MY PARIS AW11 A TUMBLE OF IMAGES

Posted by Fashion Editor at Large

It was a monumental Paris. A game-changer, at least in terms of the business of fashion. The last time there was more to report on than the customary new trends and fashion shows was in the late 90s and early 2000's when LVMH and Gucci Group were snapping up designers and brands for their respective conglomerates.

Who knows what will happen between now and September/October when the next runway shows take place. Will Riccardo be moved to Dior as is the word in all quarters? Is Haider Ackermann commercial enough for a move into Givenchy? Can John Galliano recover enough to be seen in public, and can he hope to resurrect his career? Is Sarah Burton designing the Royal wedding dress; or is she, as she protests, busy working on the McQueen brands' hugely significant Met Museum exhibiton, and dressing the attendees of the accompanying ball (three days after the wedding) instead? One thing is certain, right now the fashion industry is the perfect muse for a contemporary Shakespeare. The actual fashion isn't bad either. I'm working on that too. As is customary post the catwalk shows, for the next week I will be sitting in a darkened room with the fashion junior creating a trend report of the season before it all dissolves from my mind...

So welcome to my Paris fashion week tumble.

At the end of the Dior show, which was pretty but surreal after years of seeing the Galliano spectacle, atelier staff came out to take a bow in place of John Galliano. The team, in their white coats, stood and modestly clapped us the audience, while we clapped them. It was a masterful and emotional moment, reminding us - following a decade in fashion that championed fashion designers as stars - that while the creative talent of a fashion house can be disposable, the fashion house itself remains sacrosanct.

This little book is indispensable to me throughout Paris, telling me where to go, when, and who to see about what.

David Bowie taken from Phoebe Philo's inspiration book, placed on seats at the Celine show. Phoebe has hit her stride at Celine. Her show was solid.

Rather loved the Jean Paul Gaultier invitation, and the show was the first one of his I have loved in a long time..

The Jean Paul Gaultier show finale

The Givenchy invitation tickled me; this is a close-up of the Jaguar head featured on one side of the invite. The eyes reflect the silhouettes of a naked make and female. I wonder if this is the exact print Riccardo used in his collection? (below) On closer inspection I don't think so, more's the pity.

The Hakaan invitation was beautiful; this is going into a memory box for future use.  

Below is the translation of Sidney Toledano's address from the beginning of the Dior show. While I respected and admire the manner in which the Dior brand reasserted its power, I still cannot help feeling sorry for John Galliano the man. I hope he will be forgiven for his outrageous conduct.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Since its founding by Monsieur Dior, the House of Christian Dior has lived an extraordinary and wonderful story and has had the honor of embodying France’s image, and it’s values, all around the world. What has happened over the last week has been a terrible and wrenching ordeal for us all. It has been deeply painful to see the Dior name associated with the disgraceful statements attributed to its designer, however brilliant he may be. Such statements are intolerable because of our collective duty to never forget the Holocaust and its victims, and because of the respect for human dignity that is owed to each person and to all peoples.
These statements have deeply shocked and saddened all at Dior who give body and soul to their work, and it is particularly painful that they came from someone so admired for his remarkable creative talent. So now, more than ever, we must publicly re-commit ourselves to the values of the House of Dior.


Christian Dior founded his House in 1947.


His family had been ruined in the Crash of 1929 and his own beloved sister had been deported to Buchenwald. In the aftermath of the dark years of the war, he sought to free women, to give them back their sparkle and joyfulness.


Christian Dior’s values were those of excellence in all that he undertook, of elegance and of craftsmanship reflecting his unique talent. His mission was not only to make his clients – indeed all women – more beautiful, but also to make them happy, to help them dream. He saw himself as a magician who could give women confidence and make them ever more feminine, more sublime. He believed in the importance of respect and in the capacity of this fundamental value not only to bring out the beauty in women, but also bring out the best in all people.


His values, his genius and his legacy have contributed to enhancing France’s image and culture around the world for more than sixty years.


The values that Monsieur Dior taught us are unchanged today. Those values are carried on by the wonderful and diverse group of people within the House of Dior who devote all their talent and energy to achieving the ultimate in artisanship and femininity, respecting traditional skills and incorporating modern techniques.


The heart of the House of Dior, which beats unseen, is made up of its teams and studios, of its seamstresses and craftsmen, who work hard day after day, never counting the hours, and carrying on the value and the vision of Monsieur Dior.


What you are going to see now is the result of the extraordinary, creative, and marvelous efforts of these loyal, hardworking people.
Thank you.

Chanel AW11 by Karl Lagerfeld. Chanel I would wear.

More Chanel pour moi.

Roland Mouret always sends us a little note.

