2017年9月15日（金）
Victoria Beckham’s
Victoria Beckham’s Shirt Is a Fashion Emergency in the Best Way
Read more at http://www.instyle.co.uk/news/victoria-beckham-fashion-emergency-tee-shirt#O3hKsQpHTOXTlBmQ.99
Did her trousers rip? Did she lose a pair of sunglasses? Were people speaking negatively of her spring 2018 collection (never!)? Nope. None of the above. In fact, what did occur is that the 43-year-old mother of four marched around New York in one of her most fabulous off-duty looks.
That’s it, you ask? Well, for her outing, Beckham wore classically cool pointed-toe blush pumps with cute cuffed blue jeans, a brown leather clutch, and shades that could block any hater from a mile away. And then we saw her shirt. The tee not only perfectly complemented her accessories, but it read “Fashion Emergency” in a backward mirror effect.
Excuse us, but something about Victoria "capital F Fashion" Beckham wearing a cry for sartorial help is kind of hilarious. The Bat Gio by Giovanna Battaglia Engelbert piece runs for $175 (£132) but is unfortunately sold out at the moment.
Beckham has a history with loving simple graphic tees. In fact, she threw one into her own Victoria Beckham collection. It’s chic. And it reads, “Fashion Stole My Smile”
Read more at http://www.instyle.co.uk/news/victoria-beckham-fashion-emergency-tee-shirt#O3hKsQpHTOXTlBmQ.99
Read more at: one-shoulder-bridesmaid-dresses-uk
Read more at http://www.instyle.co.uk/news/victoria-beckham-fashion-emergency-tee-shirt#O3hKsQpHTOXTlBmQ.99
Did her trousers rip? Did she lose a pair of sunglasses? Were people speaking negatively of her spring 2018 collection (never!)? Nope. None of the above. In fact, what did occur is that the 43-year-old mother of four marched around New York in one of her most fabulous off-duty looks.
That’s it, you ask? Well, for her outing, Beckham wore classically cool pointed-toe blush pumps with cute cuffed blue jeans, a brown leather clutch, and shades that could block any hater from a mile away. And then we saw her shirt. The tee not only perfectly complemented her accessories, but it read “Fashion Emergency” in a backward mirror effect.
Excuse us, but something about Victoria "capital F Fashion" Beckham wearing a cry for sartorial help is kind of hilarious. The Bat Gio by Giovanna Battaglia Engelbert piece runs for $175 (£132) but is unfortunately sold out at the moment.
Beckham has a history with loving simple graphic tees. In fact, she threw one into her own Victoria Beckham collection. It’s chic. And it reads, “Fashion Stole My Smile”
Read more at http://www.instyle.co.uk/news/victoria-beckham-fashion-emergency-tee-shirt#O3hKsQpHTOXTlBmQ.99
Read more at: one-shoulder-bridesmaid-dresses-uk
2017年9月13日（水）
Gucci to collaborate with bootlegger
Gucci to collaborate with bootlegger Dapper Dan
What a difference 25 years make. Throughout the eighties and nineties, Dapper Dan, sometimes known as the Hip Hop tailor of Harlem, clothed rappers, drug dealers, boxers and anyone else who could afford it, in designs that bootlegged high fashion brands, including Gucci, Fendi and Louis Vuitton. As might be expected, these brands were less than thrilled. In 1992, his business was effectively shut down by lawyers acting on behalf of Fendi. Fastforward to 2017, however, and things have changed. It was announced this week that Gucci would be collaborating with Dan to reopen his store and atelier, using Gucci’s fabrics with the Italian brand’s approval. A collaboration between Gucci and Dan will follow in the spring. Dan himself will star in the ad campaign.There’s a backstory to this news. In May, Gucci were slammed for a jacket included in the cruise collection which had an uncanny resemblance to one that Dan had created for Olympic runner Diane Dixon in 1989. Dixon took to social media to showcase the comparison, posting a picture of the jacket on the catwalk with one of her in the eighties with the caption “‘Bish’ stole my look! Give credit to @dapperdanharlem He did it FIRST in 1989!” The bootlegger has, it seemed, become the bootlegged.
