Groupielove #5

After a couple of seasons of citified dressing, collectors of Dries may well be pining for his more eclectic, decorative pieces. If so, they’ll find plenty of them: coats, soft boxy jackets, wrapped dresses, and sarong skirts in a plethora of fabrics and embroideries that looked as if they’d been sourced from a trip around the markets of China and Southeast Asia.

In among them, there were items—like the silver lamé tank with a sheer back, the khaki shorts, and the sparkly jackets—that will also allow fans to dip into trend without going overboard. The incredible necklaces—rich-looking pearl chokers dangling geometric pendants set with large semiprecious stones and crystal—made gorgeous viewing.

Trends ss2010: lace details

Although lace is usually only seen in lingerie or underwear, we were now confronted with  lace in all kinds of daywear  in many shows. The largest  fashionbrands like Chanel, Dior, D&G, Oscar de la Renta, Cavalli, Valentino and Galliano introduced their clothing for the summer of 2010 with loads of lace.

The lace mostly came in neutral shades like black, white or beige. Yet in the Dior show we saw some black mixed with bright colors, like purple or pink. Erdem showed a combination of blue and black. At the fashion show of Antonio Marras  lace was mintgreen. And the models at Nina Ricci wore it in nudes and navy blue.

Jenny Packham designed some great feminine dresses in white lace. Paola Frani came up with a stunning jumpsuit in black lace. Barbara Bui made a few wonderful black lace jackets and Jasper Conran’s lace dresses felt a little bit like wedingdresses. At the Chanel fashion show the models wore many layers, topped with lace.

The most outstanding lace designs were a white mini dress with puffy shoulders from Jill Stuart and an elegant lace dress and jacket from Oscar de la Renta.

Introducing lace as a new trend for summer seems perfect. The fabric is airy and comfortable and makes women feel and look very ladylike.

Trends ss2010: skinny pants

Although the first celebs are already wearing wide-legged jeans, the skinny trend continues. For spring/summer 2010 the long and skinny model legs were still accentuated by tight leggings or ulta skinny pants. Not in denim, but different kind of materials.

Often it was hard to distinguish a pant from a legging, as they were equally tight. The skinny pants were often combined with loosely-fitting long tops, blouses or jackets.

At the Balmain fashion show there were skinnies in black and (glittery) camouflage. Barbara Bui designed hers with fish scales. Balenciaga’s pants had leather details. The Burberry and the Ungaro pants were pleated from bottom to top. At the Chanel Fashion show the boys wore the same black/green skinny pants as the girls. Roberto and Eva Cavalli designed a pair of light and shiny trousers with horizontal tears. The skinny pants from Matthew Williamson, Tony Cohen, Givenchy and Versace had all kinds of  patterns.

Since the skinny pants and the loose-fitting tops make such a great outfit together, it’s not time yet for the wide pants to return.

Christopher Bailey: Designer of the Year at BFA

Christopher Bailey, the creative whirlwind who has helped turn the heritage brand, Burberry, into a global luxury label, was wednesdaynight named ‘Designer of the Year’ 2009, at the British Fashion Awards. It is the second win for Bailey who previously was awarded the title in 2005.

Last night’s fashion “oscar” capped a remarkable year for Bailey, the 38-year-old Yorkshireman, who received the MBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours earlier this year, and whose spring/summer 2010 Burberry Prorsum collection was the highlight of London Fashion Week, in September.

In addition, Burberry took home the Designer Brand award. In his acceptance speech, Bailey, who is chief creative officer, announced that Burberry Prorsum would continue to show at London Fashion Week in February.

You want to know why we like Christopher?

Bailey knows how to mix classic and modern and his particular skill is to cleverly update the brand stalwarts, like the trench, with enough fashion flair to make them seem fresh and wantable, season after season. The figures speak for themselves: while other brands languish in the recession, Burberry saw its revenue rise by 21% in the last financial year.  That translates into a lot of product sold — and Bailey is in control of it all. Everything you see ath Burberry’s headquarters has been passed by Bailey, not just the building, but the website and the furniture, right down to the bottles of water. He micromanages some areas, such as a new store concept, and macromanages the rest.

