Gottex Goes for Global Glamour for Spring 2009
@ 10:38 pm August 28, 2008Filed under: Runway Shows
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DALLAS, Aug 28, 2008 / FW/ — For the past 50 years, Gottex has become synonymous with luxe swimwear. It is not a stranger at Ibiza, Saint Tropez, Mykonos and Porto Cervo, the playgrounds of the rich and famous.
And these are exactly the locations where Gottex Creative Director Gideon Oberson will take us for Spring 2009.
“For me, dressing for the beach is no different than dressing for a night out. My clientele is able to go from poolside straight to cocktails and dinner by simply adding a breathtaking pareo or skirt to complete her ensemble,” says Oberson.
That said, all we have to do is sit back and relax while Gottex takes our breaths away.
GOTTEX Spring 2008
Monday, Sep 8, 2008, 8:00 PM
The Tent, Bryant Park
New York, NY
[MARI DAVIS]
Twenty Designers Named New Generation Winners for LFW
@ 10:01 pm August 8, 2008Filed under: Runway Shows
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LONDON, Aug 8, 2008 / FW/ — Louise Goldin, Danielle Scutt, MeadhamKirchhoff, House of Holland and Peter Pilotto will be holding catwalk shows during the London Spring 2009 season under the auspices of the New Generation sponsorship supported by Topshop.
Fifteen other talented designers had been named winners - Nasir Mazhar (Event Sponsorship) and Anna Vince, Borba Margo, Cooperative Designs, David David, Emilio de la Morena, Felder and Felder, Hannah Marshall, House of Holland, Krystof Strozyna, Mary Katrantzou, Matthew Cunnington (known as Untitled), MeadhamKirchhoff, Nicholas Kirkwood, Peter Pilotto, Poltock & Walsh, Sandra Backlund and Simone Shailes for Exhibition sponsorships.
Danielle Scutt – (catwalk sponsorship)
Danielle Scutt garnered acclaim at Central Saint Martins, 2005, where she was selected by Phoebe Philo to win the Chloe Award for best designer and picked up the Lancôme Award for Modern Femininity.
Scutt is predominantly inspired by female characteristics of power and sexuality, as never more so announced in her much lauded final MA collection. Showing a series of commanding outfits with key and now signature pieces including, canvas fitted jackets and coats with elegant puff sleeves and colossal pussy-bows that engulfed the shoulder line, pleated pencil skirts, high-waisted narrow trousers, spray-on catsuits, and second skin silk jersey leotards, singlets and vests.
Scutt delivers more than a derivative pastiche of 1980s power dressing, and cleverly employs other powerful signifiers; the confidence of oversized and eye catching prints, which often camouflage a look, including matching hosiery and shoes and belts. Each piece/look is designed to form silhouettes that cause a languid yet purposeful prowl in the wearer, highlighting sex appeal and assertiveness, the traits of the Scutt woman.
House of Holland – (catwalk and exhibition sponsorship)
Moving on from the slogans that have established the brand, and keeping a typographic theme, House of Holland’s new motto is “PASSIO FACTIONIS, Latin for passion for fashion. Luckily Holland’s father studied ancient Greek and Latin, and could be relied upon for a translation.
House of Holland grows up from season to season so you will see more luxury fabrics than previously, with silks, wools, leather and velvet, contributing to a more mature aesthetic. After showing twice under the Fashion East umbrella, House of Holland just held their first solo show at London Fashion Week and are now delighted to be part of the auspices of New Gen sponsorship.
Henry Holland graduated from London College of Printing with a BA Journalism, starting his imaginative slogan Tees as a bit of an in-joke. Today House of Holland is sold alongside some of the world’s most sought after designers, in Dover Street Market in London, Barneys and Seven NY in New York, Lane Crawford in Hong Kong and Isetan in Tokyo.
An upbeat presence on London’s party scene, with his best friend model Agyness Deyn, Henry Holland typifies London’s emerging new wave of creative talent, intent on having fun just as much as he takes his burgeoning business seriously and astutely.
Louise Goldin – (catwalk sponsorship)
Louise Goldin graduated from Central Saint Martins with a BA in Fashion Knitwear and was swiftly appointed head of design at one of Brazil’s most established fashion houses.
