Australia meets Japan.

Deborah Sams and Mary-Lou Ryan founded the Australian brand Bassike in 2006. They combine easy-going style with a subtle element of luxury. Bassike’s aesthetic is influenced by the contrasts of loose Australian beach style and the simplicity and minimalism of Japanese design. The designers want to create timeless wardrobe staples with sustainable fabrics.
They have now released their resort 2014 lookbook, featuring a collection of deconstructed silhouettes in neutral tones with materials such as cashmere knits, soft wool and Italian cotton. I particularly like the slouchy leather pants, the coats and jackets with the industrial looking belts and the styling with thick socks and Birkenstock sandals.

Metamorphosis.

Julia Nobis, the one who always looks like she couldn’t care less, who’d rather be somewhere else, doing something else, born in Sydney, Australia, with the ghostly pale skin, the big nose and strong face, walked innumerable runways this past fashion month, all the while showing us how a truly great model changes herself, time and again.    

Gold and.

I just found my next favorite collection, courtesy of one Mr. Dries van Noten. He artfully juxtaposed opulent gold lace and embroideries with sportswear vests, let gold ruffles peek out under grey sweatshirts and cascade down the sides of simple cotton dresses or attached gold, super-sized rosettes to the hip of an equally ruched skirt. I asked myself, why do I like this so much? Well, the idea of playing with opposite aesthetics, with the feminine and masculine, combining decadent gold leather or lace with much simpler textures and colors is immensely appealing. And van Noten wasn’t the only one who did it (although for me, in the most original and interesting way). Haider Ackermann, the grand master of gender play, used  shimmering metallic fabrics on a boxy man’s jacket or slouchy shorts. Joseph Altuzarra put his model in a shimmering gold skirt and a simple white shirt. Alber Elbaz at Lanvin showed a thoroughly shimmering collection, not so much mixing the metallics with anything simpler. At Margiela, you had a heavily embelished, totally sequined gold top worn with man’s trousers. And of course, who could forget Proenza Schouler back in New York and their beautiful gold and chrome dresses and shimmery delicate pleated skirts. What do you think, do you like this as much as I do?

DRIES VAN NOTEN         

HAIDER ACKERMANN

ALTUZARRA

LANVIN

MAISON MARTIN MARGIELA

PROENZA SCHOULER

Seriously.

There were lots of great collections in Milan (Jil Sander and Marni to name but a few), but after having seen Prada, there is really nothing much left to hear, see or do. Miuccia Prada showed such a rich, intelligent collection, managing to show beautiful clothes, while at the same time making a strong political-feminist statement.
So: If you weren’t interested in political messages, you’d find gorgeous color combinations, three-dimensional embellishments, gems and crystals, classically beautiful gowns and tiny, extremely ladylike handbags. If you wanted weirdness, you’d be happy with the usual pretty-ugly shoes, American Apparel-style leg warmers and sleeveless rugby sweaters worn under elegant dresses. And then, politics: The bras stitched upon coats made you think of the enticement usually associated with them, but the way they were placed on the garments, their shapes and presentation (and the overall styling of the clothes, for that matter) put all sexiness ad absurdum. The strong female faces on the coats and skirts were commissioned by Prada to a group of mural artists; their paintings were also on display in the show’s venue. To quote Miuccia: “I want to inspire women to struggle.”
All together, what on paper may sound like a confounding and incoherent head-scratcher resulted in one of the most creative and innovative collections of Fashion Month so far.

©style.com

London Fashion Week: A late and totally incomplete recap.

Milan Fashion Week is already wellllll under way, so let’s see what London Fashion Week had to offer (or more specifically, what I particularly liked)!

Burberry
So, let’s see, what do we have here: the return of the granny panties, worn under see-through lace skirts and combined with some cardigans and sweaters. Soft, pretty pastels, lace shirt dresses, coats, pencil skirts, trench coats and simple sweaters in cashmere, lace, suede and silk with colors ranging from pink to mint, mauve and blue. Everything thrown together made for a somewhat unspectacular, but very cozy looking collection.

Christopher Kane
There were flowers all over Kane’s clothes. I particularly liked the metallic outlined, petal shaped cutouts, the sweaters with the cap lettering spelling “FLOWER” or “PETAL” and the dresses and tops showing images of flowers’ reproductive organs as found in old school books. I mean, for Spring, a lot of designers show little flowers here and there, but Kane came up with really new ideas on how to use this old Spring staple. There were also graphics of how photosynthesis works, laser-cut in tops and skirts. And let’s not forget the crocodile clips used to hold the front of dresses together (what do you use them for normally, anyway?).

