GAME OF THRONES: THE FASHION EDITION

Alber Elbaz by Irving Penn

What is Lanvin be without Alber Elbaz? The designer’s peremptory and abrupt, and now acrimonious exit from Lanvin last November capped a year of dramatic changes in the world of fashion. 

Designer musical chairs are hardly new in fashion; But 2015’s edition seemed evidence of a trend of dumbing down to the masses, a trend that will shape the way we look at fashion for many years to come. Not all the new queens on fashion’s thrones sit comfortably. You can see that in Alexander Wang’s lacklustre three-year stint at Balenciaga – you can see everyone's palpable relief at not having to witness the products of Wang's struggles. One "cool downtown party" collection is enough and ought to be contained in downtown New Yuck, where it belongs. That sort of thing hardly sits comfortably at the Paris Collections, and can hardly be expected to replace Nicolas Ghesquière's work at Balenciaga. 

Ghesquière had spent 15 years reviving the nearly century-old Balenciaga before he moved on to Louis Vuitton to replace Marc Jacobs. His experiments here are also strangely both over-thought and underwhelming. 

Now there are two more mediacore collections to add to the general ugliness of what's out there.

Lanvin Pre Fall designed by Chemena Kamali and Lucio Finale

In 2015, the world woke up to the Gucci drama of an accessories designer, Alessandro Michele, replacing Frida Gianini as creative director. While many of Gianini’s collections during her seven year tenure at the helm of the label left critics scratching their heads and searching for polite euphemisms, although of course, when she succeeded the iconic Tom Ford (who truly revolutionised fashion for the Noughties), she was lauded with enough corporate praise to sink all criticism. Gianini was hailed as a second coming of sorts and beatified as a fashion saint, becoming thinner, blonder and altered beyond recognition towards the end of her reign. Now Michele is being thusly lauded too, for basically doing some pretty things, and some pretty commercial things, which in the end simply looks like a luxed up version of the hipster trend for all things vintage, a trend already a few years old, with a Wes Anderson aesthetic. It's a sort of Gucci version of the Hedi Slimane's Saint Laurent 'strategy' - give them what they already want - just better made, and priced to appropriately. Note: Lanvin's first collection (Pre Fall 2016) not by Elbaz looks like Michele's Gucci doesn't it? 

And all that is par for the course - after all it's ready-to-wear - but what of a storied couture house like Dior? After Raf Simons stepped down last November, no successor has been announced till today, even though Spring Couture shows are looming. Hopefully they are taking their time to field a visionary creator, and not some gloriefied handbag designer-with-a-proven-sales-record to dumb down fashion even further. 

Hopefully they will appoint Elbaz - he surely fits the bill.      
    

Feb Fab

The rather vastly overrated Emmanuelle Alt takes the Vogue Paris to Las Vegas for February (can you be any less imaginative) which features Daria Werbowy (again!) on the cover in a Prada bathing suit. Photographed by Inez Van Lamsweerde and Vinoodh Matadin, it's an attractive, effective, sexy cover. Inside promises an exclusive short story by Douglas Kennedy, an interview with Marc Jacobs on the occasion of his 15th year with Louis Vuitton, and 66 Spring looks shot in Las Vegas. Yawn.

Chinese New Year Already!

Spring 2011 Louis Vuitton ad - it's Singapore in the 1970s.

Marc Jacobs Spring Ad

It's Jodie Foster in Taxidriver! And besides, it's just something that Sonia Rykiel has been doing over and over for decades. Shameless!

Trend: Matured Men and Drags

Stephen Dorf (he's in the new Sofia Coppola movie, no, don't roll your eyes yet) exemplifies the trend towards featuring the matured man in magazines: T and then V magazines put him on the cover. The recent fall Vogue Homme International dedicated its entire issue to the matured guy, making a convincing case for growing up, growing old, with grace - and beautiful clothes. The trend for drags has actually been a long while in the making and has truly come out of the closet with the fall Arena Homme + and this Industrie cover with Marc Jacobs in drag. Shouldn't it be 'Ms' Jacobs rather than 'Mrs' though. The 'Mrs' sort of throws me off - she's married to... Marc?