Chatter online afterwards was angry about the lack of credit for Dan, with Teen Vogue seeing it as an example of how the industry fails black people, and many more suggesting this was cultural appropriation. Gucci’s decision to help Dan re-open his store could, cynically, be seen as a way to avoid bad press but it would be a very expensive one. Instead, it’s a shrewd move of a brand on the up, through a kind of anything-goes inclusivity.
Gucci creative director Alessandro Michele sees the influence of Dan on his work as part of his intertextual way of working – one of his collections might just as easily reference Donald Duck, Walter Benjamin, Voltaire and Botticelli in the same breath. This partnership with Dan acknowledges the place that the Harlem designer has in fashion history though – and takes Michele’s Guccinaissance on to the next level of branding, logomania with the creative freedom of a counterfeiter. “It is the time to say that fashion is not just the windows of a Fifth Avenue store,” Michele said to the New York Times. “It’s more. It’s about culture. It’s about self-expression. It’s about expression of a point of view.”
Read more at:
plus-size-bridesmaid-dresses
What a difference 25 years make. Throughout the eighties and nineties, Dapper Dan, sometimes known as the Hip Hop tailor of Harlem, clothed rappers, drug dealers, boxers and anyone else who could afford it, in designs that bootlegged high fashion brands, including Gucci, Fendi and Louis Vuitton. As might be expected, these brands were less than thrilled. In 1992, his business was effectively shut down by lawyers acting on behalf of Fendi. Fastforward to 2017, however, and things have changed. It was announced this week that Gucci would be collaborating with Dan to reopen his store and atelier, using Gucci’s fabrics with the Italian brand’s approval. A collaboration between Gucci and Dan will follow in the spring. Dan himself will star in the ad campaign.There’s a backstory to this news. In May, Gucci were slammed for a jacket included in the cruise collection which had an uncanny resemblance to one that Dan had created for Olympic runner Diane Dixon in 1989. Dixon took to social media to showcase the comparison, posting a picture of the jacket on the catwalk with one of her in the eighties with the caption “‘Bish’ stole my look! Give credit to @dapperdanharlem He did it FIRST in 1989!” The bootlegger has, it seemed, become the bootlegged.
Chatter online afterwards was angry about the lack of credit for Dan, with Teen Vogue seeing it as an example of how the industry fails black people, and many more suggesting this was cultural appropriation. Gucci’s decision to help Dan re-open his store could, cynically, be seen as a way to avoid bad press but it would be a very expensive one. Instead, it’s a shrewd move of a brand on the up, through a kind of anything-goes inclusivity.
Gucci creative director Alessandro Michele sees the influence of Dan on his work as part of his intertextual way of working – one of his collections might just as easily reference Donald Duck, Walter Benjamin, Voltaire and Botticelli in the same breath. This partnership with Dan acknowledges the place that the Harlem designer has in fashion history though – and takes Michele’s Guccinaissance on to the next level of branding, logomania with the creative freedom of a counterfeiter. “It is the time to say that fashion is not just the windows of a Fifth Avenue store,” Michele said to the New York Times. “It’s more. It’s about culture. It’s about self-expression. It’s about expression of a point of view.”
Read more at:
plus-size-bridesmaid-dresses
2017年9月11日（月）
Putting the fun in functional
Putting the fun in functional: will Arket revitalise the high street?
Walk through the door of Arket, the hotly anticipated fashion-and-lifestyle brand that opens its first store on Regent Street in London this Friday, and the first thing that strikes you is the generous expanse of empty space. The tables are laid with individual items, rather than stacked with teetering piles. (Further available colours are stacked unobtrusively in cubes, labelled by size.) The flecked floor resembles cobbles or gravel, while the cabinets and paintwork are in a soft cloud-grey that makes the building feel almost invisible from within. The effect is more like wandering through an open-air market than a fast-fashion hothouse.
Arket calls itself “a modern-day market”. This is not a reference only to the mix of clothes and homeware, of decorative and functional (department stores have been doing that for centuries), but also to the spirit of market shopping. No longer demoralised by the rise of online retail, the high street is on a mission to bring back the joys of the shopping trip.