She went on to take an MA in knitwear, again at Central Saint Martins, from which she graduated with a Distinction. Further accolades to Goldin’s incredible trajectory include
The Deutsche Bank’s Pyramid Award and the Chloe Award.
Goldin’s powerful silhouettes and body contouring defy traditional knitwear structures. Goldin meticulously researches new technologies between her studio in London and her factory in Italy.
Louise Goldin’s debut collection was shown at London Fashion Week in 2005 as part of the Central Saint Martins’ MA show and was exclusively ordered by Selfridges. Goldin has shown twice as part of Fashion East, followed by a shared back-to-back show as part of New Gen.
AW08 saw Goldin’s first solo New Gen show. The collection included a shoe collaboration with Pierre Hardy. Heralding a new era in knitwear, Goldin’s collection, inspired by Futuristic Eskimo’s, included visually arresting pixelated TV-prints, structured minis and angular dresses, and shoulders shrouded by shimmering cashmere body-armour.
Louise Goldin can be found in the world’s most prestigious boutiques including Maria Luisa, L’Eclaireur and Browns amongst many others.
MeadhamKirchhoff – (catwalk and exhibition sponsorship)
English Edward Meadham and French born Benjamin Kirchhoff graduated from Central Saint Martins in 2002. Their debut Womenswear collection for Fashion East was launched in February 2006 and the pair since won another show with the scheme and further new generation exhibition sponsorships.
Their SS08 collection marked a turning point in the label, defining their aesthetic in incorporating a classic take on both bourgeois garments and hard street cultures. The woman they design for is uncompromising, nonchalantly elegant, intelligent and melancholic. Meadham Kirchhoff sells to Browns Focus in London, Maria Luisa in Paris, Opening Ceremony and Curve in both New York and Los Angeles and Space Mue in Seoul.
Peter Pilotto – (catwalk and exhibition sponsorship)
Austrian born Peter Pilotto and Libyan born Christopher De Vos are the designers behind the Peter Pilotto label. The design duo met while studying at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp.
The highly acclaimed AW08 collection presented otherworldly prints combined with soft sculptural shapes inspired by ‘the mineralogist’ (an image from 1830 that illustrated a mineralogist with all his discoveries placed on his outfit). Their customer is timeless and ageless, and it is her spirit that attracts her to mix colour and prints that are intrinsically Peter Pilotto.
The pair are entranced by the richly decorated costumes of the 1920’s Ballet Russes, the illustrations of Leon Bakst, medieval Page Boys, Byzantine Churches, warriors of ancient Rome and back to a much further future - science fiction. Peter Pilotto now sells at Colette in Paris, Matches in London, Opening Ceremony in NY and LA, and other leading stores worldwide.
London Fashion Week will run from Sunday 14th – Friday 19th September 2008. The Exhibition at London Fashion Week will run from Monday 15th – Thursday 18th September 2008 and is located in the grounds of the Natural History Museum, London SW7.
Website: www.londonfashionweek.co.uk
London Fashion Week Spring 2009: Avant-Garde to Seriously Edgy
@ 12:40 pm August 2, 2008Filed under: Op-Ed, Runway Shows
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DALLAS, Aug 2, 2008 / FW/ — Watching the season’s finale of Doctor Who where David Tennant play the lead role, then reading at the London Telegraph later that the British actor is going to play Hamlet, the most famous role in Shakespeare made me think of where London Fashion Week is going.
Since the turn of the century, it was fashionable to ‘skip’ London when doing the international fashion circuit; but last season, London started to regain its importance as budding fashionistas leaned towards the city’s ‘edgy and individualistic type of dressing.’
As a fan of sci-fi and Shakespeare (those two are not mutually exclusive, you know), I can see the symmetry wherein London was so avant-garde that it bordered sci-fi in terms of fashion, and now it is moving towards a more serious tone, like Shakespeare.
But, don’t think that London is going to be boring, because, you see, Shakespeare is never boring. Thanks to the very popular 2004 film, ‘The Prince & Me’ starring Julia Stiles and Luke Mably, the young generation now knows that when it comes to Shakespeare they have to look beyond the obvious.
