28/01/2010

Elie Saab

Man after my own Heart
Couturier Elie Saab has long been my favourite (about 7 years now) and one day I hope I will be privileged enough to own one of his gowns. Peach and skin tones are popular for Spring Summer 2010, and no one creates anything as beautiful to the figure than Elie Saab. Every item in the collection is not only wearable, but an investment into the real beauty of Couture - jewels, lace, beads and corsets - and a way of looking like an absolute goddess. Although here they don't look as fabulous as they would in real life, the Elie Saab collections do every body justice, and are definitely worth the £10,000 price tag.




27/01/2010

Givenchy Couture

Hat's Off to You

Parisian grayscale women meets 60s furniture, the hat's of Givenchy Couture could be said to be quite risqué .




Riccardo Tisci, creative designer for Givenchy for 5 years now, has brought about the new style of hats that resemble Hussein Chalayan's style of construction, but also seem to resemble 1960s lampshades. I'm all for Couture being exaggerated fashion, and I realise it's not something that will realistically be worn outside of a red carpet or debutant ball, but would this really catch on? We never really assume for all weird styles to come up in Ready to Wear and high street, but is it really just a way of standing out? Personally, the clothes are gorgous, hypnotic and seem to be two different styles of collection in one, but I'm not sure about these hats. They seem to be a way of saying "I have something wild, wacky and crazy in my collection that's inspired by art, don't look at the clothes." Alexander McQueen for example had his latest high heeled shoes to accompany his Spring Summer 2010 ready to wear collection, but the clothing and styling was equally as weird. If you take these lampshade hats away from Givenchy couture, the collection wouldn't have the same affect; it would be a generally ordinary collection compared to other couture collections. It's difficult to stand out, especially against such designers like Dior, but as said in the previous post, although it's all extravagant and over the top, it's not dissimilar to previous collections. At this time when designers like Lacroix are struggling, they need to find a way to stand out from the rest. McQueen would be one that if he did a couture collection he would stand out just for being weird, out of the ordinary, and simply bringing something new to the table. Even his ready to wear collections stand out more than couture. It makes you wonder why designers who create couture, a seemly dying collection that is only sold to the elite, don't use their collections to create something more than just wearable. Perhaps this is why all of a sudden we have lampshade hats.

26/01/2010

Couture Dior

Spring Summer 2010 Couture

According to Galliano, the Christian Dior collection has been inspired by Charles James, a designer who founded the New Look of 1947 that at first was difficult to introduce after the second World War.

"I was reading that, actually, it was Charles James who influenced Monsieur Dior to come up with the New Look, and then I was looking at a photo of Charles James doing a fitting—and on the wall behind him was a picture of women riding sidesaddle. And that was it!" - Galliano









So much is expected of Dior that it almost seems as though it's no longer fantastic, due to always being fantastic. The designs now seem to merge together, and while being aesthetically perfect and constructed beautifully, they always are, and so only seem special when compared to other designers. Compared to Dior, all is the same.
The shoes are a beautiful touch, and the vivid colours involved are a new form of sweet, contradicting the feminine pastels that also featured, but construction wise, although seemingly origami with invisible strings, it is similar to the previous collections. Don't get me wrong, I adore it all, it just seemed as though Galliano has conditioned Dior to set the same standard, and appeal to it's usual fans compared to creating new, out of Dior's ordinary looks. Perhaps I have been treated with new changes so often that when a brand does something the same it no longer impresses me. I guess I'm hard to please sometimes.

17/01/2010

Burberry Prorsum Menswear 2010




Just a few screen grabs of the stream website
I'm waiting for Miles to send me images

16/01/2010

Prada Menswear AW10

Prada Menswear Online

Another show to be broadcast live, is this the new fashion show?

With Burberry Prorsum broadcasting their show today at http://live.burberry.com/ it's no wonder other brands have felt the need to catch up. Prada will be streaming their live show on Prada.com, a full flash website, so it will be interesting to find out if it will have the same problem as McQueen. All shows are 1hr behind the stated time:

Emporio Armani

http://live.emporioarmani.com/
Live show to be streamed at 4:30pm (3:30pm GMT), Saturday 16th January 2010
(by the way I actually HATE the design of the live website, who really thought a pukey yellow and blue would go together on a dark marsh background? I don't really want to visit this site)


Burberry

http://live.burberry.com/
Live show to be streamed at 6pm (5pm GMT), Saturday 16th January 2010

Prada


http://www.prada.com/
Live show to be streamed at 6pm (5pmGMT), Sunday 17th January 2010.

