balanced out with the raggedy leather side-mullet dresses. Yes you read right. SIDE. MULLET.

If you’re a regular reader you’ll know that I’ve covered the mullet dress before but a sidey? EPIC. This shouldn’t work. Only on distant planets, far, far away should this work. If Darth Vader was a woman with exceptional taste in clothes she’d wear this.

It Takes Deux Baby

This was classic Comme. It was punk, deconstructed, reconstructed, abstract and loads of black and white. It felt quite 80’s too.

Some of the opening looks were white double-breasted coats that sprouted extra arms in what appeared to be black leather or perhaps rubber. There were also pieces of black fabric roughly stitched onto the fronts of some coats resembling a colour field.

I could be wrong (most probably am) but I felt like Rei Kawakubo was questioning female sexuality through quite traditional items of clothing like a bra, a waist defining belt, a full, pleated skirt. The bras were oversized, making them redundant as if to say why bother? I’m still a woman.

It also felt like a response and a dig to this seasons womanly, full-figured look by the likes of Louis Vuitton and Prada.

The duality theme I haven’t quite grasped. With the sprouting sleeves, the twin models, that I’m not sure of. If you have any thoughts then add a comment below so I can promptly shoot you down.

Alber-Don't Fucking Call Me Albert-Elbaz Does It Again

Look at the draping on this dress. Mind sploded

You got a little something on your top

Crunchy pleats

Look at those colours!!!!

Sexy but not clingy

Striking column, adds to the minimalism story for spring

How can I make something sexy but not clingy? I think Alber Elbaz asks himself this question with each Lanvin collection and for Spring he used fabric pleats and folds to address the question. If you look at Elbaz’ collections you’ll see that he always tries his best to make flattering clothes that have movement and ease. He’s sort of the opposite of Versace.

The show opened with gorgeous one-shouldered tops with light, flowy skirts in olive and mousse green, yes I said mousse, I’m really bad at describing colours. There were caramel toned leather harnesses-something that seems more McQueen than Lanvin- but they were weirdly inviting. The dresses in corrugated fabrics of charcoal and olive green could potentially function like seersucker, allowing airflow to trap under the bumps of fabric, cooling the skin. There were ingeniously draped sheer dresses in rust and green and I really mean ingenious, especially the one worn by Iris Strubegger. Lime,eggplant and strawberry micropleat dresses were giving me Pleats Please vibes but duh, of course they would.

There were some zippered dresses too that looked all slice n dice Japanese avant garde. It wasn’t until I watched the video of the show that I realized why he’d done this. The movement! Ugh, you should see the way these dresses move, it’s beautiful. I’ll post a video but only if you promise to take a look.

Overall this collection is really impressive and ever thoughtful however some of the dresses towards the end were overly embellished and seemed out of step with the refreshingly simple columns and felt like they belonged in a different collection.

I Can't Believe It's Not Denim

Skirt length: V, V important

This was a really strong collection for Stella McCartney and she had some of the best tailoring of all the collections I’ve seen for Spring.
Those citrus fruit prints are so fucking outrageously cool. They’re like that lickable wallpaper from Charlie and the chocolate factory.
And those denim tops? They’re not really denim y’all. They’re like a knit or some shit, isn’t that awesome? I love Stella McCartney. I want to have her babies. LOL JK. She has like 4 kids. I hate kids.

Not Fetch

Pleasant and Uninspiring at Chloe

This is Hannah MacGibbon’s fifth collection for Chloe and I feel like with each collection she says less and less. It’s almost like she’s holding back and repressing the Chloe girl who I believe to be young, sexy and sometimes a bit cheeky. We saw this girl with Stella McCartney and with Phoebe Philo but I’m not seeing enough with MacGibbon.
I get that this is minimalism but the clothes look like they belong in a pre-collection and they’re so pared back that they don’t feel special. You also need to take into consideration that these clothes aren’t cheap either. A Chloe silk blouse can cost US/AU$800 and there’s nothing special about those price points.
Right now the Chloe girl is that girl at a party who intrigues you all night but once you finally have a chat you realise just how dull she is.
Ps, what is with those angry looking ballet flats? They look painful.

Gareth Pugh Spring Summer 2011

In the lead-up to Gareth Pugh’s show for spring 2011 I fished around the web and decided to take a look at my long-neglected Twitter account to see if there was any info about it.

I read a few angry tweets from some bitter fashion weirdos that he was showing a video and skipping the runway show. From someone who doesn’t attend the front rows of Paris (totes wish I was) I personally don’t care if it’s video or runway. At the end of the day I view everything on a computer screen (like a massive loser).

The collection is really more of the same we’ve seen from Pugh since he gained financial backing from LVMH, what was it, 3 seasons ago? The same being rather polite, commercial, approachable fashion and that’s not very Pugh at all.

There were wide leg trousers, asymmetric leather jackets and long silk tops in black, white and grey. The colour scheme overall was unadventurous and felt like a pretentious goth club hangup but who am I to judge? My idea of edgy is double denim. Kerazebomz!!

As the clothes become less theatrical and more wearable they look a lot like something Rick Owens would do which isn’t surprising considering he interned with Owens. In LVMH’s hasty attempt to commodify Pugh I think his room for growth as a creative talent is being stunted. It seems ironic that throwing money at a young designer such as Pugh would staunch his creativity. When he should be freed up to really create something outstanding I get the feeling he’s stressing about money and sales. That’s the impression I get when looking at this collection.

On the other hand he has a newly opened store in Hong Kong and that won’t pay for itself and to get LVMH financing is May-jah when there are so many struggling young designers who can only dream of being in Pugh’s shoes.

I feel like he should still be exploring who he is as a designer, an artist, a person but this collection was mostly things we’ve seen before and felt too familiar. You could argue that he’s building upon a signature but we’re talking about a designer who’s got less than 10 collections under his belt.

I know that it’s fashion and fashion is about selling a product but Pugh is capable of so much more than just that. He’s one of only a handful of designers working today who can push the limits of fashion, art and sheer spectacle.

SHE STOLE IT!

Gareth Pugh Spring Summer 2011. 

It's just a sweet sweet fantasy baby