Spring 2011 Paris: YSL

Everyone must be overly familiar by now, with the YSL codes; So many designers these past few weeks have referenced Yves Saint Laurent's work. Stefano Pilati outdid them all, however, by bringing YSL back—to Rive Gauche. This is the collection that Marc Jacobs attempted to do in New York, and didn't, isn't it? The clothes brought home all the codes of the house, but reduced, and shorn of embellishment, into its purest essence. The neat black and gold belt that held it all together was slim, not screaming OBI! The 1970s ruffles, the printed silk, the precision-tailored jumpsuits with the discreet flared legs (cute!), and the trench are all pure Yves Saint Laurent, but the modern volume and fit, the draping and proportions are also pure Pilati. It's not genius, not on the level of Prada, but it's accomplished and chic and clever.

Louis Vuitton Ups the Digital Ante

In a few days (6 October, at 2.30pm, Paris), Louis Vuitton will be unveiling its women's Spring 2011 collection. Adding to the live streaming of the show on their official Facebook page, The Art of Travel by Louis Vuitton, and on iPad and iPhone at fashionshow.louisvuitton.com, Vuitton is set to provide you with a brand new digital experience (you may want to insert roll eyes here). Each model will be photographed immediately after the show with 52 cameras, thus turning them into motion-responsive images (you can try this out on Marc Jacobs below) that can be rotated and paused 360 degrees, from 6 Oct 8PM (Paris time) right here.
You are invited to discover this new kind of fashion show, in this blog post, so see you all on the 6th here, you hear?

New Yuck Fashion Week: Snooze 2011

The just-concluded New York Fashion Week (Amen!) unveiled some very patchy collections. Very copy and paste, I mean. And I'm not talking patchwork here, even though there was a lot of patchwork going on. Designers of every strata got busy clicking and pasting. Most unapologetically, Marc Jacobs paid an obvious tribute to Yves Saint Laurent, Halston, and Sonia Rykiel, with bales of Missoni’s signature patterned knits thrown in (pictured). So literal was this 'copying' even his champions like Cathy Horyn and Suzy Menkes scrambled for polite metaphors to defend his 'work' (this was fun to read, I must say). We can just about forget about objective fashion reporting. No such thing.
Jack McCollough and Lazaro Hernandez of Proenza Schouler (can you imagine having to type this long list of names? Some one spell check this!) was 'inspired' by Prada and Chanel, right? And further down (much further down) the food chain, Marchesa a patchwork of the Dior’s greatest hits by John Galliano. There's much more. And if I'm very good, I shall put it up although I shudder at the thought of having to trawl through those pictures again. Today’s “copy and paste” click click click culture, enabled by the readily available fashion archive on the internet, the readiness and abundance of information, engenders a new generation of lazy, uninspired fashion practitioners.Instead of leading to design breakthroughs and originality, the fashion information overload, the endless and immediate availability of this and every other fashion collection simply leads to a fashion maze where every tired idea is recycled in ever quicker succession. Endlessly. It makes for mind-numbing, brain dead fashion that is New Yuck Fashion Week. It's thankfully over.
(A much longer version of this rant will be in Saturday's Business Times)

Fall 2010: Marc Jacobs

After such a series of duds, this one, at last, succeeds. Still, it's not the work of genius (56 exits, wah lau!)that a well-known fashion critic will have us believe. All I need to add is that this collection furthers Mr Jacobs's themes of "awkward beauty" and "fit is nothing", themes which he began with his watershed grunge collection for Perry Ellis... Oh ages ago. This collection are seemingly inspired by/ designed for blogger Tavi (can't you just see her in every look?) and since Tavi already dresses like this thrifting, you really need to question why anyone would make 'new' clothes to fit ill. Well, what is the function of clothes, what fashion?
Just to be contrary, I've picked out these genius looks garunteed to make any girl look like a blinking clod. Don't you just love it?

