its not my fault that i love beauty

Valentino Couture

Wed, 25 Apr 2012 21:00:17 -0400

Paris

ladypigalle: VALENTINO FALL WINTER 2012 Once upon a time,...

Wed, 29 Feb 2012 22:58:59 -0500

VALENTINO FALL WINTER 2012

Once upon a time, women had a dressmaker; men had a tailor. The law of supply and demand elevated those services into haute couture and bespoke, which have, ever since, been the summit of human achievement when it comes to cut and cloth. But they’ve also remained a Venus and Mars-style proposition, which gave Maria Grazia Chiuri and Pier Paolo Piccioli’s proposals for the latest collection of Valentino’s menswear a twinge of subtle subversion. Inject the spirit of couture into the traditions of menswear?

Well, Chiuri and Piccioli felt it was worth a try. They were, after all, the special invitees of the 81st edition of Pitti Uomo in Florence, and that honor usually inspires designers to stretch their creativity. In their case, there was an added impetus. Valentino staged his first fashion show in Florence 50 years ago, and the designers who carry on his name wanted to give their menswear a sense of his legacy. “Memory is very important to innovate,” said Piccioli. “We wanted the same language in a different moment: the sharpness of shape, the belief in workmanship. We wanted to sculpt lightness.”

Their mood board told the tale. Monochrome images of Mastroianni and Delon in the early sixties, at the pinnacle of their male gorgeousness, were echoed on the catwalk in leanly tailored jackets and narrow trousers cropped over sockless shoes. The sharpness of white shirts and skinny black ties amplified the sixties feel, but at the same time, they had the new-wave flavor that niggles at the edge of so much that Chiuri and Piccioli do. Not darkness or danger, insisted Chiuri. “It’s something private. This is not a show-off collection. You need to look inside.” That in itself is a criterion of traditional couture—that a garment could be so perfectly crafted that it would look just as good when it was turned inside out. And here that challenge was met with thermal sealing—or bonding—rather than seaming. Not only was the result surprisingly light, but the internal structure of jackets bonded with traditional horsehair linings was a joy to behold. Same with a black leather jacket bonded with cashmere or a peacoat bonded with shearling. The notion of life on the inside peaked with a green leather jacket that had a perfect little coin purse zipped into its interior. So perfect, in fact, that there was something obsessive bordering on fetishistic about the detail.

Piccioli did indeed acknowledge that “obsessive perfection” is a spur for him and his design partner. At the same time, they insist they understand how a confident mix of sportswear casual and tailored formal is the essence of modern menswear. Here, their version of the mix was evident in the way a coat was thrown capelike over a suit (it was “sportiest” in a glazed denim). The look had an almost sinister precision that felt like the very opposite of casual. On the contrary, the fact that Chiuri and Piccioli have faith that there is a young man who will follow them where they want to lead is reassuring in the current climate. — TIM BLANKS

ladypigalle: Christopher Kane Fall Winter 2012 Given his track...

Wed, 29 Feb 2012 22:58:15 -0500

ladypigalle:

Christopher Kane Fall Winter 2012

Given his track record to date, Christopher Kane could probably retire the award for Most Arcane Influence. His latest was a career best: Al Pacino’s gay serial-killer thriller, Cruising, which inflamed the early eighties. Kane imagined the kind of girl who might infiltrate the lurid sex clubs depicted in the film, quietly playing voyeur. She’d have to be a very odd bird, indeed—and a pretty tough cookie, maybe like the girl in a photo from Joseph Szabo’s Teenage series, another personal favorite of Kane’s.

Anyway, all of that—the lurid, the sinister, the scandalous—came together in a collection that used extraordinary technique to induce visions of darkest sin. Kane reveled in it. He took to moiré, for instance, because it reminded him of “the inside of a coffin.” He compared the red he used to “a vial of blood.” It was one component of a morbid, synthetic palette—black, purple, hectic blue—which, when it shaded florals or leopard print or that moiré, brought to mind Baudelaire’s The Flowers of Evil or Huysmans’ Against Nature, masterpieces of nineteenth-century decadence. The big black blooms flocked in black velvet on purple tulle mesh said all that and more. The thick black leather cording that belted and hemmed sheathlike dresses implied more up-to-date transgressions.

The collection couldn’t have been more of a 180-degree from Spring’s mesmerizing airiness, but the lacquered, oily artifice of these clothes exerted its own kind of attraction, at the same time as it daringly courted revulsion. Once again, Kane beaded and embroidered flowers, but where they were heavenly last season, here they were hellishly tangled and clotted, paired with cashmere knits densely threaded with wire. Maybe that was a mad mirror image of the pinstripes that opened the show. And were they a subtle evocation of Wall Street, another New York-in-the-eighties benchmark—and another world where bad things happen? — TIM BLANKS

wearingrace: a personal favorite from fall 2012 menswear: Dolce...

Wed, 29 Feb 2012 22:41:35 -0500

wearingrace:

a personal favorite from fall 2012 menswear: Dolce & Gabbana (MILAN fashion week 2012)

“there are at least two ways you can deal with what’s going on in the world: you can confront it right up close or you can escape into a dream world in your gold bouillon embroidered dolce&gabbana cape.”

- Tim Blanks

ladypigalle: CHANEL PRE-FALL 2012 Karl Lagerfeld has never been...

