fashionologie

Louis Vuitton Spring 2010: All Clogs, Raccoon Tails, and Massive Fros

fashionologie — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 13:02:24 PDT

>> Louis Vuitton started exactly on time this afternoon, leaving more than a few editors shut out and half the front row empty; of those who did make it inside in time, some were still on the runway when the show commenced, leaving opener Patricia Van der Vliet to barge right through. Every single girl had on a sky-high afros, each made from five smaller wigs sewn together, which bobbed "up and down like big pom pom balls" as they walked; Grace Coddington apparently "whooped with delight" at the first sight of them.

A flurry of models were front row - Sophie Dahl and her fiance Jamie Cullum, Natalia Vodianova, Daisy Lowe - but Georgia May Jagger was a surprise on the catwalk. The show, inspired by the '80s and '90s New Age traveller and “street clothes, embracing the hippie-cyber, tribal-punk world,” according to Marc Jacobs, included everything from kitten-heeled clogs to bags with raccoon tails - straight from Williamsburg hipsters - to bike shorts and glitter anoraks. And Jacobs himself wore a pair of the furry clogs for the finale.

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Alexander McQueen Shows Holographic Alien Beauties for Spring 2010

fashionologie — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 16:50:07 PDT

>> Raquel Zimmermann, who has been missing from the runways all season, finally made an appearance at Alexander McQueen - projected on a screen behind the runway, topless, with a snake writhing around her; she later morphed into an arm-waving sea creature. Two cameras, each mounted on a robotic arm that glided back and forth on the runway, moved over the audience, replacing the video of Raquel on the screen and signaling the start of the show, titled "Plato's Atlantis."

Stiffly sculptural minidresses started out in mirrored snakeprints, moving into owl and insect territory, and finally the aquatic. Hair, which began in cornrows with crimped tufts, ended in two gravity-defying horns, and the hologram catwalk operated on motion-control technology. Some of the white-faced models had prosthetics around their eyes, giving them alien-like bone structure, which took three hours to apply. And if the Fall 2009 Nina Ricci shoes needed an editorial replacement, McQueen has it for Spring 2010 - hoof-like platform booties that Imogen Morris-Clarke says were ten inches high.

The collection, embellished and couture-like as it was, will be reinterpreted to be more wearable for retail, but if the livestream - which couldn't handle all the people who tried to tune in - is any indication (full video can now be seen here), people do love their McQueen spectacles.

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fashionologie — Mon, 18 May 2009 16:34:52 PDT

>> IN THE LOOKING GLASS -The upcoming June 2009 issue of W features a 30-page editorial: a portfolio of the season's best new faces, as chosen by Craig McDean, with Karlie Kloss and Sigrid Agren heavy on rotation; appropriately, Sigrid is said to have her first major cover out this week. Four girls are rumored not to have made the final cut, but Ranya Mordanova, Rose Cordero, Madisyn Ritland, Bara Holotova, Jourdan Dunn, Viktoriya Sasonkina, Karlie Kloss, Amanda Laine, Imogen Morris-Clarke, Dorothea Barth Jorgensen, and Nimue Smit all did - Models.com has a trio of previews. [Models.com, Models.com, Models.com, NY Model Management]

Tiberius by Chadwick Tyler

fashionologie — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 17:17:20 PST

>> Chadwick Tyler, preferred photographer of Alexander Wang and the burgeoning lensman who brought us Supreme's stunningly ethereal Spring 2009 show package, is holding his first gallery exhibition, Tiberius, starting Feb. 10 and running through March 12 at the Honey Space Gallery in New York.

The show revolves around "the model" - 52 models to be exact, ranging from Milagros Schmoll to Karlie Kloss to Imogen Morris-Clarke (full list). "It was important to me to have a broad range of talent, from the most established of girls to those for whom this is a first show. Most I have worked with before, others I have wanted to work with for some time," Tyler noted. Inspired by his life as a "farm kid," Chadwick produced original black and white portraits remniscent of the Dust Bowl, but with a modern twist - "the juxtaposition of the meticulous and the disheveled."

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Balenciaga, Miu Miu, Prada Go With Gaggles of Girls for Spring 2009 Ads

fashionologie — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 16:29:28 PST

>> For Fall 2008, three of the big campaigns that every model wants to catch - Prada, Balenciaga, and Miu Miu - all went with one big name - Linda Evangelista, Charlotte Gainsbourg, and Vanessa Paradis, respectively.

Come Spring 2009, all three labels have decided to switch things up by using a large number of new faces - Prada is using eight models (Anna Jagodzinska, Giedre Dukauskaite, Katrin Thormann, Nimue Smit, Sigrid Agren, Toni Garrn, Viktoriya Sasonkina, Ymre Stiekema); Miu Miu is using eight models as "accessories" to campaign star Katie Holmes (Darya Kurovska, Elena Lomkova, Imogen Morris-Clarke, Katie Fogarty, Myf Shepherd, Sophie Srej, Tilda Lindstam, Yulia Leontieva); and Balenciaga is going with ten models (Amanda Laine, Anabela Belikova, Anna Jagodzinska, Anya Kazakova, Diana Farkhullina, Elsa Sylvan, Hanne-Gaby Odiele, Iris Strubegger, Katie Fogarty, Kinga Rajzak).

