Loewe Catwalk Fashion Show Paris FW2012

Combine fifties silhouettes with sportive materials and you get a collection like Stuart Vevers presented for Loewe today. A circle skirt matched perfectly with a darkcolored baseball jacket, a woolen coat was matched with a leather cap and thick leather jackets accentuated the models’ feminine curves.
Vevers used wool and fur, but it was a parade of leather really. Embossed leather skirts, leather sleeved baseball jackets, slim fit leather dresses, shiny capes and not to mention those handbags.
It might have been a very dark collection; the styling, the fresh make-up and the on trend sportive touches made it into a balanced fall/winter story.

Junya Watanabe Catwalk Fashion Show Paris FW2012

Junya Watanabe was in the mood for sartorial elegance in a mannish way, which resulted in a collection with strong tailoring and couturelike precision. Lots of  formfitting coat in a men’s check, cinched dresses in heavier fabrics, or a checked coat with a dress that combined a gray bodice in a heavy cloth with a voluminous  orange skirt in velvet.
Watanabe’s outerwear had trenchcoats with volume, as well as a trench-cape and a few blazer coats, which looked as though he stitched together a fitted jacket and a skirt in the same fabric.

Haider Ackermann Catwalk Fashion Show Paris FW2012

Again Haider Ackermann presented an intriguing and beautiful collection. Ackermann’s sent out an message of power-chic fueled by both dark and artful undercurrents. A lean, even severe silhouette dominated, sometimes cinched with a sharply geometric corset belt. Ackermann incorporated serious volume and a fascination with the lower torso. This resulted in tiered and sculpted peplums, hip adornments and leathers that pushed out from the waist to be cut away into dramatic front tails. Ackermann softened it up with hooded coats and long dresses. The  colors were magical, with oranges, reds, blues and purples against earthy neutrals.

First View Paris Womenswear FW2012: Pastel Beauty

As Suzy Menkes questions in the NY Times: ‘Is it inevitable in a time of economic depression that fashion takes a backward look at similar moments in past? So much has changed that it is a designer’s tough task to make references relevant.’

Historic Dior, the New Look, hit the runway. Faultless collections, as icons of couture craftsmanship in impeccable tailoring, express lightness in a tender palette of soft powder-pinks. The focus is on the waist and skirts are full or flared and over-the-knee, in chiffons, silks and layers of tulle. Less exquisite and full-blown as in the 40s, making place for a contemporary, stripped-down urban sense of luxury and soft modernity, yet still ultimately recognizable.

Roland Mouret shows smart sculpted peplum silhouettes with a lady like elegance, Nina Ricci’s designer Peter Copping did find the right twist to turn the historic into the contemporary. Barbara Bui entered a more free-flowing craft aspect in a skin shaded sensual silhouette, where Bill Gaytten stays closest to the Dior heritage without obviously taking a 21^st century turn.

Stylespot is a collaboration with Stijlinstituut Amsterdam

Lanvin Catwalk Fashion Show Paris FW2012

Alber Elbaz not only celebrated 10 years at Lanvin with a great collection and party, he also performed at the end of the show singing ‘Que Sera Sera’. It was his party, so he could do whatever he wanted.  The collection seemed a Best of-collection, but then modernized and updated. It showed all the inventive and creative skills of this great designer: his use of colors, the cut of the silhouettes, the mix of fabrics, the shapes, the urban femininity .

The show opened with hourglass mini-dresses in bright colors and sweet, round shapes, then black leather followed and black dresses and coats. The ruffles balanced it out and made sure the clothes didn’t look to aggressive or harsh. After the show Alber Elbaz told reporters that this collection was ‘all about freedom’.

Sonia Rykiel Catwalk Fashion Show Paris FW2012

It is the second season April Chrichton is designing the collection for the house of Sonia Rykiel. This spring it’s about bold colors and style, but for next fall it’s less loud, more simple and pared down.  Like the skirtsuits with a kick flare to the skirt, shrunken jackets, jumpers and little black skirts. Shades were mainly black, white and biscuit. For eveningwear the Rykiel-girl shows her flirty side, with floaty dresses, sometimes in sheer black or with puffy little sleeves.

Streetfashion Paris Womenswear FW2012 Day 3

What are you wearing during the fashionweeks? Your Miu Miu-shoes, your latest Jil Sander-jacket or that vintage Gucci? Maybe we’ll spot you in Paris, Milan, New York or Amsterdam. During the fashionweeks we refresh our streetwear posts regularly. We don’t judge, we’re not the fashion-police, we just enjoy fashion and your own personal style. Next stop: Paris Fashion Week.

Martin Margiela Catwalk Fashion Show Paris FW2012

Margiela started with some amazing, yet basic coats and capes which the models had hanging on their shoulders. Some real classics in grey, camel and black everyone could use in their winter wardrobe. Even the brand’s leather sleeves/gloves of last year made a reappearance, yet slightly different.

What followed was a series of turtlenecks and enormous collars which came up to the models’ ears. Then a couple of printed asymmetrical dresses popped up, giving this collection it’s signature look.

And just days after Angelina Jolie’s slit dress and thus her sexy bare leg at the Oscars were all over the news Maison Martin Margiela showed the same kind of sexiness. Pleated skirts which were short left  and maxi on the right revealed the models’ amazing toned legs, wow. Matched with shiny, straight blouses they created the ultimate cool chic look.

 

Christian Dior Catwalk Fashion Show Paris FW2012

With all the rumors about Dior he must be under a lot of pressure, but boy did Bill Gaytten show an amazing collection. It might just be his last one, and if so, he’s definitely leaving with his head held high.

Gracefully dressed women walked his runway in soft modern dresses and skirts. Again materials were combined in one look. Like for instance a pink dress with a diagonal leather band on it. Or a woolen embroidered version with a metallic part on the models’ breast. And not to mention those gorgeous evening gowns which had transparent sleeves or fronts and lottts of tule.

Every single design was feminine to the max; accentuated waists, flowing (New Look) skirts and ultra soft shades (nude, rose, burgundy). Also the large necklaces gave the looks extra reason to stand out.

A total of 56 looks may have been a little too much. Yet there wasn’t one look that didn’t belong in this jaw dropping collection. Props for Gayten and fingers crossed he might get to stay at Dior.

 

First View Paris Womenswear FW2012: Sci Fi Today

The fantastic futurist, Nicolas Ghesquière, revived and reinforced his ever-innovative message. This did not confirm yet the Parisian position as stage for the pioneering and the extreme. Designers seem to stick to their personal profiles rather then wanting to push fashion forward. Balenciaga’s surreal source of inspiration, corporate life, brought him on track of power dressing reminiscent of 70s and 80s. Futurist dressing where challenging proportions team up with not less challenging materials. Bonded fabrics that build exaggerated silhouettes.

Where Milan went for beauty Paris went for power, staging super-heroines, priestesses of techno cult and battle girls.

Balenciaga showed satin sweatshirts with spacey slogans and sci-fi prints as well as flimsy featherweight dresses combining constructing textures creating star war princess looks. At Mugler the historical oeuvre was studied carefully. Super-heroine shoulders in contouring body gloves as well as peplum silhouettes. Gareth Pugh showed rather mutant force then Girl Power in funnel necks jackets with spiked shoulders,

We feel the longing for revolution, the need for groundbreaking novelty. But still the nearest road towards that seems to lead via the past.

Stylespot is a collaboration with Stijlinstituut Amsterdam

 

« Previous Page — Next Page »