Tom Ford is Coming

I lol’d when I realised ‘Tom Ford is Coming’ is kind of dirty. The thought of Tom Ford coming grosses me out despite his dashing good looks. I just imagine him slathering his body in private blend patchouli oil and thinking it’s really hot.
Bizarre sexual fantasies aside, Tom Ford will be showing his first womenswear collection since, what, YSL Fall 2004? He will be showing at New York Fashion week on September 12 but there will be no runway show, just a trunk show at his Madison Ave store which is disappointing. I wonder if an understated show will mean understated clothes. Financially smart but still major sads.
So I did a bit of web foraging to see names of designers he's getting on board with and it's looking pretty amaze.

Michael Lewis is doing shoes.

Alessandra Facchinetti- I think she recently denied any involvement.

Ready to wear designer Caroline Tixier from Givenchy, and accessories designer Pablo Coppola from Alexander McQueen.
According to sources close to the designer, the collection is ultra luxury sexy and glamourous. No shit.

Below is a reminder of that ultra sexy and glamourous look he did so well...

Madonna. Like, what the actual fuck is up with the hair?

Sexy Gucci. God I used to love this shit. Those kitten heels are so coming back.

NEW YORK FASHION WEEK IS OVER

My head is still spinning from all the collections I've seen this past week but there's barely time to breathe. London is already kicking and screaming.
I had a quick look on the official LFW website and I think I saw Bora Aksu has already shown so I've gotta look at that.
I saw Jeremy Scott is on the schedule too. Apparently he's going to be showing this collection in New Zealand for fashion week and none other than Vivienne Westwood's muse, Pamela Anderson will be there.

I think the Spring shows were the strongest I've seen in New York lately. The last two seasons were blaaah.

My faves for New York were Donna Karan, Marc Jacobs, Proenza Schouler, Alexander Wang and Karen Walker.

Worst collections? That's tough and most would be for different reasons but off the top of my head Peter Som (but maybe I just don't get his vision), Narciso Rodriguez, Halston (just let the man rest in peace) and Ralph Lauren.

ps, here's a pic of my fave shoe of the season. It's Calvin Klein. It kinda reminds me of this hideous orthopaedic shoe my maths teacher used to wear. You know, the ones you buy from the pharmacy. I love them.

PROENZA SCHOULER SPRING 2010

The Spring 2010 collection from Jack McCollough and Lazaro Hernandez of Proenza Schouler seemed fuss-free, more straight-forward and less precious than their past collections. Perhaps getting socked in the face by Keifer Sutherland forced the boys to toughen up. The collection opened with a black double breasted coat with a raised shoulder. It had a look that suggested it’d been thrown on after being rescued in a ball at the back of some dark closet. This was paired with a sports jacket skirt slung around the waist.

There was a sportiness to the collection but some pieces looked like they were picked up at Nike, the running pants with rounded inserts were no exception. There was a chic tank dress with a flappy insert tracing across the body and some grungy tie-dye long sleeve t-shirts looked great. I saw a bit of Balenciaga in those tops. It’s probably incidental but the tops and the high-shine fabrics recalled the work of Nicolas Ghesquiere. I thought maybe they were inspired by beetles with their reflective, high shine wings. It turns out scuba diving and tropical fish were the inspirations.

The shoes were amazing, accented with hot pink and yellow. They’re building a fast reputation for must-have accessories which is always an important step for a growing brand such as PS.

DOO RI SPRING 2010

Some frighteningly short dresses were the order of the day at Doo Ri. Only one pair of trousers made an outing and it felt like a token gesture. Also, the silver platform shoes looked clumpy and a bit tired. There were plenty of frills, twists, tucks and drapes, super short shorts with a frill across the waist were cute. There was a great series of little jackets, some sleeveless, some with folds of drapery spilling over each breast were beautifully realised.

She clearly wants to take the eveningwear route which is fine but with so many amazing clothes out there, Ms Chung is going to have to have an edge over her competitors and I’m not quite sure what that will be. Perhaps if she made an effort with daywear she’d broaden her market.

CALVIN KLEIN SPRING 2010

There’s always an architectural quality to Francisco Costa’s work at Calvin Klein that clothes often look like modern sculptural buildings more than clothes. So much so that often the dress wears the model, not vice-versa. This is the problem I have with Costa’s work. I don’t know why but the collection failed to trigger a positive emotional response from me. I thought perhaps I just didn’t get it. You know, you’re the one with the problem Nigel. But then I thought back to Donna Karan’s latest collection and I felt like my heart was going to bust through my chest because it was so much more than just a dress on a model.