So is Bailey a scary control freak, unable to let go of even the smallest detail? “I’m so lucky,” he told Colin McDowell at The Sunday Times. “My role is challenging. It is so multifaceted, but that enables me to absorb many things that really interest me: the music for the shows, the website, the ad campaigns, the fragrances — and the clothes, of course.”

Bailey was brought up in Yorkshire; his father was a carpenter and his mother worked as a window-dresser for Marks & Spencer. Direct, natural and always articulate, he is a true Yorkshireman and no pushover. He trained in a tough school, working with Donna Karan, then as chief womenswear designer for Tom Ford at Gucci, before being chosen by Rose Marie Bravo, the chief executive at the time, to design for Burberry.

Despite all appearances — he is always in jeans and a T-shirt, but rarely without a jacket — Bailey is a fashion businessman as well as a designer. “The power that my job gives me is huge,” he says. “It would be so easy to be overwhelmed by the pressure. The deadlines, the budgets, the fact that my life at Burberry is so scheduled, and my days are full from 8.30am until late, usually well after 8pm. And the meetings. I’m always conscious that Burberry is much bigger than I am. It’s 153 years old. My life here hasn’t even reached 10 years yet, but I have been here long enough to say that Burberry flows in my veins. I love its values. I respond to its strong foundations and, of course, its history is a constant inspiration.”

According to Bailey, there is a knack to being a fashion polymath. “I can compartmentalise different aspects of my life in my head, so that, on one side, I have work and all the different projects we are involved in at any one moment, and on the other, my personal life. Keeping them in separate boxes contains them so they can both be made manageable. At work, I need order: cool, clean spaces that really help me to think clearly. But at home, I want that order to be scrambled.”

He has learnt how to go into performance mode in public, but he likes his private life to be private. “You know, I often think I could easily become a hermit,” he says. “I certainly know I can live by myself, although I would always choose to live in a loving relationship.” He is in one now, having recovered from an earlier relationship that ended in tragedy when his lover died. Maybe that’s why he claims: “The most wonderful thing is being happy with someone. Someone who can give you mental stimulation as well as emotional support.”

And he is very loyal. “My best friend is Rebecca. She was my best friend at school and she is still the person I ring more often than anybody, apart from my family. I go to Yorkshire whenever I can, have Sunday dinner with my parents, talk to Mum in the kitchen while she’s making the gravy. That’s when I feel totally happy and content.” He has a house not far from his parents; it’s an old farm, and he loves driving up there from his flat in Chelsea in what he claims is “a really clapped-out old Mini”.

Once he’s there, he has his way of unwinding. “I put on my wellies — I love my wellies — get the wheelbarrow out of the shed and bring in the logs and the coals. My great luxury is that I have a fire in the bedroom. Then I go to see the cows. I usually have friends to stay. We often end up at the local in the evening, having a few drinks.” It’s the same with holidays. “Nothing glamorous,” he says. “I just don’t need it.”

“It’s not looks, it’s character that counts with me. And really, I suppose, I like people in the same way that I like houses: a bit rambly and slouchy. People I can put my feet up with.”

See, that’s why we like him.

Groupielove #4

Karl Lagerfeld is still going strong and he can’t get enough of fashion yet. “I like imagination — and the way I think things could be, had been, or should be — better than reality”, is one of hist latest oneliners at Twitter. Well, hios collection for Fendi was better than reality: wispy fabric, ivory and ecru, off-pastels, and fraying edges with a little touch of Parisian lingerie. It looked as if Karl Lagerfeld had drawn from his French vocabulary to make a cream silk high-necked playsuit (part classic blouse, part romper) and a dotted tulle shirt with a frilled triangle bra beneath. Thankfully, it didn’t slip completely into the clichés of boudoir (hypersexy is not the mood). That’s because of the more rough-hewn elements—say, a pale blue linen sarong, wrapped like a simple piece of raw-edged fabric around the body—and the incredibly luxurious Fendi craftsmanship.