And That's All!

"Anna Wintour wants designers to schedule their shows during these three days. It has bad consequences for many, many people involved in the shows, from stylists to models to hairdressers. It's absolutely crazy. She's welcome in Milan but if she only comes for a fleeting visit, perhaps it would be better if she stayed at home."
- Mario Boselli, President of the Italian Fashion Chamber

For the Chinese New Year overhaul, I was at the salon for a record four hours, from 2.30pm till slightly over 6.30pm. Ben has been doing my hair for over a decade, and pure genius (I can't say enough good things about Ben who is talented, stylish and kind any encounter with him improves one); But that makes him the busiest man standing on any given day, not to mention during festive periods. The boys and girls at the salon are all super sweet and sooo nice, but still. One does feel quite marooned at the chair and somewhat like a zoo animal as sundry people come and peer at you (all this is kindly meant, to be sure) and you need to be all bright-eyed and bushy-tailed even whilst your hair is all up in cling film or you're wearing a cushion-like silver plastic cap. It's defeating.
This is what I overheard at the salon:
M: "Am I alone in thinking that a lot of editors and magazine journalists here take their so-called image more seriously than their jobs? Seriously... I wanted to yank the arm off one at an event - she was so carrying on like she was Meryl in The Devil Wears Prada. Such a twit!"
J: "There are seriously TOO MANY Anna Wintours in Singapore. I don't know why the world thinks Anna Wintour is so special... They only need to come to Singapore to realise they are a dime a dozen in SPH.
M: "Her highness and her Andre Leon Talley doppelganger... I wanted to slap her!"
J: "They should just invite all the Anna Wintours here, then Milan won't have to shorten their fashion week ler!"
F: "This new editor might be a very stylish woman in person, you have to admit that she is stylish, but it does not show in her work. Just look at the magazine."
C: "I was in Milan when I heard that Alexander McQueen died and my first thought was... why couldn't it be Marc Jacobs?"
J: "Did you know that Mrs Jacobs is now designing a line of swimwear?"
As a treat, I also heard a TOP photographer say that things are going swimmingly now because working with the editors now is like being in a "think tank" where they all share ideas.
Now, that, my dears, is quite an idea.

Men's Fall 2010: Paris

I'm way behind in my men's season coverage and Spring Couture has already broken, and nipping at my heel. So here's a quick recap of the Paris season: Altogether, Paris was a lot more refined and ideas-driven, compared to Milan. In fact, there seemed to be a concerted attempt to break away from what is classic menswear and a steady embrace on the one hand the reinvention of sportswear (Raf Simons, Lanvin) and on the other, women's wear (Dior Homme, Rick Owens). Both are exciting developements.
FAVES:
Lanvin Lucas Ossendrijver is like Louis Vuitton's Paul Helbers. He has invented for Lanvin a male identity which is seperate from it's women's, with a distinct voice: This collection is no less beautiful than his spring one, if a great deal less flashy. The military theme is given such a treatment as to make it a completely new without falling into the "costume" department. It's still belted and peplum-ed, and the easier fit is not excessive nor sloppy, and such interesting colours!
Rick Owens While I must note that it does go on and on and would benefit from a tighter edit, the continuation of the theme 'savage grace' carves this as Mr Owens's own. I love it chiefly for the Paul Poiret (see below) proportions, and the complete disregard of what is traditionally deemed masculine. Some of the items look like belle epoque dresses. The rest is from the Star Wars series - if only Lucasfilms had Mr Owens to dress the movies!

Raf Simons Briskly modern, this collection had all the vision and excitement that his Jil Sander collection lacked and restores all faith in him.
Dior Homme Twenty looks too many but I loved that it is as much about flow and draping as it is about tailoring. There seems to be a new vocabularly being invented for Dior Homme, one which reads so much clearer and sharper than Kris Van Assche's eponymous collection which is flabby in comparison.

