Groupielove #1
December 3, 2009 by Jetty
Filed under Backstage, Featured Items, Paris, People, womenswear
Balmain is the hottest label in town. For spring Christophe Decarnin brought out another whammy of a no-brainer blockbuster: disco cavewoman goes to the front. His army of sizzling, sleek-limbed supergirls strode out with huge-shouldered, metal-epauletted military tailcoats. Their T-shirts were tattered; bullet belts were slung around artfully “destroyed,” stained, and holed jeans or, yet more sensationally, minute, hypersexed, raggedy suede and leather loincloths (the term “skirt” hardly covers it). No wonder the models had fun, these clothes were made to suit their bodies. Daria Werbowy was exclusively booked to do the show.
Trends ss2010: endless variations
Since a white blouse is one of the most popular basic items, we spotted a lot of these in almost each summer collection. They appeared in three main versions: blouses that looked like jackets, tight waisted blouses and loose-fitting men’s shirts.
New details that were added to these blouses were rolled up sleeves, puff sleeves and collars decorated with ruffles and extra layers. Although designer Gianfranco Ferré has always been honoured for his multiple variations of the white blouse, I’ll bet he couldn’t come up with all the versions we saw for summer 2010.
The models wore their feminine blouses with ruffles and puff sleeves mostly in their pants or skirts (Moschino, Sophia Kokosalaki, Derek Lam, Max Mara), so the waist was accentuated. On the other hand, there were blouses that showed no bodyshape at all at the Junya Watanabe, Cacharel and Chloé fashion show.
There were a few outstanding white blouses. Stella McCartney designed an ultra-long, loose version. At the LoveSexMoney show there was a white blouse with an extremely big collar made of several layers of airy fabric. The white blouses at Girbaud looked like straightjackets. The best white blouse was shown by Aquilano & Rimondi. They made a super feminine white blouse with puff sleeves, large ruffles and ribbons… so classy.
Tess van Daelen
Trends ss2010: into the wild
We’ve seen the animal prints for quite some time in fashion. Especially the leopard print was a major success in the past. This season we still saw some leopards at Giambattista Valli, Blugirl, Dolce & Gabbana and Paul Smith. Yet if you take a good look, you can see that the leopard print is diminishing and the reptiles are taking over.
Alexander McQueen’s collection was all about reptiles. Models dressed in colorful snake and python prints strutted down the runway. This had everything to do with the story behind this show, which was about the future ecological meltdown of the world and reptile-like creatures replacing mankind.
We also spotted light snake prints in the Pucci fashion show as well. They appeared at some short jackets. Kinder Aggugini used the snake prints in unrealistic light blue and pink. At the Iceberg fashion show the snakes were deep blue.
Other animals were spotted at Julian MacDonald, who designed a few fish dresses full of silver scales. Vivienne Tam showed a collection full of fantastic dresses that all had the print of a large butterfly on them. The colors of those butterflies worked beautifully.
Hopefully designers will continue getting their inspiration from nature. Nature has some extra reserves of great colors and patterns to create beautiful clothes with.
Tess van Daelen
Trends ss2010: strange cutouts
Were they short on fabric? Or did they think it would be nice to ventilate some dresses? What reason lays behind the strange cutouts in some designers’ dresses we don’t know. But it’s definitely a new trend.
We saw the strangest cutouts in diverse places. Above the armpit (Gucci, Kane), diagonally over the breast (Emporio Armani), around the stomach (Gaultier, Armani), above the breasts (Balmain, Gaultier, Elie Saab), under the breasts (Ungaro), between the breasts (Gucci), around the navel (Girbaud, Pucci, Alexander Wang), on the upperarms (Gucci), on the upper legs (Michael Kors, Viktor & Rolf) and around the waist (Erin Wasson, Laroche, McCartney).
At the Gucci show almost every dress had some small cuttings. Michael Kors’s dresses had cutouts that went around the model’s body, the fabric was held together by transparent plastic. Jean Paul Gaultier cut so much out of his t-shirts that they only existed of shreds of fabric. The bathing suits that we saw at the Pucci fashion show had splendid cutouts that gave them that little bit of extra sexyness.
Viktor & Rolf cut their hundreds of layers of tulle in a way the lower part of their dress looked like a piece of cheese. Unlike for the other dresses it didn’t add any sexyness, but it certainly made the dress stand out.
Tess van Daelen
Trends ss2010: pastel perfection
When it comes to color, next season will be very tame. There’s the nude trend and there will be lots of black & white. Yet there’s a third trend that we need to discuss colorwise: pastels.
The trend fits perfectly with the overall vibe we’re getting for spring/summer, in which everything seems very romantic and feminine. Yellow, purple, blue, pink, green, orange: all these colors came in a pastel version in any kind of material.
When comparing all collections we can consider Donatella Versace as the queen of the pastels. Her Barbiedoll models wore tight sexy pastel outfits. She even had a few printed pastels. The color in this case added to the Barbie doll feeling.
Michael Kors used some elegant blue, purple and green pastels for his feminine outfits. Other brands that made the pastel look work are Burberry, Matthew Williamson, Tommy Hilfiger, Mila Schon, Blumarine and of course our very own Viktor & Rolf. V&R’s multiple layered designs mainly were a combination of black and pastels.
