Veronique Branquinho Catwalk Fashion Show Paris SS2013

Belgian designer Veronique Branquinho returned to the fashionworld yesterday with a show, three years after filing for bankruptcy. The designer, who recently presented a lingerie collection with local label Marie Jo l’Aventure returns with a slightly lower-priced collection. Branquinho works together with Italian clothing manufacturer Gibò, who has reportedly also invested in her company. In Paris she showed a chic collection with long fluid dresses in beige – sometimes with a golden touch – suits and shorters shifts that reminded of modern day goddesses. It was less edgy than what she used to present in her early days and what we liked about her collections. But growing up probably also means you have to leave the edgyness behind, but please stay away from the safe side.

First View Milan Womenswear SS2013: Eastbound

Do we dare to suggest this influence will stand strong for another season? For many years the East is of continuous inspiration. For Etro it was leading this season. Digging deep in pattern archives they strive to make the traditional relevant for another new fashion season. With a star role for the paisley they stay close to their roots. We see engineered hand-painted prints that reflect on martial arts, orientalist paintings, traditional kimonos and tattoos.

Generous wrap silhouettes inspired by judo suits with traditional knotted belts. where the pants come in all different lengths. Fusions of saris, cheongsams, kurtas, and caftans in shimmery silks, matt cottons as well as floating sheers. From hand painted florals, to lavish stitched ornaments, dragons and flowers, engineered prints and dimensional patchwork.

Emilio Pucci  layers techniques to update as well as upgrade tradition, Marni adds holiday flavor in bold cotton print, Etro shows classy and sensual silhouettes, where Prada enters a totally personal twist.

This season The East comes with luxurious grandeur.

Stylespot is a collaboration with Stijlinstituut Amsterdam

 

Roberto Cavalli Catwalk Fashion Show Milan SS2013

This ss 2013 collection looked like a Cavalli in a calm, almost Zen mode. Instead of all sex appeal it was pure elegance and modernity. The show opened with a group of white looks in a clean silhouette with tailored jackets, crisp shirts and flared pants with  extravagant treatments, like draped fringe and leather that was laser-cut and embroidered to look like lace. Prints were shown mostly in black and white, with a few muted neons.
The soft palette and simple shapes  had a calming effect on Cavalli’s extremely sexy items like the lean, elaborately beaded evening gowns with low cutouts  on the hips, down the midriff and around the bust.

First View Milan Womenswear SS2013: Pure Now

We open our Milan survey with a statement of minimalism and purity. Simplicity and geometry in contours and lines are sparked with reduced surprise and understated fun. Open and subtle graphic patterns, or most plain with volants, florals and dots. In simple and sharp basic white, grey and black or plain, vibrant and colorful.

It is striking that this exercise of the clean and serene, this excellence in manufacturing, seems too empty for designers and reviewers to label it just graphic and pure. They stress to look for a deeper meaning and search for the soulful, sentimental and personal. This is a noble attempt to design the now and tomorrow, detached from false sentiments of nostalgia.

Gucci shows aristocratic purism, Prada adds soul by making the graphic all tender an personal, Fendi deletes the logo’s to show clean integrity in reduced tailoring where Jil Sander celebrates the pure in light, fresh and pristine looks.

We like to label this as surprisingly gorgeous reductivism.

Stylespot is a collaboration with Stijlinstituut Amsterdam

Giorgio Armani Catwalk Fashion Show Milan SS2013

Giorgio Armani kept his ss2013-collection ultra subdued with cloud-like colors that moved into a range of lovely blues. The first part of the show contained sportswear pieces worn in layers, often a short jacket over a tunic and pants.  Airiness was the point, and often, the effect, as Armani worked mostly in lightweight silks. Armani’s message of elegant ease he delivered via jackets with softly pleated, flyaway backs; a  focus on shorts and some dresses in gentle prints. Into evening celestial prints and dazzling crystals — grids, starbursts and spheres — exploded against grounds of black and navy.

Missoni Catwalk Fashion Show Milan SS2013

Angela Missoni re-imagined the label’s signature knits through interesting plays with layering and transparency, often veiling the pieces in soft organza for an ethereal effect. A short fitted dress in a patchwork of pink knits was visible under a looser one in pink organza, and a sequined sheer floor-length gown was shown over a white knit version that hugged the body.
Missoni has a strong eye for color – often in gradations of greens and oranges – and the silhouettes and proportions were in control so the clothes had a certain allure. The final black dresses had a slight futuristic vibe.

Marni Catwalk Fashion Show Milan SS2013

Firmness. Sparseness as elegance. The new Marni collection is a weightless exploration of volume. Form is reduced to its pure essence, laid bare to expose the precision of the cut and beauty of the fabric.
Clothes stand away from the body, gently drawing moving contours around it. They float, fold and turn. Silhouettes are clean and sculpted: A-line, trapeze and to the knee.
A sense of spontaneity is focal: dresses look like fabric was folded, rather than cut, into the final shape; pleats and peplums create sensuous additions on tops and skirts. The tension between delicacy and strictness adds nuance: short-sleeved shirts and matching pants are as efficient as uniforms; basques bring focus on the hips; flowery patterns are feisty.
The color palette contains white, black, dark green, touches of aqua, pale grey, orange, red, purple. Firm, compact fabrics enhance the bare pureness of the lines: cotton canvas, tape jacquard, bonded leather.

Emilio Pucci Catwalk Fashion Show Milan SS2013

Peter Dundas, the British designer at Pucci, proved himself capable of designing collections for this Florentine house without the famous kaleidoscopic Pucci-prints. And still, it’s as glamorous and elegant as it ever was.
For Spring, Dundas filtered his style signatures through the lens of Vietnam. The designer used occasional military reference as well as traditional Asian motifs and showed bomber jackets, sheer veiling, tattoo embroideries, and a cargo jacket in kimono-style. The collection did have some prints, but they were not the focus.  This time Dundas layered a woodblock motif over the vintage find to make it modern.

Jil Sander Catwalk Fashion Show Milan SS2013

Pure, minimal, reduced. Jil Sanders first women’s collection under her own name since 8 years was exactly what she is know for. The designs were both pure and true to her way of looking at clothes, which is to make an intelligent, respectful appeal to women of all ages. The show opened with a sleeveless coat-dress that, over a white blouse, looked like a schoolgirl jumper. It was followed by another coat-dress whose sleeves fell to just below the elbow. Dresses were her focus. Working in structured fabrics in wine and navy, Sander cut almost everything with room, usin constructions and techniques to sculpt, round and extend shoulders, sleeves and hips. Movement underscored the collection, like the jacket whose subtly exaggerated back swung elegantly; or the oversized culottes that swished like a silk skirt; or the boots with zips that spiraled around the calf.

Antonio Marras Catwalk Fashion Show Milan SS2013

Antonio Marras took his show as an opportunity to throw a little party. He wanted to celebrated a new alliance with manufacturer Castor with a wedding party. Guests where sitting around little tables drinking coffee and eating iced sponge cake. The models paraded about in dresses and coats made from patchworks of bouclé fabrics, damasks and tweeds in candied almond shades.

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