Sending most of the models down the runway wearing leather baseball caps with long bunny ears, thanks to Stephen Jones, the COMME des GARÇONS Hommes Plus RTW Fall 2013 collection befittingly took to easter eggs as it’s dominant color palette with an occasional break of black + white. With pinks, mints, butter yellows and baby blues, Rei Kawakubo manages to dispel all belief that Autumn + WInter temperatures are very cold, (for the most part) by creating looks that are not so much embedded in cotton candy, but looks and feels like it to. Take this look for instance where you have a pink brocade jacket which is piped in small pink fringe all along the bottom, ending maybe three inches from the second button. The untucked butter yellow shirt degrades the dressy feel of the jacket while complimenting these mint quasi-jodhpur cropped pants. Loving the pink shoes.
(photo: Giovanni Giannoni)
(photo: Giovanni Giannoni)
For the most part, most of the pants throughout the collection were cropped if not, shorter by most standards. Some looks looked as comfortable as a terry robe, like the peach + lavender above. When I first saw the peach look, all I envisioned was running my fingers through those little balls.
(photo: Giovanni Giannoni)
(photo: Giovanni Giannoni)
This looks like a top contender as a modern take of the casual walking suit, doesn’t it?
In looking at various Men’s Fall RTW 2013 collections, there were many favorite looks in part, due to the strong presence of hybrids, born from the mixing of tailoring with athletic or relaxed details. Some of the hybrids I saw were just plain ugly but the one’s I did appreciate, the designer’s ingenuity was to blame.
Kris Van Assche is a perfect example of mixing casual with tailoring. The designer reinvented the white oxford by connecting the shirt bottom with either a hoodie or short sleeve cable knit sweater. For a ‘dressier’ occasion, there’s the hooded suit jacket in wool on top with a leather bottom (mid below).
(photo: Giovanni Giannoni)
For Givenchy, there was definitely chic tailoring, yet combined with some elements to give it a slight edge + casual appeal. One such detail was adorning with photorealistic images either across the front shirt panel, on the sleeves or even along a suit. Another detail I really liked was the zippers running from behind the suit jacket, slithering its way up the chest front then ending at the collar bone (pic 2, row 1). One of the collection’s strongest pieces were the jackets (pic 4, row 1) in both grey + black and a sweater in grey that had lacing detail similar to that of a football.
Love the leather toggle coat at the end below and don’t you just love how hot model Jenny Shimizu looks in pic 1?
(photo: Giovanni Giannoni)
Jean Paul Gaultier‘s collection of tease + play was playful as the models slowly removed up until the ending the show wearing nothing but their long johns. The neon backdrops intensified the accidental ‘striptease’ concept. Starting the show with a man wearing a black coat, looks kept coming out in reds, black + grey, patterns and black.
There were suits and pants which were all slim fitting. Some pieces where their patterns ran from top to bottom, especially a jumpsuit of sorts, (below, middle) made it hard to determine whether it was a look made up of separates or just one continuous item. He also featured little boleros that went over thin sweater pullovers exaggerated by opera length leather gloves – might sound very feminine but the model werqs it well.
(photo: Dominique Maitre)
Look at Andrej Pejic looking simply sublime and effortless (pic 1, row 2). But seriously, whoever did the casting, bless their little heart, especially for the model removing his long johns – meow!
Then there’s Korean designer Juun.J with his unique concept of wearing a jacket over coats, occasionally being an obnoxiously fluffy down coat.
Usually a ‘don’t’, here Juun makes the notion of wearing a short jacket over a longer article of clothing. – in fact, just the other day, I had to find a long coat to go over something long – yet, I must admit, if the ‘tail’ of the lower garment underneath short jacket is cool, textured, patterned or pops with color, all bets are off – Note as cheap fun thing to do in NYC during Fall + Winter.
Love the chic tailored coats below followed by the supple leather jackets over the wool jackets adorned with outlined pockets + hem in black.
These two jackets are cool with their contrast of a wool body + leather sleeves – a hybrid. (wonder how long it’ll take before people use the word ‘hybrid’ ad nauseaum like ‘curate’) Junn’s interpretation of a suit with the pair at the right has such ease, I could easily see myself lounging in one but I think it’s the pants that really do it for me the way they hang like that.
Juun’s show however, ended in an idea that Balenciaga designed for AW/12 – the ‘Stars Wars’ sweatshirt/blouson – he teamed up with American Artist Greg Simkins to design Manga inspired sweatshirts/blousons like this one below-haven’t heard anything yet but these are super cool with a tattoo feel for them.
(photo: Giovanna Giannini)
(via WWD)
Start your morning off right with a big helping of violent imagery, compliments of SBTRKT. Directed by Ross Anderson, in video ‘Trials Of The Past’, the world seems to be populated by machines, as a young girl runs past a store awning that reads MORE HUMAN HUMAN. Finally she reaches her destination, which looks like a rundown barber shop but none you’ve ever seen or ever care to encounter – it actually reminds me of a cross between the scene in ‘Minority Report’ with Tom Cruise, Colin Farrell et al, where he goes to see an unlicensed ‘eye doctor’ (played by Peter Stormare) that replaces his eyeballs with someone else’s for mistaken identity, with a hint of most of the crime scenes in ‘Seven’ with Brad Pitt, Morgan Freeman, Kevin Spacey + Gwyneth Paltrow.
