Pre-Fall 2012 pieces may be rolling into stores, but right now it's definitely all about a Summer state of mind. And why not? With temperatures on the rise and the season's fun just hitting its stride, it's hard to think of anything but staying breezy. That's why this week's just-in picks are all about multitasking. In streamlined shapes, textural materials, and crisp hues, they'll look chic now — and straight through Fall.
Raf Simons says the focus of his first collection for Christian Dior was to "change the psychology of people who are interested in couture."
Simons may have accomplished that goal: the reviews of the show have been universally positive, and many noted that Simons's work might cause a shift in the way couture is viewed. Cathy Horyn said Simons "gets the most and the best out of couture," while Tim Blanks observed that the designer "can't help himself; he will bring a heart-on-his-sleeve human dimension to this remote and rarefied world."
As Simons later explained to Blanks, he's doing that by re-imagining the possibilities and limits of the couture customer.
"I want to make it more dynamic, appeal to a person who has a different energy," he said. "A younger person, in mind, not necessarily in age. And I think couture is very much about curating something unique for women. Fashion is so mass-produced now; I hope there will come a refocus on how people see couture. And I would also hope for a new focus on the craft. . . . It's mind-blowing when you start investigating what is done here. But I want to approach it with a new energy. I'm interested to see how people will pick up on it."
Those stories and more in our daily news roundup.
Carine Roitfeld took time away from planning the launch of her new magazine CR Fashion Book to style three covers for the Youthquake issue of V Magazine. The first cover features musicians Sky Ferreira, Grimes, and Charli XCX wearing head-to-toe Givenchy, while another features models Stef Van Der Laan, Daniela Braga, and Kati Nescher wearing those flat-lined New Silhouette coats from Comme des Garcons Fall 2012. The final cover shows Nescher, Ava Smith, and Thairine Garcia wearing the intergalactic novelty tops from Fall 2012 Balenciaga.
Behind the Sebastian Faena-shot covers, the issue features a photo story on America's up-and-coming actresses lensed by Drew Barrymore and a showcase of student work from Parsons, Central Saint Martins, and RISD, among other design schools.
The issue will be on newsstands Thursday, but you can take a look at the three covers right here in the gallery.
Talk about cat fancy: Karl Lagerfeld has reportedly named a Chanel handbag after his kitten Choupette.
Cathy Horyn tweeted yesterday that she "just saw the Choupette bag in the studio at Chanel. Knitted, soft. Name of Karl's cat." Not long after that tweet was sent, Lagerfeld staged his Fall 2012 Couture show for Chanel, during which many of the models carried soft, knitted handbags accented by metal chains. Were they the same ones that Horyn mentioned?
Choupette became an Internet sensation after Lagerfeld tweeted a picture (seen at left) of her playing with an iPad in May. Last month the designer said in an interview that Choupette refuses to eat on the ground and has two maids who keep a detailed diary of her daily activities that is now over 600 pages long. The parody Twitter account @ChoupettesDiary offers an imaginary accounting of the 9-month-old kitten's day-to-day life, but so far it has offered no comment on the Choupette bag.
Photo: A model carries a soft, knitted handbag during the Chanel Fall 2012 Couture show.
For Chanel's Fall 2012 Couture show, Karl Lagerfeld threw a garden party in Paris's Grand Palais — complete with wicker chairs, bushes of camellias, plates of macarons, and a ceiling painted to look like the sky.
The show, themed "new vintage," was an homage to Chanel's design history. Lagerfeld remade Coco Chanel's classic jackets in pink-and-gray tweed, then added tulle to their wrists and hems. Other versions of the jacket were cinched at the waist with metal belts and paired with tweed skirts or flowing, printed pants, and a double-breasted variation on the theme was shown with metallic fingerless gloves.
The collection's dresses were eye-catching — one combined jagged layers of gray tulle and stiff pink ribbon to create horizontal stripes, while a few others used tulle to accentuate the shoulders. Anna Wintour and her daughter, Bee Shaffer, were seen whispering to each other as a model walked past them. Lagerfeld attributed the hushed excitement his collections receive to the hard work of the seamstresses in his atelier. "They toil over the clothes. The tulle with pearl took 3,000 hours," he said. "Couture is for a world of privilege."
That privilege must extend to getting to touch the clothes before anyone else does. As Lindsey Wixson walked past in the "tulle with pearl" dress at the end of the show, its train brushed the wicker chairs in the front row.