The show notes for Nina Ricci, one of the highlights of my Paris and one of my favourite catwalk looks. I am making it my business to profile Peter Copping, that is if he will let me after I compared his looks to an old photo of Monsieur Dior. He took it well though.  

It was lovely for Phoebe Philo to share some of her visual inspiration with us. I can totally see how these images have inspired her work.

Stella McCartney is another designer sweet enough to add the personal touch to her fashion show notes. In her show Stella had a bit of an 80s Miyake, Alaia and Montana big-shoulder-small-waist moment that I have a feeling will be mighty influential in the coming months.

Stella McCartney AW11. Is Stella studying 80s Miyake and Claude Montana "State of Claude Montana" silhouettes? I like this a lot.

Chloe show notes, and a look from a show that can only be Chloe. I hope Hannah MacGibbon stays on there. She has her own very good thing going on.

The novelty show of the week was Nicola Formichetti's work for Thierry Mugler, the show began a week that was topped and tailed by fetish inspired shows - Louis Vuitton ended the week. (Givenchy was also rather fetish, as was Giles show in London.) By the end of Paris fashion week I was taking the fetish trend seriously.

Mulger by Nicola Formichetti

It also begs the question: why can Lady Gaga get away with smoking on a runway, and Kate Moss can't?

 Lady Gaga smoking on the Mugler runway

Kate smoking on the Vuitton runway

Another still from Phoebe's book.

Finally, to my fashion-show music of the week; Chanel. Karl Lagerfeld seemed to take inspiration from the 1979 Cure track A Forest (my all-time favourite Cure number).

Come closer and see
see into the trees
find the girl
while you can
Come closer and see
see into the dark
just follow your eyes
just follow your eyes

I hear her voice
calling my name
the sound is deep
in the dark
I hear her voice
and start to run
into the trees
into the trees

into the trees

Suddenly I stop
but i know it's too late
I'm lost in a forest
all alone
The girl was never there
it's always the same
I'm running towards nothing
again and again and again

The show setting felt like we were in the middle of a post-apocalyptic forest with the models stomping in their flat boots through scorched, smoking earth. The quality of the sound coming from the speakers was pretty awe-inspiring. Five days afer the show, the song is still going round in my head. The collection also had some great not-typically Chanel elements too - the butchy trousers, workman inspired boots and some fantastic tweed capes. I leave you with The Cure in 1979. Here, Robert Smith looks like Ben Affleck. Clearly his thick eye-liner and badly applied red lipstick wearing days were just around the corner.

Images: Modem, Celine (Artists Research Management and Anna Kustera Gallery), Jean Paul Gaultier, Givenchy, Modem, Hakaan, WWD, Chanel, Kenzo, Chanel, Roland Mouret, Chanel, Nina Ricci, Celine (Larry Fink, Sibylle Bergemann) Stella McCartney, Chloe, New York Times, Celine (The British Council), Christian Dior, Chanel All catwalk images: Chris Moore/Catwalking

PFW: STREET STYLE SNAPPING HAS OFFICIALLY GONE BANANAS

Posted by Fashion Junior at Large

Yesterday I rose with the birds for my seasonal one-day trip to the Paris fashion trade shows, where I check out all the exciting new accessory brands. Whilst there, I met up with the Fash Ed and the lovely Yasmin Sewell, just before they embarked on what they were calling 'the bloggers walk' to the Chloe show. Having never experienced a show in Paris, I decided to tag along and see what they were talking about, and boy, was I in for a shock.

The picture below shows the stretch of the Tuileries Gardens, through which fashion show attendees have to walk simply to get to the tent. Please believe me when I say that approximately 95% of the crowd are street style photographers.

Everywhere you looked, there was a camera in your face. It was honestly a little bit scary. According to the Fash Ed, taking street-style pictures of fashiopn editors was the sole preserve of the Japanese; whole magazines are dedicated to what fashion editors wear in Japan. In the West it is online that street-style has taken flight. And in five years the a handful of snappers has turned to 100s.

 

With every step towards the tent, more and more photographers/bloggers/fans swarmed like bees, waiting to pounce on their prey.

One of their prey was of course Ms Sewell, who couldn't go five metres without being surrounded. This happened about six times during the walk.

Seriously people, what on earth is going on?! Street style is beginning to completely take over the business of fashion shows. It felt crazy at London Fashion Week, but that was nothing compared to the mayhem in Paris. We fully appreciate the beauty and benefit of great street style documentation; it's an invaluable visual diary of the zeitgeist, but it's becoming all-consuming. Too many people are taking photos; and for what purpose? The heavyweights have already carved their niche, and I don't imagine the likes of the Satorialist will be giving up their place at the top any time soon. Primarily, street style should be about quality, not quantity. One incredible shot will shout louder than fifty blurred shots of a celebrity clothes horse in a nice frock. And lest we forget, fashion week is meant to be about what's on the catwalk, not on the backs of the audience.