Wed, 29 Feb 2012 22:29:03 -0500

ladypigalle:

CHANEL PRE-FALL 2012

Karl Lagerfeld has never been to India. “It’s much more inspiring not to go to places than to go,” he said today after a Chanel presentation that spectacularly evoked the sights, smells, and sounds of the last days of the Raj. OK, Michel Gaubert’s sitar-free soundtrack might have been a stretch (unless the Raj was rocking to David Lynch’s new album), but the towering tiers of fruits, sweets, and flowers that filled the center of the room definitely had a sense of palatial excess. They were circled by a toy train bearing decanters of…what was it that maharajas drank? scotch?…which rang true as a decadent detail, conveying the notion of a privileged few playing while empires crumbled. Sound familiar?

Lagerfeld resisted such topical insinuations, but he did concede that fashion historically tends to come into its excessively creative own during difficult economic times. A perfect moment for him, in other words. And this collection, an annual salute to the work of the craftspeople who make Chanel happen, including the recently passed François Lesage (hence the name, Métiers d’Art), was definitely a feat of creative excess, from the jaw-dropping set, which turned a curved space under the dome of the Grand Palais into a corner of Rajasthan, to the clotted silver embroideries, the gilded laces, the lustrous silks that determined the character of the clothes.

It’s easy to imagine a canny designer making the decision to aim such shine and glitter at an emergent market feeling its fashion oats (I’m talking about India, BTW), but Lagerfeld’s post-show declaration that bling was dated made it clear that he had something else on his mind. The theme “Paris-Bombay” was a reminder that Europe’s fashion industry has increasingly turned to India to produce extravagantly handworked pieces as it has become prohibitively expensive to make them at home. Lagerfeld’s fiendish plan was to flip the equation, so that everything that looked intricately Indian was actually made by Chanel’s ateliers in Paris. That was some kind of tour de force.

All that aside, Paris and Bombay blended beautifully in pearl-swagged tweeds, in a raw silk tunic over leggings (they were actually sinuously bootlike, so we should probably call them beggings or loots), in sheer paisleys, or side-draped asymmetry in ivory silk. The elegance of a lightly peplumed jacket and matching skirt in ivory silk had absolutely nothing to do with geography. It was simply French chic. Not everything worked—there was a queen-of-the-fairies moment that felt like a malfunction of Florence’s machine—but the sheer prodigious extravagance of the dream world that Lagerfeld pours onto his catwalk collection after collection allows for the flaw—the merest flaw—once in a while. — TIM BLANKS

theniftyfifties: Model wearing a Balenciaga apron dress, March...

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 00:52:21 -0500

theniftyfifties:

Model wearing a Balenciaga apron dress, March 1951. Photo by John Rawlings.

glamour: Power clash!

Wed, 25 Jan 2012 18:49:38 -0500

glamour:

Power clash!

bohemea: Ezra Miller - Nylon by Bradford Gregory, January...

Wed, 25 Jan 2012 18:49:24 -0500

bohemea:

Ezra Miller - Nylon by Bradford Gregory, January 2012

That’s me on the phone.

No it’s not. It’s Tilda.

glamour: Adorable Sat & Sun outfit alert. stylemint: It’s...

Wed, 18 Jan 2012 23:27:29 -0500

glamour:

Adorable Sat & Sun outfit alert.

stylemint:

It’s time to step up your TStyle…with print, colors and textures. A first look at Mary-Kate and Ashley’s TEXTILE Elizabeth and James Spring 2012 collection. See more HERE.

billidollarbaby: Marc Jacobs Mens Fall/Winter 2012 Marc Jacobs‘...

Wed, 18 Jan 2012 23:26:48 -0500

billidollarbaby:

Marc Jacobs Mens Fall/Winter 2012

Marc Jacobs‘ eponymous line offers a sharp and youthful collection for Fall/Winter 2012.

theniftyfifties: Model Suzy Parker in a dress with fur collar...

Wed, 18 Jan 2012 23:26:07 -0500

theniftyfifties:

Model Suzy Parker in a dress with fur collar and long gloves, 1950s.

theniftyfifties: Jayne Mansfield

Wed, 18 Jan 2012 23:24:00 -0500

theniftyfifties:

Jayne Mansfield

abstractelements: on the street / SoHo / SE

Wed, 18 Jan 2012 23:19:50 -0500

abstractelements:

on the street / SoHo / SE

theniftyfifties: Fashion photography by Jerry Schatzberg, New...

Wed, 18 Jan 2012 23:17:27 -0500

theniftyfifties:

Fashion photography by Jerry Schatzberg, New York City, 1950s.

Photo

Wed, 18 Jan 2012 23:16:59 -0500

Photo

Wed, 18 Jan 2012 23:16:09 -0500

Photo

Wed, 18 Jan 2012 23:15:52 -0500

oscarprgirl: she’s kind of bionic.

Wed, 18 Jan 2012 23:14:29 -0500

oscarprgirl:

she’s kind of bionic.

vintageblackglamour: Howard University students photographed in...

Wed, 18 Jan 2012 23:14:08 -0500

vintageblackglamour:

Howard University students photographed in their dorm by LIFE magazine’s Alfred Eisenstaedt for a November 1946 photo essay. See other Howard students here.

nicolaformichetti: mugler mens f/w/2012 photo dirk...

Wed, 18 Jan 2012 23:12:17 -0500

nicolaformichetti:

mugler mens f/w/2012

photo dirk alexander

http://www.nicolaformichetti.com/2012/01/19/mugler-fw-2012-2/