London designers in general have always found the perfect balance between high concept and the obvious when it comes to fashion. So, like Scottish David Tennant, who by the way was voted Scotland’s most stylish male in 2006 in the Scottish Style Awards, parking the Tardis to jump on stage as Hamlet actually makes a lot of sense.
The Relevance of Haute Couture
@ 7:16 pm June 8, 2008Filed under: Runway Shows
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DALLAS, Jun 8, 2008 / FW/ — In a BBC special, ‘The Secret World of Haute Couture,’ it was mentioned that there are only about 200 ‘paying members’ of this exclusive club of women who wear the most expensive dresses and gowns in the world.
At the turn of the century, it was estimated that there were about 1500 women in this very exclusive list, which was roughly 10% of the 15,000 strong during the early 1960s, the height of the popularity of haute couture in this century.
So, while the world’s population continues to expand, with the super rich numbers also increasing, why is there an attrition of haute couture clients?
For the past five years, as a journalist, I have been trying to find the answer to this question. Pessimists have announced that haute couture is dead; even the most ardent supporters of the craft have acceded.
Yet, twice a year, the press, together with the 200 haute couture ‘club members’ trek to Paris to see the latest collections. So, how can haute couture be dead?
To the eternal optimist in me, I would say that it is alive and well. The shows are exciting and the press coverage has expanded, though not in the traditional media of television and print, but on the internet. In short, it is the traditional media that is dropping haute couture for one reason alone, less audience, which means less advertising dollars spent by advertisers.
But, the new media does not have to worry about ‘rate cards’ so much. They just want to bring news and at times, just provide an independent point of view. And of course, with the advent of YouTube and MySpace, an entirely new playing field arose. Add the blogs and tweeter, news travel at internet speed.
In the beginning, the Internet in general was suspect. It was accused of being the reason that ‘fast retailing exist.’ Yet, an objective view of the situation revealed that ‘copying’ and ‘fakes’ existed long before the internet existed. Times change and haute couture finally realized that the Internet is not the villain here; that the villains existed simply because every civilizations have ‘dregs of society.’
Surprisingly, the Internet was the medium that introduced haute couture to the young people, the one who made them interested to a way of dressing that some would call ‘arcane’. Because truly, in how many places could one wear a $100,000 dress without people noticing that you are only wearing one dress?
Yet, unknown to many, due to the very secretive world of haute couture and the women members shunning publicity, these women have a wardrobe full of haute couture dresses, the same way… ahem… a ‘normal woman’ would have a closetful of clothes, albeit bought at normal prices.
So, is haute couture relevant? To these 200 women — yes! To the rest of the world, though they might not understand it yet, the craftsmanship and artisanship that goes with haute couture should not be lost. If we lose them, it will be equivalent to losing an oral history of a civilization. Whether it is politically correct or not, the tradition of haute couture is part of world history that should continue simply because if we lose it, we lose part of the richness of our heritage.
The Secret World of Haute Couture Part 1
The Secret World of Haute Couture Part 2
The Secret World of Haute Couture Part 3
The Secret World of Haute Couture Part 4
The Secret World of Haute Couture Part 5
The Secret World of Haute Couture Part 6
AAU at New York Fashion Week: Young Jun Ryu, Textile Design
@ 12:41 am May 8, 2008Filed under: Runway Shows
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DALLAS, May 8, 2008 / FW/ — One of the two Academy of Art University graduates who presented a menswear collection, Young Jun Ryu who majored in Textile Design printed and manipulated faux fur with heat thus pushing his experimental bent to the limits.
Inspired by the artwork of M.C. Escher, geometric shapes and nature, the South Korea-native created textiles that are evocative of today’s youth zeitgeist. Impressed by Young Jun Ryu’s undergraduate work, General Motors offered Jun the position of Associate Creative Designer and he had accepted.
For the graduation collection, the main theme was the refined classic and comfortable aesthetic of James Dean. Using Jun’s textile designs, Jaime Cole, Desiree Daniels, Lauren Hume, Johanna Hatzenbuehler, Anne Jones, Muriel Jordan, Kara Laricks, Aurelie Martin-Chiari, and Warot Subsrisunjai designed menswear meant for their age group.
Photo by Randy Brooke, courtesy of AAu