For some examples of when street style photography serves it's true purpose spectacularly well, here are my favourite shots from Paris. They all capture something very special, unique, and intriguing; not just a nice pair of shoes.

 Leigh Lezark, snapped by Tommy Ton for Style.com.

An exceptionally beautiful coat, but an even more exceptional look from Leigh that simply adds to her aura of mystique.

Freja, captured whilst demonstrating her unique brand of 'I just don't give a...' cool, by Mr Newton of Harper's Bazaar

Giovanna Battaglia by Garance Doré. The proof of a good photographer lies in their ability to capture the moment, and it doesn't get much better than this!

 If you are bored with the standard street style snaps, it is fun to explore photographer's personal blogs. YvanRodic.com throws up some of Facehunter's quirkier shots; those that might not be cookie-cutter perfect, but somehow give an insight into what a fashion week is really like.

Last but not least, Kanye and ADR snapped by Phill Taylor. You knew Anna would be in here somewhere; she has pretty much made street style her personal territory. Maybe not their most flamboyant fashion looks, but the sheer star power of this coupling is creating lens flare, they shine so bright!

Speaking of Anna Dello Russo, it's impossible to write a blog about street style without mentioning her. This woman gets up in the morning and dresses to get photographed - her OTT sense of style has made a thousand cameras flash over the past year, and the subsequent images have massively raised her public profile. All credit to her; she looks unbelievable, but I can't help thinking what an awful lot of effort it must take to look like she does. In fact, Bryan Boy captured ADR in action as she posed for Tommy Ton, and I will leave you with the video, to perhaps illustrate my point.

NOTE FROM FASHION EDITOR AT LARGE.
There was a surreal moment yesterday before Valentino also in the Tuileries, (below) when it all seemed to go bonkers. The cycle of vanity seemed to be eating itself. This person snapping that person because they are doing their job and going to a fashion show wearing nice clothes. Its like the cycle of Hollywood fame in miniature. The people photographed become famous in the blogosphere for what they are wearing, much in the same way Alexa Chung is famous because she goes to fashion shows. It IS ALL madness.

FASHION JUNIOR'S TOP SHOWS

Posted by Fashion Junior at Large

On Monday the Fashion Editor at Large asked me to post my five favourite shows from Paris and my five favourite shows from AW10 as a whole. It's taken me until now to make up my mind! It wasn't an especially cohesive season - a lot is changing in fashion and it's given us all food for thought.

Note: I didn't want to repeat what we've already covered on the blog so I have excluded the obvious - Pilotto, Burberry, Celine. I also didn't want the two lists to overlap, so nothing from Paris is on my favourites list. Maybe now it's clear why this took almost three days to compile!

BEST OF PARIS

(From top left)
1) Alexander McQueen's beautiful interpretation of the Dark Ages
2) Alber Elbaz's ladylike outerwear at Lanvin
3) Stella McCartney's slick minimalism
4) Richard Nicoll's matchy-matchy extremism at Cerruti
5) Roland Mouret's draping and experimental hoods

BEST OF AW10


(From top left)
1) Derek Lam's urban cowgirls
2) Christopher Kane shows us lux youth Versace style at Versus
3) Reed Krakoff's minimal utility with plenty of slouch
4) Massimiliano Giornetti's manish tailoring at Salvatore Ferragamo
5) Belle Sauvage gives us print's last hurrah

Which were your favourites?

WHEN I MET MY MIRROR AT GIVENCHY

Posted by Fashion Editor at Large

Vanessa Coyle mirroring Fashion Editor at Large

It is not often that I will post photographs of myself on this blog but I was going through my shots from Paris and there was this crazy one of me and my old friend Vanessa Coyle of Harpers Bazaar. It was taken straight after the Givenchy show, and Vanessa and I were thinking along the same lines with our look of the day, don't you think?  The jacket is - surprise, surprise! - by Celine.

Celine was by far the most popular label amongst fashion editors in Paris, and spotting it became something of a sport for myself and yet another British journalist who has this jacket, Fran Burns from Love magazine. It is unfortunate that Frannie wasn't wearing her jacket at the Givenchy show - that would have been a great picture!

That wasn't the end of the Celine-athon. This evening Sarah Mower and myself attended the press event for the Central Saint Martin's MA graduate show. Sarah was wearing the very beautiful Celine coat in camel; she also has it in black. The coat has a very particular look which Ms Philo described to Alice Rawsthorn for the New York Times last month: “It’s cut very specifically like a double-breasted coat, but worn open like a single-breasted coat,” she explains. “The cut of the shoulder and sleeves is twisted at the front, so you get this feeling that it’s sitting on your shoulders.” 