The show opened with a single-sleeved dress that sat away from the body like paper, as though it weren’t made for a person. Texture played heavily throughout the collection with some great results. Crinkled jackets, glossy tank dresses looked like latex, bubbly blocks woven into tops and jackets looked great. There was an oversized pocket motif that appeared on jackets, some jutting out and mirroring the hem of short sleeves.
Costa will be running head to head with Marc Jacobs over who’s got the best flats for summer. Both Jacobs and Costa did Japanese geta-like flats. Well, they’re mostly flat, Costa stacked them up a bit but they looked fresh and covetable. The collection had a palette of mainly white, grey and black with a dusting of icy blue, pale lime and pale pink on a trio of looks.
I can’t fault the fabric techniques, the cuts, nor the tremendous amount of thought that’s gone into his work, only the lack of warmth.

THREE ASFOUR SPRING 2010

I’ve never been a huge fan of ThreeASFOUR but after their latest Spring collection I think I’ve become a convert for their organic signature of curved jackets and dresses. In possibly their most precise collection they showed strong leggings with cutouts and inserts in black. A tubular dress that was short in front and flying away at the back was beautiful. The final look was an all-white suit. The jacket was cut and curved down toward the hip and matched seamlessly with curving inserts on the pant.
This collection showed a new maturity from the three designers and managed to convey a near-perfect balance between avant garde and wearability.

ALEXANDRE HERCHCOVITCH SPRING 2010

This was a nice collection with references to sport, some more obvious than others. Silk is a difficult fabric to work with and is a testament to a designers skill in the workroom. Unfortunately for Herchcovitch this is not as natural as his use of colour.
Puckered silk skinny pants in blush were a bit rocky, stretching in different directions when the models walked. Nude lace overlays on shoulders and underlays on skirts were pretty, while shin-high striped sports socks and baseball clutches made for fun accessories. If I see another collection with exposed zippers I may scream. It’s old people, Lanvin did it four seasons ago. Let it die.
A blue/purple and orange silk dress kinda looked like an LA Lakers basketball tank. A couple of looks with uber-exaggerated football shoulders will make great editorial pieces or a staple for Lady Gaga. Rubbery tops and dressses with curving slicks of pattern were pure Herchcovitch. The colours were great with punches of pink, purple and green, evoking his Brazilian heritage.

NARCISO RODRIGUEZ SPRING 2010

Narciso Rodriguez has had some bumpy collections and unfortunately for Spring 2010 it looked, well, lumpy.
A mostly black collection with touches of purple, red, mint and grey was hampered with loosely shaped jackets and dresses that may not be very flattering on the average woman unless belted, but I don’t know that that’s what Narciso had in mind. He was trying to create a free and easy collection with spare cuts but it appeared poorly executed. Some jackets were lumpy and unflattering, even on bambi-legged models. Exposed zipper-front tops and dresses looked dated, bondage-like inserts on dresses reminiscent of Alexander McQueen didn’t help the situation either.

But there were some amazing pieces, tops and dresses with sheer inserts, some floaty show-stoppers and a superbly cut cap-sleeved jacket on look 24 was confident and assured. It’s a shame the whole collection wasn’t like that one little stroke of genius.

MARC BY MARC JACOBS SPRING 2010

Marc Jacobs’ diffusion line Marc By Marc Jacobs is always a mixed bag of cheerful clothes and the saying goes if it aint broke don’t fix it. Which is exactly what Jacobs and his dedicated team did. There were cute high-waisted skirts and pants covered with immature 90’s tribal prints reminiscent of The Fresh Prince of Bel Air and M.I.A, ¾ sleeve jackets in black and coral and a series of check print skirt/jacket combos. Sweat pants with suspenders, a few jumsuits thrown in for good measure and a duchesse satin bow topped the head of most models.
There were some cool looks for the guys too; check suits and a slinky knit vest (also shown on a girl) over slouchy khaki shorts looked modern.

DONNA KARAN SPRING 2010

I'm not familiar with Donna Karan's work from the 80's and 90's so this next statement will seem rather incredulous but this is possibly her best work. From the first look I fell in love. The collection featured washed linen jackets with soft rounded shoulders, skirts with a side split over-skirt and textural fabrics in light grey and chalk that you just want to touch. buttons, zippers and other fastenings were banished, leaving cloth, colour and sihouette to really shine. Call me ignorant but I wasn't aware of the organic nature of her work, most evident in the way she drapes, wraps and ties. This was such a heavenly, calm collection, a highlight of New York fashion week.

MARC JACOBS SPRING 2010

I find with American collections there's a very straightforwardness to design: clean, sporty and beautiful. It's like the clothes are saying I'm not here to jerk you around. Try me on, you'll look amazing. not so with Marc Jacobs. Perhaps it's his time spent in Paris that led him to say of the collection "It's about giving people things to dream of and romanticize about."
He certainly fulfilled that statement and sent out cream-puff frills a-plenty, sportif touches such as bum-bags and silver bike shorts, underwear as outerwear, some very realistic knitwear, Kawakubo-like military jackets with full prairie skirts, seersucker harem pants and a defiant shoe statement for next summer: flats. There was so much to take in for Marc's Spring show that there's not a shadow of a doubt women the world over will be dreaming of getting their hands on those beautiful clothes.