The 21st-century shopping trip is a new and improved version of what online shoppers left behind when they retreated to their laptops. Experience is the new high-street mantra, but this is nothing to do with dodging the fragrances being squirted as you walk through the beauty hall, nor with the anxiety of trying to remember the names of overly attentive assistants who insist on introducing themselves to you when all you want is to look idly at shoes. Instead, think of the virtual-reality waterslide that Topshop installed to mark the start of summer and John Lewis’s recent announcement that its customers will be able to spend the night in store to test a mattress before deciding whether to buy it. (“We are not just selling you a mattress, we are selling you a perfect night’s sleep,” said Paula Nickolds, the company’s managing director.)
Rather than fighting against online retail, the high street is bringing shopping to life, offering an interactive, fully realised version of what drew consumers to digital. Consumers who love the speed and efficiency of online shopping are being targeted by Arket’s reference-number system: if you buy a navy sweater and wish to replace it two years later, enter the digits from the care label into a terminal in the store (or online) and it will direct you to current versions of the garment and explain any differences in fabrication and construction. The fiercely independent modern shopper who considers brand loyalty archaic will be pleased by Arket’s inclusion of other brands alongside its own products (you can find RM Williams leather boots in the menswear department and Bordallo Pinheiro cabbage crockery in homeware).
The Instagram addicts who live urban lives but feel their spiritual home is a sunny village market – recognise them by their straw baskets and drawstring blouses – are seduced by the airy aesthetics of Arket. Perhaps it is not a coincidence that the focal point of John Lewis’s experiential shopping strategy is an open-air “gardening society” on the rooftop of its Oxford Street store. This currently houses a taco pop-up and offers morning exercise classes; last summer, it welcomed 171,000 visitors.
Arket is aimed at the style-conscious, sustainability-aware, minimalist consumer who is already shopping at Cos, which is owned by Arket’s parent company, H&M. During my pre-opening store tour, the team were much in evidence, putting finishing touches to the store, and their look was distinctive: curated facial hair and slightly cropped trousers for the men; messily topknotted Scandi-blond locks and interesting shirting for the women. Menswear is given the prime location – almost the entire ground floor – with Arket creative director Ulrika Bernhardtz describing womenswear as “an evolution of classic pieces from the men’s wardrobe interpreted for women by adding softer textures and elements such as pointelle, embroidery, pleats and gatherings”.
In other words, if you are a slogan T-shirt, glittery dress sort of woman, this is not the shop for you. However, if a rustic knitted sweater in dusty pink, a simple cream silk blouse or a deconstructed black matt-silk jumpsuit are your sort of thing, you will be in heaven. Bernhardtz, who says “a well-fitted pair of trousers represent luxury to me”, describes the womenswear aesthetic as “assertive and easy to wear”.
The style credentials are equally evident in the tiny cafe. “Food offers another mode for expressing our values,” says Bernhardtz. The Arket chef is Martin Berg, a proponent of the new Nordic food manifesto, which is about “quality ingredients and healthy living”. The cafe can do you a salad of goat’s cheese, peas, avocado and mint to eat in, or sell you an elegantly packaged olive oil – to give as a chic hostess gift, perhaps – or a single-origin coffee to take away (I can vouch for the flat white).
Arket’s innovation is its emphasis on functionality. This taps into a deep level of connoisseurship among consumers. Every hardcore retail lover has a soft spot for a haberdashery department, after all. T-shirts come in three weights of cotton, allowing the purist to select a fine layering piece or one with a sturdier shape. Outerwear is sold in interlocking layers, so that a waterproof parka can be teamed with a liner, with or without sleeves, for warmth.
Perhaps Arket’s greatest charm is found in its childrenswear. An oversized fabric name label with the legend “Please Hand Down When Outgrown’” has five rows, with space for a name and a year, to honour the ritual of passing down clothes to siblings, cousins and friends. Alongside the aforementioned Nordic salad, the menu features a kids’ peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Because a shopping trip is supposed to be a treat, remember?