Like me, Sarah is not alone amongst her colleagues in ownership of the same item. She tells me Brana Wolf, [Harpers Bazaar USA], Aliona Doletskaya [editor-in-chief Russian Vogue] and Alex White [W Magazine] and Phoebe Philo regularly wear theirs.   

Sarah Mower looking fabulous in one of her TWO!! Celine coats. She also has it in black.  

Over the course of Paris Fashion Week, Fran Burns said she counted 17 individual women wearing the below jacket - both this length and the shorter waist-length version. I'm torn between being glad I don't have one, to jealous of those who do.

I buy my Celine from Matches. www.matchesfashion.co.uk

On another note the caramel and nude pink colour vibe ushered in this season by labels such as Celine, Stella and Chloe - to my eyes the three most influential labels for AW10 - have inspired the beginnings of my proper Spring wardrobe, which I will explore and share through this blog as it happens. Hence why, during my lunch hour from Grazia HQ today I bought this silky nude-coloured shirt from Zara for £49.99. The girl in who served me said they came in-store today. I love it! What do you think? 

  

Excuse the pose, I was camping it up for my friend Angela Buttolph, Grazia's web editor.

Picture credits:
Chris Moore/Catwalking.com
Fashion Editor at Large

AW 10 PARIS FALL-OUT: FROM BALMAIN TO CELINE

Posted by Fashion Editor at Large

We're all home from the fashion weeks now. Hope y'all enjoyed my Tweets from the shows!

The Haider Ackermann finale

Yesterday I gave myself a day off. Lounging in a navy Juicy tracksuit (I know...) I watched Cash in the Attic and Bargain Hunt before cooking a wickedly hot and delicious fish curry. Good times.

While enjoying the mundane motions (or rather lack them) of a Duvet Day, the back of my mind was still whirring with what Had Gone On At The Shows. With more people blogging, tweeting and reporting straight from the catwalks than ever before, it felt more appropriate for me to bring you the fruits of some prolonged throught.

Paris clinched the change that has been occurring and manifesting since last season. For your information the DNA of the way we dress has already changed; you just don't feel it yet. The fashion media of which I am part are calling it - new minimalism, grown-up dressing, modern elegance, the return of elegance - all sorts. And it is all of that, but more than anything after all the craziness of elevated platform heels, enormous shoulders, and the tyranny of bodycon, this change is, in my opinion, a pressing of the reset button. Somewhere we can start again from. Phew!
Hopefully you will  understand what I am getting at by the end of this post.

I feel these fashion changes more than most. Like a fisherman who can sense a weather change, I've got a sixth sense for fashion future and it can be rather personally affecting. Eg. I can no longer wear jeans. Just can't bring myself to do it. Also, was wearing my old Chloe and Helmut Lang tailored trousers in lieu of having no decent trousers to wear for London. Then Oh! I bought myself a pair from Celine and Ms Mower donated to me a pair by Ohnetitel...... Happiness!

The fashion reset can be summed up pictorially by showing you what is considered the height of zeitgesity fashion for this, the Spring/Summer 2010 season, and then what makes it look wrong...

BALMAIN SPRING/SUMMER 2010.

So, how do you feel about these images?  For me they sum up what is not fashion now. If I see another sequin legging, big-shouldered blazer, aged, ripped T-shirt or worn-in jeans I will scream. Just like that I cannot stand the sight of them; and it is officially not even Spring yet. When I saw the French Vogue women out in Paris at the shows still working a vaguely Balmain look (these women heavily support Balmain as a brand, and work on the shows and campiagns) I felt they were so out of touch with the new mood of fashion. And when Nicolas Ghesquiere of Balenciaga banned them from attending his show for their various corporate consultancies with labels such as Balmain, Marant and some sort of issue related to a stylist in his employ - it seemed that their time as arbiters of taste was up for now, at least.

So, lets move onto what feels right. I'm not saying this is what we will be wearing tomorrow; but the reality check that is correcting our notions of what is thought of as modern style is contained within these images.

CELINE AUTUMN/WINTER 2010

Looking at these images makes me feel better. Already.  These clothes are sexier than Balmain; aimed at women with style and self-respect. It isn't just Celine that represents this change in the pace of fashion from trashy to lovely. Chloe and Stella McCartney are also redressing the notion of fashion - no doubt spurred on by the bar set by Celine designer Phoebe Philo's debut at Celine last October. This week belongs to Phoebe Philo, the British designer who is my age and lives up the road from me. As a designer she is very closed-off to the press, talking only to the select few journalists she has known since day one. I have so many questions to ask her.....

For now, though I leave you with THE JUMP: from Balmain to Celine in six months. Can it be done? And how?

PICTURE CREDITS: CHRIS MOORE/CATWALKING