Duro Olowu
Honestly, even Mrs. O is a fan of him, and how wouldn’t she? Just look at Olowu’s use of color, how he isn’t afraid to clash prints and textures. Gorgeous.

Emilia Wickstead
Emilia Wickstead’s collection is feminine, fresh and charming. Nothing to get too crazy about, but really nice to look at. Yeah, sometimes, that’s all it takes.

Mary Katrantzou
Ms. Katrantzou, the queen of blowing up random things, did  it again; this time with shoes, laces, eyelets and perforations of men’s brogues, sport shoes and evening slippers. Prints and color everywhere, also in her sugary sweet dresses in fluorescent pink, blue, green and yellow, embroidered and adorned with Swarovski crystals, ribbons and mirrors.

  

Peter Pilotto
Pilotto just announced his collaboration with Target and this time, thanks to Net-a-Porter, which will distribute the collection internationally, people (meaning me) wanting to buy yet another designer collaboration (please, never make them stop), will also have the opportunity to put their greedy hands on it. Oh, and the reason I get all excited? Well, why don’t you take a look:

Preen
The all-white ensembles, combined with digital print fusing cuboid forms and florals and the somehow stiff and proper shirts made for an eye-catching collection.

Roksanda Ilincic
Everything I love about this designer was on display in this collection: sharp silhouettes, geometric patterns, bold colors and color-blocking taken to the next level with bright neon greens and oranges. 

Tom Ford
Tom doing what Tommy does best: sexy leather, sexy body-hugging, sexy glitter, sexy high(est)-heels, sexy lace-up boots, sexy crystals and sexy glam!

NYFW: Shoeporn edition.

NYFW has been over for a couple of days now and London Fashion Week is already well under way, but how could I ignore the most important fashion fetish there is: SHOES! So, without further ado and comment; because, really, those suckers totally speak for themselves, here is a (small, but nevertheless gorgeous) selection of shoes:

Alexander Wang

Diane von Furstenberg

Helmut Lang

Jason Wu

Victoria Beckham

3.1 Phillip Lim

Rodarte

Proenza Schouler
  

NYFW Spring 2014: The next batch

I lost count of the days NYFW is already running and the number of shows I already saw. But honestly, who even cares what day it is, anyway? So today, I’m just going to show you some of my favorite designers, the ones I always look most forward to seeing (and one more, thrown in for good measure): Jil Sander Navy (the main line will be shown in Paris), Rodarte, MM6 Maison Martin Margiela (again, main line in Paris) and Marc by Marc Jacobs (main line will close NYFW).

Jil Sander Navy
I mean, just look at these pieces! Throw any one of them on and you look chic, effortless and totally put together. Can I please have them all?      

Rodarte
Yeah, I don’t know either who (besides people whose work consists of parading around a red carpet or standing on a stage) is going to wear these clothes or where they are supposed to be worn, but I can’t help but be mesmerized by the stuff Kate and Laura Mulleavy come up with season after season. (And I really love me some fringe.)
      

MM6 Maison Martin Margiela
The real beauty of any Margiela piece only completely reveals itself up close; it never is what it seems at first superficial sight, so I don’t think that these pictures do the collection total justice. But you can still see that it has a very airy, clean and fresh vibe to it. (And that last piece? Nope, not a tuxedo with a bibbed blouse, but a tracksuit.)

Marc by Marc Jacobs
Lastly, Marc by Marc Jacobs. I don’t particularly like everything Mr. Jacobs creates, so he shouldn’t really be in this batch, but I liked the sporty, shiny pieces he showed in his diffusion line. I especially like that everything was presented with sneakers, that made everything just so easy and relaxed.

Credit: Style.com

NYFW Spring 2014, days 1-5.

So I came back from NY the day Fashion Week started. Unfortunately, I couldn’t stay any longer. Yeah, I know, don’t even get me started… Well, I hoped you enjoyed the pics from the Big Apple! But since this is a fashion and not a photography blog, let’s get back to business – fashion business, that is.
I won’t blog every day about Fashion Week; for a daily, or even hourly update about everything that’s going on, go to style.com or nymag.com/thecut/. I’ll show you what caught my eye out of the endless stream of shows.

Alexander Wang
The designer is bringing back the logo so rampant in the 90s:  If you look closely, you can see that it was laser cut into some of the leather tunics, dresses, elbow-length gloves etc. I really like the boyish slouchiness of the first two outfits.   

Creatures Of The Wind
Nice jacket:

Cushnie et Ochs
Really pretty silhouette, just please lose that scarf-thing.Jumpsuit!

