Spring Couture 2010: Jean Paul Gaultier

I had a think about it and since I couldn't get the collection out of my mind, have decided that this collection is good, even great. It is at least light years better than the dismal men's season showing - but not because of the Avatar references. The latter just smacks of desperation. Mr Gaultier vision is resolutely, atavistically it seems, rooted in the gilded past of hourglass corsets and elaborate decoration. Let's ignore some of his themetic execesses (is it some sort of misguided marketing ploy?) and focus on some of these looks, which represent a new idea or two, while reinforcing his signatures.

Spring Couture 2010: Chanel

I'm speechless and frothing: An immaculate, frothy, coolly masterful collection, which raises 'pretty' into an art. There's nothing laboured about the minute work that I'm sure went into the construction of these confections. (As an instructive comparison, do look at Givenchy couture to see how sadly heavy the effect is; The weight makes it look 100 years old old, like leafing through old issues of Vogue Paris in an airless and dusty secondhand book store.) The pale pastel suits were there but I think the focus has to be the fluffy cocktail dresses that look like candied clouds. Note: The bride (what a fairytale gown!), clutching Karl's boy, has white Karl hair...

Spring Couture 2010: Dior

Can you not love it? (I guess you can...)

After what seems ages of dreary uninspired tedium, John Galliano seems to be getting back to his old form. If it seems familiar ground, it is. But what glorious grounds to be cantering back and forth over - and isn't this what couture is all about? It is the romance of clothes and a way of life long past, revisited in vivid clothes. The Cecil Beaton photo of the group of Charles James dresses is an obvious starting point, but the genteel ladies are truly gone, in their stead, female impersonators camping it up with zest! Very drag, I like

Slim Keith (one of Truman Capote's 'swans') wearing Charles James, a deadringer for these Dior looks, down to the 'riding' reference. At the same time, it isn't drag, because there is no ironic distance.

Exit, Angelina

There will be no more shots of Angelina Jolie or - more importantly no more of those hilarious images of Kelly Gray (Ms Gray was the face of St John for 22 years, and a former top exec of the company, her mother's knitwear line) in St John going forward. The chief executive officer Glenn McMahon said that Ms Jolie overshadowed the brand (not hard to do). “We wanted to make a clean break from actresses and steer away from blondes and cleanse the palette,” added Mr McMahon. Angelina is not blonde.

This led to hiring model Karen Elson, who was shot by photographer Greg Kadel for the spring campaign. “We needed to show a modern point of view of St. John,” McMahon said. “We have evolved.” The ads, directed by executive vice president of design George Sharp, will launch in the February issues of Vanity Fair, Harper’s Bazaar and Vogue. McMahon said the print media buy is up slightly. No more cheesy ads of Ms Gray on holiday with a bevy of male models? What is the world coming to?
(Source: WWD)

Spring 2010: Guiseppe Zanotti

Aren't these ads featuring Spanish model Andres Velencoso fresh? They kind of remind me of those Bill King (October 6 1927 - October 18 2005) photos of old, for Enrico Coveri. Remember Bill King? Remember Enrico Coveri? Oh and yeah, the shoes are so cute too...

Left to right: Yasmin L, Cindy C and Tatjana P... in the good old days!

Lanvin's Fab Ads

Lanvin men’s Spring 2010 campaign, shot by Inez van Lamsweerde and Vinoodh Matadin, who are married, feature them as models as well. Alber Elbaz says: “To see him through the eyes of his wife and to see the love story between them — it’s a very emotional campaign.” Van Lamsweerde left all the fashion to her husband and appears nude, and in one image, her body painted in mottled swirls, like a phallic salami. She's definitely wearing the pants in this relationship. Top!

Vienna Film Festival 2009

The impossible Tilda Swinton wearing Jil Sander Spring 2010 at the Vienna Film Festival.

Julie & Julia (Glutton Dressed As Glam)

Julie & Julia is a chick flick.
You must remind yourself of this, before you buy that ticket (or indeed, the pirated DVD), and then you may properly enjoy it: Because despite Meryl Streep playing the iconic Julia Child, Nora Ephron’s latest cinematic offering never rises above being souffle fluffy. As you all know, Ms Ephron is a celebrated screenwriter/director, starting with the hit When Harry Met Sally and as a director with Sleepless in Seattle (1993) and You've Got Mail (1998), you can expect a certain standard.
Am I the only one who thinks that the wonderful Meryl Streep has been badly directed here? It's too much, the voice, the eye-rolling, the gestures and walk: Streep's like a man in domestic goddess drag, and following her trannie turn in The Devil Wears Prada, seems to be gaily parodying herself at the end of her career. This is not acting. This is female impersonation. In comparison, it is Stanley Tucci, as Julia's husband Paul, who is sublime and who unexpectedly runs away with the film. Julia Child, who died at the age of 91 in 2004, is surely rolling in her grave somewhere.
Streep's arch performance is leavened by the Julie Powell (played "cutesy" by Amy Adams) parts. Powell is conventional chick-flick/lit material, an aspiring writer stuck in a thankless job who with an adorable and very patient boyfriend: Could you get anymore formulaic than this? Powell finds salvation by cooking all 524 recipes in Mastering the Art of French Cooking, the seminal American epic Child authored, and blogging about it for a year.
If only life were that simple (or is it simplistic?).
Of course Powell is a real-life Internet phenom — her blog did become the delectable book that became this film. This gives us some optimism. But Ms Ephron attempts to draw parallels between the lives of these two women, unconvincingly, I thought. French food just isn't pizza, and Paris isn't Queens, is it? It's not the same sort of struggle at all, what conceit!
Julie & Julia is entertaining nonetheless (can you want anything more from a chickflick?), and the styling is above average (which is more than I can say for most chickflicks), and spot-on for spring 2010. Plus, Joan Juliet-Buck, ex Vogue Paris editor plays a wicked cameo in it so that's something to watch out for, for you fashion people!