Hermes What can I say? For me, this is right up there along with Paul Helbers's work. This is a luxe rive gauche idea, contemporary masculinity, sexy, graceful and elegant without being effete, achieved effortlessly by Veronique Nichianian.

John Galliano The styling is inspired and inspiring as usual. Love the Oriental splashes.

THE REST:Dries Van Noten Disappointing, incomplete but not as bad as some reviews will have you believe, just not fully formed nor entirely new (but then so few things are!). Yves Saint Laurent Besides the laughable Bruce Weber film shown (how irrelevant can it get?) Stefano Pilati seems to have painted himself into a corner; In truth, the coats and jackets with the interesting volume and proportion are beautiful and new classics, the rest is challenging to say the least. Comme Des Garcons Gimmicky and LOL, if it wasn't so deadly serious. Jean Paul Gaultier Seems designed specifically for Mr and Mrs Marc Jacobs to wear.

Taking Out The Trash

First there was Victoria Beckham, now this... And that's how luxury lost its lustre.

Lara For Louis Vuitton

On the right track: Louis Vuitton chose model Lara Stone for its Spring 2010 ads, rather than bring Madonna back for her third consecutive season. Steven Meisel shoots, having taken over the Vuitton campaign three seasons ago from Mert Alas and Marcus Piggott.

Weekend Reading List

After a proper ladies' lunch at M (soup and salad) with Ms Ong yesterday, we trundled into the Prada at Ion so I could pick up Prada: Creativity, Modernity, Innovation. The proverbial tome, it's a wonder the paper carrier didn't crack right open. And then I zipped back in the rain in a navy blue cab and have been studying the fascinating book since. This 708-page book on the nearly century-old brand is slipcased in Prada’s signature navy and divided into sections like Past, Inside, Stage and Product that catelogue the company’s output, from fashion design to runway shows, including Albert Watson and Brigitte Lacombe’s photographs of factory workers sewing, swatches of fabrics and ensembles from seasons past. The Place, Scene, Outside and Prada+ sections highlight the company’s architectural epicenters, and the art-centric Fondazione Prada. It's exhaustive, and especially useful for Prada fans, as Mrs Prada's entire ouevre is here (including, in one section, thumbnails of every outfit from every collection since the beginning of her career). Marc Jacobs should be pawing through this right now for inspiration.
I'm also reading again Fay Weldon's (1996) Worst Fears, given to me by BG on 12 June 1997. It's inscribed in a red ball-pen scrawl:

"To Tough Beauty and Sloppy Slop, I actually completed it! Not a very mean feat . All of it was done in the plane. Eva Air. Frightful, except for the seat, roomy."

On a side note: Isn't the cavernous Prada store at the Ion simply glorious (It's the store in Ion for me)? The dramatic, polished, black staircase is the last word in... steps and the assistant store manager twinkled his eyes at me and was impossibly... saucy and makes you want to buy it all. The Ion TWG is also really nice, the staff wonderfully trained, and of course the tea!

CFDA/ Anna

"I only go to the CFDAs because if I don’t go, Anna Wintour calls up and says, ‘You have to go because you’re part of the American fashion industry, da da da da da,’ and you can’t say no to her. So you sit through this thing as everyone tells you you’re going to get it, and then you don’t get it, and then everyone tells you it should have been you. You’re like, whatever. You go home empty handed one more time, and it’s fine. We have nine of them.” - Marc Jacobs (The Lady Boy Ga Ga of fashion)
The CFDAs are truly moronic, and this is the first time in years Jacobs has said anything that made sense. In years, and I am telling you.
(Source WWD)

Those Good Old Days

I hate this mania for thin thin thin; The world would be a much better place if everyone could just breathe out and eat a dessert or two.