Diane von Furstenberg
Jumpsuit!Very cool denim on denim action going on here.

Helmut Lang
I really like the clean, crisp, sharp, pure and minimalist designs.

Prabal Gurung
The designer said of his spring 2014 collection: “It’s a celebration of the elegant woman; she’s becoming an endangered species. I wanted to put her in a modern context.”

Rag & Bone
A clean polo shirt with a mean leather skirt: great combination.
 Jumpsuits! I want both of them!

Zac Posen
Posen always brings a lot of drama; I hope these dresses will be picked up by someone such as Lady Gaga.

Opening Ceremony
I really like the prints here, and the combination of the rather clean cuts with the bright colors.
  

Victoria Beckham
I actually liked the last two collections (see them here and here) better than this one, but I’m still quite a fan of her boyish tailoring, graphic and sporty designs and sleek and crisp dresses.

 

Credit: Style.com

Next time: Less unicorns, more dresses.

Fashion brands love to put out some arty-farty, pretentious and affected ads and movies (see the current Calvin Klein underwear campaign, in which a buttered up Christy Turlington talks about how her panties make her feel; or who could possibly forget Brad Pitt meditating about journeys, plans and dreams in last year’s Chanel Nr. 5 campaign). Today’s edition comes courtesy of Kate and Laura Mulleavy, the sisters behind Rodarte. This Must Be the Only Fantasy is a film collaboration between the fashion house and director Todd Cole, produced by The Creators Project and with (great, if I might add) music by Beach House. They combine magical realism, 1980s video games, fantasy role playing games and some of Rodarte’s absolutely gorgeous pieces from their spring/summer 2013 collection to create this odd, strange short movie about  “mostly teenage kids, just hanging out in the suburbs of LA, killing time, chatting inanities, looking for kicks. It just so happens that the magic from their games has spilled out into the physical world. So the film becomes a contemporary take on the fantasy genre, while also merging art, action, music, and fashion” (The Creators Project). Yeah, yeah, whatever. I have more important questions: Did the dress stay intact after the young girl’s ride on that unicorn? Why didn’t they show more pieces from the collection? Why is Frodo sitting on a throne made out of gaming joysticks and consoles? Was there melted chocolate in the boy’s cup? And what is a Sith Lord doing in the suburbs?

Part I: The Good

Ok, so let’s talk some more about the Fall 2013 campaigns. I get that the businesses behind these brands are multi-billion dollar operations that have to sell their merchandise; and in order to achieve that with the greatest amount of success, they have to appeal to a very wide range (of very rich) people. No, actually, they have to appeal to everyone – since the less rich will still buy the perfumes, underwear, sunglasses etc. they can afford – which makes the task even more difficult. So yeah, I guess that they can’t really take any risks, that they can’t experiment with new, innovative marketing ideas. But some of the images presented in the campaigns are so old-fashioned, so predictable, dull and boring, I wouldn’t take a second look if it wasn’t for the famous and renowned name splashed under it. Well, and that’s probably it, in the end: Who needs to risk losing customers with some edgy, over-the-top imagery, if you can just slap your big name under some unimaginative pictures.
So, without further ado, here I present you part I of what I’d like to call the „The Good (yeah, some are still good, after all, see also here and here), The Bad and The Ugly“. Stay tuned for part II, coming tomorrow, and part III, on Thursday.

The Good:

CARVEN
I really love the idea behind this campaign. The images are hauntingly beautiful, irritating and disturbing.  And despite the fact that the merchandise they are trying to sell here – clothes – are out of focus, you somehow still get a feeling for the texture and the (I guess) softness of the material. For my part, I just want to go and cozy up in one of the coats.
Marine Deleeuw shot by Viviane Sassen

PROENZA SCHOULER
I really like the mood going on in these pictures. For me, they have a Hitchcockian feeling about them. I particularly like the digital rendition of the birds in some of the pictures, they ad a somehow threatening edge to the images. The soft colors, airiness and the light are also quite eye-catching.Sasha Pivovarova shot by David Sims

STELLA McCARTNEY
Then there’s Stella, who, like Kenzo, is taking a surrealistic approach to her Fall campaign. The edgy scenes were shot in London and show the models partially submerged in a swimming pool (how cool is that, to just drown a really expensive coat in chlorine?) and standing on a street, surrounded by arrows, exclamation points and some more arrows. The slight strangeness and unexpectedness of the pictures are very appealing and a breath of fresh air.Suvi Koponen and Chiharu Okunugi shot by Mert Alas and Marcus Piggott