Read more at: http://www.queeniebridesmaid.co.uk
Walk through the door of Arket, the hotly anticipated fashion-and-lifestyle brand that opens its first store on Regent Street in London this Friday, and the first thing that strikes you is the generous expanse of empty space. The tables are laid with individual items, rather than stacked with teetering piles. (Further available colours are stacked unobtrusively in cubes, labelled by size.) The flecked floor resembles cobbles or gravel, while the cabinets and paintwork are in a soft cloud-grey that makes the building feel almost invisible from within. The effect is more like wandering through an open-air market than a fast-fashion hothouse.
Arket calls itself “a modern-day market”. This is not a reference only to the mix of clothes and homeware, of decorative and functional (department stores have been doing that for centuries), but also to the spirit of market shopping. No longer demoralised by the rise of online retail, the high street is on a mission to bring back the joys of the shopping trip.
The 21st-century shopping trip is a new and improved version of what online shoppers left behind when they retreated to their laptops. Experience is the new high-street mantra, but this is nothing to do with dodging the fragrances being squirted as you walk through the beauty hall, nor with the anxiety of trying to remember the names of overly attentive assistants who insist on introducing themselves to you when all you want is to look idly at shoes. Instead, think of the virtual-reality waterslide that Topshop installed to mark the start of summer and John Lewis’s recent announcement that its customers will be able to spend the night in store to test a mattress before deciding whether to buy it. (“We are not just selling you a mattress, we are selling you a perfect night’s sleep,” said Paula Nickolds, the company’s managing director.)
Rather than fighting against online retail, the high street is bringing shopping to life, offering an interactive, fully realised version of what drew consumers to digital. Consumers who love the speed and efficiency of online shopping are being targeted by Arket’s reference-number system: if you buy a navy sweater and wish to replace it two years later, enter the digits from the care label into a terminal in the store (or online) and it will direct you to current versions of the garment and explain any differences in fabrication and construction. The fiercely independent modern shopper who considers brand loyalty archaic will be pleased by Arket’s inclusion of other brands alongside its own products (you can find RM Williams leather boots in the menswear department and Bordallo Pinheiro cabbage crockery in homeware).
The Instagram addicts who live urban lives but feel their spiritual home is a sunny village market – recognise them by their straw baskets and drawstring blouses – are seduced by the airy aesthetics of Arket. Perhaps it is not a coincidence that the focal point of John Lewis’s experiential shopping strategy is an open-air “gardening society” on the rooftop of its Oxford Street store. This currently houses a taco pop-up and offers morning exercise classes; last summer, it welcomed 171,000 visitors.
Arket is aimed at the style-conscious, sustainability-aware, minimalist consumer who is already shopping at Cos, which is owned by Arket’s parent company, H&M. During my pre-opening store tour, the team were much in evidence, putting finishing touches to the store, and their look was distinctive: curated facial hair and slightly cropped trousers for the men; messily topknotted Scandi-blond locks and interesting shirting for the women. Menswear is given the prime location – almost the entire ground floor – with Arket creative director Ulrika Bernhardtz describing womenswear as “an evolution of classic pieces from the men’s wardrobe interpreted for women by adding softer textures and elements such as pointelle, embroidery, pleats and gatherings”.
In other words, if you are a slogan T-shirt, glittery dress sort of woman, this is not the shop for you. However, if a rustic knitted sweater in dusty pink, a simple cream silk blouse or a deconstructed black matt-silk jumpsuit are your sort of thing, you will be in heaven. Bernhardtz, who says “a well-fitted pair of trousers represent luxury to me”, describes the womenswear aesthetic as “assertive and easy to wear”.
The style credentials are equally evident in the tiny cafe. “Food offers another mode for expressing our values,” says Bernhardtz. The Arket chef is Martin Berg, a proponent of the new Nordic food manifesto, which is about “quality ingredients and healthy living”. The cafe can do you a salad of goat’s cheese, peas, avocado and mint to eat in, or sell you an elegantly packaged olive oil – to give as a chic hostess gift, perhaps – or a single-origin coffee to take away (I can vouch for the flat white).
Arket’s innovation is its emphasis on functionality. This taps into a deep level of connoisseurship among consumers. Every hardcore retail lover has a soft spot for a haberdashery department, after all. T-shirts come in three weights of cotton, allowing the purist to select a fine layering piece or one with a sturdier shape. Outerwear is sold in interlocking layers, so that a waterproof parka can be teamed with a liner, with or without sleeves, for warmth.
