Catwalktrend FW2010: Pencil skirts

Since Christian Dior introduced the pencil skirt in the late 1940s the item has had several popular periods. A few years ago it’s popularity increased again. Victoria Beckham, who – at that time – seemed to be a pencil skirt-ambassador, might have started the trend then. And now the skirt is still hot.

For fall Italian fashion houses like Dolce & Gabbana, Moschino showed many pencil skirts. Domenico and Stefano made theirs less stiff. They looked more comfortable than the average pencil skirt and they’d probably be much more easy to walk in too. At Moschino the skirts ended above the knee.

We’re not quite sure if they’d count as pencil skirts, but we did spot some ruffled pencil-shaped versions. Both Moschino and Nina Ricci came up with those, one in black, one grey-shaded with flowers.

Other brands that made the pencil skirt work were Dior, Dsquared, Etro and Paul Smith. Some looked more comfortable than others, but overall the skirts appeared elegant and made the models look sexy and feminine.

Jean Paul Gaultier Catwalk Fashion Show SS2011

Today Jean Paul Gaultier presented the future. His runway show was 3D! All guests attending the show (including singer Kelly Rowland) got special 3D glasses to watch the special effects JPG had added to his show.

JPG’s models were as diverse as they could be: pale, bronzed, bearded, shaved, blond hair, brown hair. A few had glasses on and some had afros. Some were young, others looked older. Even a blond haired girl popped up twice at the show.

The clothes for spring were like the models: a little bit of everything. They seemed to be Moroccan inspired so we saw some see-through fabrics and a few caftan-like blouses. The set of the show was a steamy hammam.

At first JPG showed some transparent black. Two tops were closed with laces at the front. Then some beige looks came buy; jackets with lots of pockets and big scarves (for a cold summer night?). Some printed creations followed. Those prints looked as if they were made out of paint splatters. The models wore a strange kind of bonnet to go with the printed outfits.

To stick with the Moroccan feeling JPG had added some embroideries to his blouses matched with pants that were tight at the bottom and loose around the crotch. We then saw an overall, a suit jacket matched with shorts, a skirt, one black caftan that reached the floor and a see-through black one-piece outfit.

Though JPG mostly used brown, black, beige and white in this collection, he did add some cobalt blue towards the end. Not to speak of the finale, when models entered the runway in bright, shiny, printed designs that came to live with 3D glasses.

The collection maybe was a bit messy, but there were some good items in it. And the fact that JPG was the first designer to use 3D in his collection is worth some extra credits too.

Streetstyle vs. Catwalk fashion

Each fashion season we all get very much inspired by the collections presented on the catwalk. After New York, London, Milan and Paris we have new creative ideas and we have picked up the trends we will probably be wearing a season later. So there’s no doubt fashion designers create trends or at least a certain style.

Yet it’s also true that a big part of  fashion starts on the street. What people wear in their daily lives is a starting point for fashion too. Whether it’s your grandma walking her dog in a floral printed skirt, your father in one of his suits or your neighbour is a pair of old school jeans. Every kind of streetwear can be the beginning of a fashion trend.

During the fashion weeks our team always spots the most fashionable people outside the fashion shows. They wear clothes not everyone dares to wear. Their streetstyle is often bright-colored, crazy-shaped and remarkably printed. Not to mention their shoes and accessories.

To show you that streetwear can be an inspiration for fashion designers we selected six outfits that were seen in the streets as well as on the runway.

While wearing your boyfriend’s clothes is a big hit this season we saw the masculine look at Lacoste and on the streets. In many fashion shows designers draped their fabrics, which gave their designs a very romantic twist. One of the girls on our streetwear photos showed even jumpsuits and drapery can work well together.Black and white or blue and white stripes belong to the navy trend that’s hot this spring. Dutch designers Spijkers & Spijkers showed this look on the runway, we saw it outside of the shows. And as more and more jumpsuits work their way into today’s streetwear, it was’t hard to find a yellow printed one that matched the Marc Jacobs version.