Carine and Kate

My favourite fashion gals at the YSL Spring 2010 show. Carine is wearing her fave Louboutin boots (wah! in brown!). Kate is looking quite... healthy (look at the waist!)? And seems to be testing the stretch of the leotard. Heart her nonetheless. You know, in all my years at the shows, I've never seen Kate, and I do believe she's making this appearance only to promote her new YSL perfume Parisienne (which sounds highly dubious, I'll check it out and we shall see).

Spring 2010: Paris

So who likes what? 

Maybe Paris Fashion Week feels more important, and has much better clothes, simply because more designers show there anyway. There was a lot of fashion to digest, although, eventually, it still boils down to a mere handful of leading designers who had anything fresh or meaningful to say.

Top 3:

1. Dries Van Noten: I liked the romantic clothes, which are at the same time wearable, elegant, classic and made in excitingly sumptuous fabrics. Of course, Asian features will always attract my eye and I found the Batik and exploded Ikat prints delicious and modern.

2. Lanvin: I can't see the innovation, although it's said that there were technical feats involved in the draping and pleating. All I can see, or indeed, need to see, is that what was shown was excitingly beautiful, nothing short of the highest standard. Can you want anything more from a fashion collection? I rather think not.

3. Chanel: Flirtatious, happy, youthful, possibly escapist but isn't this what fashion is for? Married to the high production value of Chanel, these looks are frothy but never cheap. Following a Fall Couture that was so forbiddingly sombre and heavy, this is undiluted joy. Hate the clogs. Love the crochet, embroidery and lace. Yes, in the same outfit.

The Rest:

1. Alexander McQueen (pictured): Gorgeous, genius, and Gee-whiz; Quite simply the best from him so far.

2. Balenciaga: You kind of know what he's driving at, but it's grim and challenging, and in the end, not all that new or brilliant.

3. Celine: Everyone is raving about this, deservingly. It's nice.

4. YSL: I love the strawberry motif! That dress is killer, if a little bit Bottega? But in the end, the collection lacks cohesion, although lighter and easier than Stefano Pilati's usual work. Not his best.

5. LV: Afro Ken anyone? It's cute, but that's all.

6. Dior: It's like falling asleep while watching a very old movie.

7. Hermes: Clothes, a lot of them.

8. Jean Paul Gaultier: Not a very successful collection, my dear.

9. Balmain: I like it; For what it's worth, it works. It's sort of the new Gucci, no?

10. Chloe: Really quite cute, and quite original.

Milan Spring 2010: Jil Sander

At 55 exits, there really is plenty to like about this collection: From polished suits and dresses to romantic deconstruction (and two 'disco' foil dresses!) Raf Simons really covered it. I'm sure you will be able to pick up his references to Rei Kawakubo and Miuccia Prada, John Galliano and  Jil Sander, there are even references to his own men's collection (but reworked, advanced, refined using his own vision - perhaps this is a collection Marc Jacobs dreamed he was doing?), so if there is any criticism at all, it would be that the collection lacked a cohesive direction, being a mishmash of styles, albeit a beautiful mishmash. Times are not easy, and expectations remain high.

Milan Spring 2010: Marni

I'm so over Grey Gardens aren't you? 

Is Consuelo Castiglioni the Marc Jacobs of Milan? 

No, wait. I take that back. 

It's too high a praise for Marc Jacobs.

Milan Spring 2010: Fendi

There was a passage here I didn't get: The black looks and the transparent boudoir tents. Otherwise, I liked the collection alot, with the easy shapes and manner, the pretty, antique pastels I have come to associate with Bottega Veneta. I like the calm sensuality, the subtlety of the stylistic plot twists and just when you thought Karl Lagerfeld might have run out tricks, he shows something that proves that he is alive to the cross currents of the times.

Milan Spring 2010: Bottega Veneta

Looking at this collection, it Spring 2010 quite suddenly makes sense. In this collection, one of Tomas Maier's best in recent memory, a wave of positive energy blows through; It's optimistic, fresh, flattering, intelligent, and classic, and I don't know if you could want any more from any collection of clothes. But if you are, here's more: It defines the way a modern woman should look now and in the future, and it defines the themes of Bottega Veneta with confidence, it redefines the character of white and why we love it so, and Spring and all the renewal it promises.