Notice that Emporio Armani and Burberry are on the same day, hours apart, and remember what happened with both Alexander McQueen and Burberry's Spring Summer 2010 RTW collections... as all fashion shows do, they started late.

What works about the online show is that you wouldn't have to choose one or the other, you would be able to just switch websites rather than have to take public transport or a taxi in Milan to the next location. Perhaps it would be easier for the press?
I read about Roland Mouret broadcasting his SS10 collection online, but instead he'd allowed multiple webcam views, so it seemed more like watching security cameras, but you could choose your own view of the show. It will be interesting to see if any of the AW10 Menswear shows will do more than just play a tape they will later put up on ftv.
Gareth Pugh has been the only one thus far to completely replace his show with technology when he created a video with Ruth Hogben and SHOWstudio for his Autumn Winter 2009 collection, and simply pressed play instead of having models running down a catwalk. If I was press attending that show, I'd be very pissed off if what I'd seen was exactly the same as what someone at home could have seen in their pjs with a cup of tea.

So is this the future of the fashion show? Is it something that is going to carry on with designer brands because they feel they have to do it in order to catch up with everyone else, or will it eventually fade? If it became commonplace for every brand showing at fashion week to put their show online, would it be as interesting? What happens if by 2012 collections it's compulsory; will there be no more press turning up to the show because they'll all watching online? In fairness, the audience of the fashion show could completely shift backwards to how it was in the 1950s; intended for consumers. Press could, and I mean could here, be shunned from shows and only people who buy the collections will be present, and they can order straight away, with the number of guests deducing the popularity of the designer, not the hype created by the press. Brands are going to have to find a new way of promoting the online show than just sending emails and telling Vogue about it.

13/01/2010

Burberry Prorsum Menswear

Burberry Prorsum Menswear to Live Stream
Burberry's Christopher Bailey introduces the show using YouTube while in Milan:



Another show live streamed? This is the first one I've heard about from the menswear shows this season, but then I haven't really been investigating (sorry about that, dissertation deadline is on the horizon). Live streaming has become extremely popular for the fashion world mainly because of the publicity it offers. It is a direct connection with the brand as it takes them directly to the website (which is why I believe Louis Vuitton on Facebook wasn't the best idea) and they can immediately comment to the world about it using Twitter or Facebook saying they watched it and loved it. I'm curious as to how many men will watch the show online as opposed to those who are intending to buy from Burberry Prorsum.
You can watch the show on the 16th January at 5pm (6pm Milan time) here.

Burberry Prorsum Pre Collection - the collection is the pre-cursor to the season and reflects the mood of the upcoming show.

08/01/2010

Vogue Blogs

Henry Holland joins the blog fun.
Designer Henry Holland of The House of Holland has been confirmed as the latest blogger for Vogue.co.uk. But why?
I've read blogs by Vogue and Marie Claire, and it has never been the same as blogs created on Blogger and Wordpress. The question is, which do you prefer? The online magazine websites have information you'd usually find within the news pages of the magazine, with their blogs as something a little extra, an insight into someone else's point of view. But it's never quite as honest or broad as the public point of view on fashion lifestyle. I find random little blogs the best ones to read, mainly because they're honest on their opinions, and it's a completely new switch from original journalism who, let's face it, know and do everything.

So why have Vogue enlisted Henry Holland? A while back Vogue magazine included an article describing his step by step timetable for a day. So this is basically an extra long twitter post...by a celebrity who happens to be famous for fashion. I'm sure there are plenty who would read it, and Holland is probably being paid a bomb to do it, but is it the new form of blog?

You can catch the blog here, and make up your own mind on it.

06/01/2010

Burberry Spring Summer 2010

Elementary My Dear Watson.

I've always liked the Burberry campaigns, they've always had an air of class to them. However I'm quite disappointed by the Spring Summer shoot. I love the collection, but it seems Mario Testino has lost the idea of heritage. Firstly, the background might as well have been a set, there's nothing really 'London' about it. Secondly, how young are Burberry aiming for? Perhaps, through being on Facebook, they're completely shifting themselves to a younger audience, as these campaign images show. The clothing when seen on the catwalk was decidedly sophisticated and suited for any age while being on a young trend, but they seem to be more like Topshop and Topman adverts for luxury. The shoot includes Harry Potter actress Emma Watson, her brother Alex, Max Hurd, Matt Gilmour and musician George Craig.
Images courtesy of Burberry on Facebook.















"For the new campaign we wanted this kind of very eclectic but cool crowd of people," Christopher Bailey revealed to Vogue.co.uk. "The energy of the images and the dynamic cast reflect the different attitudes and expressions of the Burberry guy and girl. We've worked again with Emma Watson who has a classic, effortless beauty and is incredibly talented."