She kicks the big bag she was carrying to the ‘barber’ – whom by the way, has elfish ears, making him look even creepier – then sits in the barber’s chair. (Is it just me or doesn’t this chick look like a very young Chloe Sevigny?) When the barber goes to his tools, you know something’s up when instead of combs, scissors and brushes, you have more like surgical equipment. Then the fun begins.
‘Snip, snip’, would be the sound of the first cut but here, it’s more like ‘buzz, buzz’ from a cranial saw. At this point, you realize, she’s not there for a haircut. She’s scalped followed by the removal of her face. When her arms are torn off, I’d like to think that the ‘droid’s’ spraying white ‘blood’ is a nod to Bishop, the droid in ‘Aliens’ (having a geek moment).
‘Barber’ finally pulls out limbs from ‘her’ bag, into her arm sockets and finally, adjusts her new face making her a ‘he’. Very Blade Runner.
Well With The ‘Seven Feet Under’ Photographic Series You Can
Unlike the famous Louboutin red soles, not many focus on the bottoms of designer shoes, especially like Photographer Philippe Vogelenzang. For his photographic series ‘Seven Feet Under’, Philippe photographed the soles of shoes by famous designers including Lanvin, Moschino, Prada + Dior, where he crops the picture just enough, resulting in what resembles a tombstone. Pretty clever and available for purchase at Foam.
For Fendi’s Pre-Fall 2013 Men’s Collection, it was all about luxe details + texture. There was a huge presence of fur on the runway, with everything from fur covered boots, large fur coats, fur ‘fanny packs’ that looked more like small satchels (also in leather) and a fur muffler, to totes with fur front panels. You also saw plenty of wool from suits, some of which had jackets with an attached hood making it almost outerwear – in solids and prints – and coats to leather pants + accessories and some knitwear. The collection also played with proportion by pairing slim to relax fitting pants – sometimes in leather – with oversized wool coats punctuated by large fur lapels to huge fur coats or just pairing a simple hooded jacket (fur or wool) as an alternative to the overcoat or trench over a suit.
Fendi’s reinterpretations of classics are interesting, where old + new meet somewhere in the middle, literally – check out Fendi’s version of a navy hooded ‘peacoat’ with a wool top and bottom ‘hemmed’ in leather (pic 2, row 2), a hunter green leather jacket that is part leather on top, including sleeves, with a light grey wool bottom that looks like the bottom of a suit jacket (below)
+ a plaid shirt, where the pattern looks like it just dripped off completely, slightly below the shoulders, exposing the solid background color (pic 3, row 1). My favorite part of the collection though, is a shirt that reminds me of a retro dentist’s uniform, with no front buttons at all but rather on the side of the neck that when unbuttoned, almost looks like a structured cowl (pic 2, row 1).
(photos: Vogue Paris)
With Milan Fashion Week underway featuring Men’s Autumn/Winter 2013/2014 Collections, here’s fashion vid teaser ‘The Wild One’ by Juan Manual Sanchez for SOPOPULAR AW/13 collection. Love the shirts featured, especially the one in a solid with patterned front panels.
Sigh – nothing like beautiful guys inked ‘up to there’ to brighten up your day.
Check out Dita Von Teese‘s singing debut, for Monarchy‘s new single ‘Disintegration’ in a video directed by Roy Raz. According to Monarchy’s Andrew Armstrong regarding the inimitable queen of tease, “She’s a 1950s style housewife stuck in a toxic, dry relationship. She’s fantasizing, releasing herself in a dream world of lovers.” With scenes of desperation for change and wanton disdain, reflected by crumbling walls + bearing frowns amongst neighboring smiles interspersed by naked bodies writhing as one, translated perfectly by Israel’s young Batsheva Dance Company, you get to visually + physically experience what Dita’s housewife character is going through. With Monarchy’s synth dance track as background, Dita’s sultry voice acts as that of the dull housewife’s alter ego, begging to be heard + set free.
Between retro ‘perfection’ + surreal fantasies, Tel Aviv-based Raz manages to heighten Von Teese’s sad life by showing us how the mere biting of a mosquito excites her to a sexual level as with every pull for blood feels like coital penetration for the poor little housewife. In the end, reality violently takes hold as her husband kills her ‘fantasy’ (mosquito) with just one hand and all is lost + stale once again.
“There should be something reserved, unreachable, unobtainable about an ideal muse—close enough to inspire but just out of reach to keep the mystery. We have that in Dita,” says Armstrong – Only someone like Dita could find sexy in restraint effortlessly.
(via NOWNESS)
Check out the adorable teaser (conceived by Elbaz + creative director Pascal Dangin of Box Studios) for Alber Elbaz’s first foray into cosmetics with his line for Lancôme. Youcef Nabi, president of Lancôme International noted how perfect this collaboration was by saying, “His sense of luxury, his vision of femininity and that hint of audacity resonate perfectly with the new values of the Maison Lancôme. Set to drop June 15 worldwide, I hope the packaging for this limited edition color cosmetics line is as adorably chic as these animations.