Chanel Catwalk Fashion Show Paris FW2010

Global cooling, not global warming was the inspiration for Chanel’s fall/winter collection. Now don’t think the show was about durable fashion or had something to do with eco-friendly production. No, on the contrary Karl Lagerfeld even flew in an iceberg from Sweden to decorate his catwalk. After the fashion show that iceberg was to be flewn back to Sweden as well. If you ask us, this kind of superfluous actions only increase global warming.

During the show the iceberg was slowly melting, so all models ended up walking in big puddles of water. What a pity for the luxurious clothes! Karl’s long pants, floor-sweeping coats & dresses and his fur boots all got wet.

His fake fur boots, we must say. Cause the whole iceberg-thing might not have been so politically correct, Karl did use fake fur for this collection. He commented: ‘You cannot fake chic but you can be chic in fake fur’ and explained that fake fur, nowadays, looks very realistic. Because you can hardly see the difference between real and fake fur Karl decided this collection was to be a ‘triumph for fake fur’. The fur came in brown, gray, white and black and was seen on the skirts, boots, pants, cuffs, coats, bags and collars.

Other fabrics were leather and the typical Chanel tweed. Tweed was, of course, used for some of the short jackets, but we saw it on some coats, pants and skirts too. The skirts were rather short, compared to, for example those of Marc Jacobs. They ended halfway the upper leg. The collars of almost all designs were high, as were the waisted pants.

Apart from a little bit of red Karl didn’t use any colors. The show ended with the last models all wearing white designs. Even the necklaces and the large rings were white (they were metallic during the first part of the show). It all looked stunning with the real, white iceberg in the background. Yet we think an iceberg from papier-mache would have been just as nice.

Catwalktrends ss2010: really tiny bags

Tiny bags definitely seem to be a trend on the runway. Yet they are very unpractical, because there aren’t many items that will fit in these bags.

But can we still call it a bag? Most versions we saw on the runway looked more like extraordinarily shaped purses, if you ask us.

The bags may be unpractical, yet they created some funny looks on the catwalk. Extremely tiny were the bags in the Anteprima, Blugirl, Bottega Veneta, Etro, DSquared, Fendi and Moschino fashion show. .

Most original were the Fendi bag with spikes, the pink bag form Gianfranco Ferré, the wooden ‘bag frame’ from Stella McCartney and the silk heart shaped bag from Moschino.

Unfortunately you’d have to keep most of these tiny bags in your hand all evening, but do they look cute!

Paris Fashion Week ss2010 Impressions #2

G-Star Catwalk Fashion Show SS10

G Star took over the Hammerstein Ballroom again this season, pulling off an extraordinairy and well-choreographed fashionshow on an elaborately constructed runway flanked by celebrities (Lindsay Lohan, Taylor Momsen, Jared Leto, et al.). Models in all white denim emerged from behind scrims to plot their zigzagging, overlapping course through the theater—an army of tough, monochrome urbanites. As always, G-Star is experimenting with the ways in which denim can be worn. A long white tuxedo jumpsuit with revealing slits cut up each side, had a trompe-l’oeil bolero in the brand’s signature fabric attached at the shoulders. Teeny-tiny denim bikini shorts and fitted and flared blazers in a classic dark wash.

Orange Babies Catwalk Fashion Show 09

All artists of House of Orange honored the Orange Babies Foundation for its 10-year anniversary by an extraordinairy fashion parade that closed the AIFW. A tribute to Orange Babies, a celebration of ten years of wonderful work, and a retrospective to Orange Babies’ first expression. The Orange Babies Foundation was established ten years ago to help HIV infected women and their babies in Africa. The foundation supports children infected with the virus or otherwise affected. Also, Orange Babies wants to raise awareness of the HIV/AIDS problem in Africa not only in Holland, but preferably throughout Europe.

Orange Babies Catwalk Backstage 09

Take a look backstage at Orange Babies.

Replay Catwalk Backstage SS10

Next Page »