If you want to go for that summery, romantic and feminine touch, add a little pastel.
Tess van Daelen
Trends ss2010: shine on!
Putting on an extra sparkle won’t hurt next summer. It’s become obvious that shiny sequins and sparkling details are no longer exclusively used for special events like New Year’s Eve. You can put on a sparkling outfit any day of the week.
Past fashion season the sequins were carefully introduced, yet this season they’re all over the place. Many fashion designers (Oscar de la Renta, Dior, Issa, Lanvin) used sequins and other shiny little details like studs or beads all over their clothing. They made the designs look super expensive and the models looked like princesses or movie stars.
The shiny details mostly came in silver, gold or bronze. Vivienne Tam, Pucci, Blugirl, Ungaro, Matthew Williamson and Asish made theirs in all kinds of colors and patterns. For example Asish had his colored sequins placed in the shape of Mona Lisa and at Ungaro they were heartshaped.
Elie Saab presented a showstopping evening gown sequined from the bottom to the top. Burberry showed us a glittery coat with sparkles looking as sharp as glass. At Aquilano Rimondi we could see several shiny outfits that had sparkling flowers in different shapes and sizes in gold and silver.
Making those items must have taken hours and hours of crafting. So next July when it’s steaming hot outside we will all be walking around with heavy, stiff, fragile, unwashable but oh so glamorous outfits. Shine on you crazy sequin!
Tess van Daelen
Trends ss2010: bathing in luxury
Of course when the spring/summercollections are presented, bathingsuits are shown. Several designers came up with some splendid beachwear. The only comment we have on these gorgeous bathing suits… they often looked too delicate to swim in. So it might be better to use them to lounge about and stroll on the beach.
The collection of Emporio Armani had a lot of beachwear. Unfortunately this was mostly black and wasn’t all that exciting.
Pucci did have several elegant beach items in its collection; some bathing suits in shades of nude and an ocean-blue version with a matching jacket.
Gucci showed us a nice grey-colored version decorated with studs.
We saw a muscular Naomi Campbell in a black & white, animalistic, one-shouldered bathing suit at Issa. It was one of the few shows for next spring where we could see the British topmodel.
Together with the bathing suits some designers (Etro, Pucci, Issa) created airy colorful tops. Those tops are great to wear at the beach especially over a fabulous bathing suit or bikini.
Tess van Daelen
Trends ss2010: the overall opinion
They might seem quite unflattering and we usually think of them as most suitable for gardening or working on the field, but overalls are becoming more and more fashionable.
Ralph Lauren and Jean Paul Gaultier designed a few comfortable and stylish ones for spring. Of course they gave them their own twist.
Some of Ralph Lauren’s overall had stains and tears and some were made out of shiny satin.
JPG added his iconic cone-bra. There were overalls with and without sleeves. Most were made out of denim, yet Roberto Cavalli made one out of a transparent airy fabric and Hannah MacGibbon introduced a leather one for Chloé.
We have to admit those overalls do look very wearable and they combine perfectly with almost anything (t-shirts, blouses, tops). They might become a huge hit. What’s your overall-opinion?
Tess van Daelen
Trends ss2010: fantastic plastic
How can you protect yourself from the rain and still look sexy?
Zac Posen, Sonia Rykiel, Frankie Morello, D Squared and others gave us the answer: you just wear a transparent plastic raincoat. In this way you’re still showing the great outfit you’re wearing underneath and your silhouette stays visible too.
For next spring transparent plastic was used by several different designers. Isn’t it typical that at least four designers came up with a see-through raincoat, independently of each other? At all four shows these raincoats also popped up out of nowhere and didn’t really connect to the rest of the clothes in the collections.
But the raincoat wasn’t the only transparent plastic item; there were bags and shoes as well, for example at Prada. D Squared and Charles Anastase both had transparent bags too.
Michael Kors used the plastic for his bathing suits and bracelets. Out of everything we saw the most fantastic plastic was made by Frankie Morello. He came up with a chique Chanel-looking plastic jacket, which had collar and cuffs made out of fabric.
Tess van Daelen
Trends ss2010: fashionably exposed
Together with the nudes there’s a a lot of semi-nudity for next summer-season too.
Many designers worked with sheer and airy fabrics. Through these light fabrics the models’ skins were visible most of the time. At Giambattista Valli, YSL, Michael Kors, Sonia Rykiel and House of Holland the models’ breasts could clearly be seen through their designs.
Almost every piece of clothing came by in a transparent version. Roberto Cavalli even designed a few see-through pants. Valentino’s shiny, ruffled and transparent materials were made into super sexy party dresses. And Donnatella Versace created a few sheer evening gowns in pastel shades.
The sheer fabrics were often layered or draped. Viktor & Rolf used multiple transparent layers, becoming non-transparent by this application. Riccardo Tisci beautifully draped his sheer fabrics for Givenchy.
Apart from the delicate ultra-thin fabrics we could see some body-exposing nettings (Jil Sander, Sonia Rykiel, Just Cavalli) as well.
So, for next season don’t be afraid to show some skin. And if you are, just follow the example of Viktor & Rolf and wear lots of layers.
Tess van Daelen