Surprisingly, there are only two girls overlapping between the campaigns: Anna Jagodzinska in Balenciaga and Prada and Katie Fogarty in Miu Miu and Balenciaga, and especially in Miu Miu's cast, some girls - Tilda Lindstam, Yulia Leontieva - are very new faces. Although some are skeptical, especially in the case of Miu Miu, that all the models cast will make it into the final shots, it's notable that all three labels, which usually go with one face, have all decided that power comes in numbers this season. Get to know the chosen faces in the gallery below.
*image: source, source, source

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Phillip Lim Sews Up Another Crowd Pleaser for Spring 2009

fashionologie — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 21:34:29 PDT

>> Phillip Lim created the mascot skirt of Fashion Week earlier this year - not kidding, I've seen it on at least one person every day this week - and if the attendance to his newest collection's presentation is any indication, Spring 2009 will be smooth sailing for 3.1 Phillip Lim - the Tent was packed to the gills with fans, including friends Richard Chai and Irina Lazareanu, both sitting front row.

Christian Louboutin designed ruffled heels for the collection, eliciting covetousness in many - in fact, the whole Spring 2009 season is about ruffles for Phillip. The treatment in some of the dresses and skirts reminded me of a tamed version of Marc Jacobs's Spring 2007 ruffles, but among the hazy smoke that hovered on the runway, the real standouts emerged - the stiff, open-edged zipper pieces, and the jewelry Eddie Borgo made for the occasion.
*image: source

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Thakoon Fall 2010: Feral and Furry

fashionologie — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 18:25:42 PST

>> It wouldn't be Fashion Week if everyone wasn't flying by the seat of their pants. Imogen Morris-Clarke, who walked Thakoon yesterday, Tweeted post-show: "Hanne [Gaby Odiele] was in [her] own clothes as the show began!!! manic."

The pre-show panic wasn't felt in the show's audience, however, where Andre Leon Talley was wearing a sweater with big fuzzy dollar sign on the back paired with a furry scarf and Grace Coddington took her time chatting with fellow front rowers before taking her seat. As the lights went down, the music took on the pervasive pounding of a heartbeat, and the models emerged from a cavernous opening, framed by two oversized shapes which curled over their heads and softly glowed. They stopped in their tracks to pose in front of the photographers before carrying on down the runway.

Panichgul says the collection, with its fur-lined hoods, handkerchief hems, shearling boots, and pom pom fringe, was inspired by the image of a half-shaven sheep. "It captured everything that I wanted in my collection,” he explained. “It was raw, primitive and soft all at once.” The perfect embodiment of the inspiration: a tiger-print dress, the bottom half all tiger-striped fur.

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The Fashion World Reacts to Alexander McQueen's Death

fashionologie — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 21:27:51 PST

>> The news of Alexander McQueen's death hung like a dark cloud over the Fashion Week events today. The McQueen store down the street from Milk Studios in Manhattan, where a number of shows were held today, had its windows covered with white paper; a placard left on the ground outside. Passersby left flowers and notes in a makeshift memorial out front. Barneys, too, changed out its windows in tribute to McQueen - the store sold over 500 McQueen scarves today.

This morning at the BCBG show, just as the news broke, Anna Wintour left before the show's finale. The Ports 1961 show held a moment of silence in honor of McQueen, Cushnie et Ochs included a tribute note in their show's program, and at the LnA after party this evening, Patti Smith dedicated her performance to the designer.

Kate Moss, who was scheduled to hold a launch party for her Longchamp collection in London, postponed the event to mourn her friend. More changes to the calendar may be made: The Cut is reporting that editors might leave New York Fashion Week early for London in light of McQueen's death.

On Twitter, there was an outpouring of grief from the industry, collected below. T's Stefano Tonchi told The Cut he partially blames the rapidly increasing speed of the fashion system for McQueen's suicide:

We all know that this is a very critical moment in fashion, and that basically he is the first victim of what is a conflict between creativity and business. Today to be a fashion designer, you have to be a superman or superwoman. You have to have nerves of steel. You have to be so strong. And if you are a little bit weak, if you have psychological problems or weakness, you end up like him.” When McQueen began in fashion, designers worked on two or three collections a year, said Tonchi. “Now you have to be a business manager, a marketer. It’s, what? Eight, ten, fifteen collections a year. Men’s, women’s, couture, diffusion. Then they want accessories. Then they want watches. Then they want jewelry. It’s a machine, and I think that killed him.

Words from John Galliano, Anna Wintour, and many, many, more »