Trends ss2010: braids

Past year braids made a huge comeback. We spotted them in different shapes and sizes on many celebrities. Later on the trend  the crowd picked up the trend.  Two small braids along each side of the face were popular, but also one large braid (around the head like a headband) and, of course, fishtail braids and French braids were re-introduced.

Judging from what we saw on the runway braids are still hot, like long loose and untidy braids at D Squared, Alexander Wang, Margaret Howell and Giambattista Valli. The models at Oscar de la Renta worked the braided headband. For those braids a piece of fabric was braided together with the model’s hair.

The girls at Paul Smith, Jean Paul Gaultier, Issa, Jaeger Londen and Zac Posen must have had had enormous headaches during the fashion show. Their hair was braided so tight, it hurt just to look at it.

At most fashion shows the models wore their hair down without any fuss. Yet several hair and make-up artists understood that braiding your hair can look very sexy and sophisticated as well. So if you haven’t mastered the French braiding technique yet, keep on practising it in front of your mirror, because you might need it next summer.

Tess van Daelen

Trends ss2010: colorful kisses

In many shows the models had a very natural look. The make-up made them look pretty and fresh but it was not exaggerated. Sometimes it was as if the models had no make-up on at all.

Of course there were exceptions. We could see dark smokey eyes, white-painted faces and strange-looking eyebrows. We also noticed some colorful lips passing by. Altogether nearly every possible shade of red was used for the models’ lips. Some bright colors like blue (Paul Smith, Doo Ri), green (Iceberg) and orange (Loewe, Prada) were shown as well.

At John Galliano’s show the models had ultra-thin eyebrows and small dark-purple pursed lips. The models at Viktor & Rolf had bright red lips with an extra gloss. Vivienne Westwood’s models had red lips that ended halfway their chin, looking somewhat like a bird’s bill. It made perfect sense, since all models had the looks of a tropical bird.

There is no specific trend when it comes to the color of the lips. It seems next summer any shape or color will do.

Tess van Daelen

Groupielove #3

Christopher Bailey, chief creative officer of Burberry, and one of Great Britains best-known designers, collected last monday his MBE from Buckingham Palace. Bailey, 38, was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire  in June this year, for his services to the fashion industry “This award also recognises the incredible team that I work with and it is a privilege to be a part of Burberry, a great British brand” Bailey said.

The recognitions are the latest in a long list of awards for the talented Yorkshireman. In 2004, Bailey received an honorary fellowship from the Royal College of Art, from where he graduated with an MA in 1994. He also holds honorary doctorates from the University of Westminster and the University of Huddersfield.

Dutch models: Patricia van der Vliet

Dutch models were well-represented at the catwalk this year. One of the ‘new faces’ we saw in many big shows was  Patricia van der Vliet. The blond girl popped up in shows from Prada, Balenciaga, Nina Ricci and Yves Saint Laurent. She even had the honor to open the Louis Vuitton show (the only time we saw her with black (afro) hair).

Patricia once participated in the Dutch tv-show Holland’s Next Top Model. Although she did not win, she ultimately made her way into the modelling business.

Her diverse appearances in shows of the largest brands in the world showed us how versatile Patricia is as a model. In some shows she was hardly recognizable.

Style.com already discussed Patricia as one of the ten new faces on the catwalk. Hopefully we will be seing a lot more of this girl. If you ask us, we already consider her as a Top Model.

Tess van Daelen

Groupielove # 2

In a serene and beautifully judged collection done almost entirely in shades of cream, Tomas Maier put the individualistic way we use clothes at the center of his thought process. “I think of it as a collaboration with women,” he said to style.com. “The clothes are meant to be a backdrop, a blank canvas, so the wearer can play with color and accessories to change the look and make it her own.” The concept of the neutral background came when he saw a group of children being dropped off at a karate class in Florida, where he lives: “I liked the look of the canvas, and that became my color card—white, cream, straw. And the idea of the soft belt.” Et voila, another beautiful collection was born.

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