Perhaps Arket’s greatest charm is found in its childrenswear. An oversized fabric name label with the legend “Please Hand Down When Outgrown’” has five rows, with space for a name and a year, to honour the ritual of passing down clothes to siblings, cousins and friends. Alongside the aforementioned Nordic salad, the menu features a kids’ peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Because a shopping trip is supposed to be a treat, remember?
Read more at: http://www.queeniebridesmaid.co.uk
2017年9月7日（木）
Oracle Fox meets Country Road
Oracle Fox meets Country Road
An alliance between a digital visionary and an iconic retailer results in pure alchemy.
Amanda Shadforth, the creative force behind Oracle Fox, is keenly aware of shrinking attention spans. “You have four seconds to captivate someone with moving footage,” she says, explaining why she included a series of gifs as part of her new campaign for Country Road.
When the retailer sought to tell the story of CR. Capsule, a limited edition collection with a younger, edgier sensibility, they turned to a sly fox — an Oracle Fox. “We wanted fresh eyes and a slightly different perspective, and Amanda is so talented,” says Country Road’s design manager Jane Wilkinson. “It’s Country Road but not as you know it.”
CR. Capsule is emblematic of the retailer’s vibrant new groove. The 15-piece collection composed of elevated fabrics and one-off designs showcases sculptural pleating, slouchy knits, sensual leather jackets and lustrous velvet pieces. “We wanted to push the fashion side with more exaggerated proportions and languid silhouettes,” adds Wilkinson
To bring the clothes to life, Shadforth tapped ‘it-girl’ Roberta Pecoraro. The doe-eyed, curly-haired beauty is a rising star on the modelling scene. “We met briefly at Fashion Week earlier this year and I was intrigued by her,” says Shadforth. “She’s humble but there is a confidence in her that truly radiates.”
The shoot unfolded on the rooftop of a commercial building in Brisbane. “I love the Brisbane skyline because it’s not instantly recognisable,” says Shadforth, who’s based on the Sunshine Coast. “And there’s a sense of freedom that comes with the location," which they've hinted at with windswept locks and fluttering fabrics.
This is the first in a series of many CR. Capsule collections to come says Wilkinson. They'll be produced in limited qualities and made available at select Country Road stores. The next collection will appear in November, just in time for the festive season.
As for Shadforth, whose vision is in high demand among local and global fashion brands, the collaboration was a perfect fit. “I need to have a passion for the subject I’m working with, and I was impressed with the architectural construction of CR. Capsule. It was an honour.”
Read more at:
one-shoulder-bridesmaid-dresses-uk
An alliance between a digital visionary and an iconic retailer results in pure alchemy.
Amanda Shadforth, the creative force behind Oracle Fox, is keenly aware of shrinking attention spans. “You have four seconds to captivate someone with moving footage,” she says, explaining why she included a series of gifs as part of her new campaign for Country Road.
When the retailer sought to tell the story of CR. Capsule, a limited edition collection with a younger, edgier sensibility, they turned to a sly fox — an Oracle Fox. “We wanted fresh eyes and a slightly different perspective, and Amanda is so talented,” says Country Road’s design manager Jane Wilkinson. “It’s Country Road but not as you know it.”
CR. Capsule is emblematic of the retailer’s vibrant new groove. The 15-piece collection composed of elevated fabrics and one-off designs showcases sculptural pleating, slouchy knits, sensual leather jackets and lustrous velvet pieces. “We wanted to push the fashion side with more exaggerated proportions and languid silhouettes,” adds Wilkinson
To bring the clothes to life, Shadforth tapped ‘it-girl’ Roberta Pecoraro. The doe-eyed, curly-haired beauty is a rising star on the modelling scene. “We met briefly at Fashion Week earlier this year and I was intrigued by her,” says Shadforth. “She’s humble but there is a confidence in her that truly radiates.”
The shoot unfolded on the rooftop of a commercial building in Brisbane. “I love the Brisbane skyline because it’s not instantly recognisable,” says Shadforth, who’s based on the Sunshine Coast. “And there’s a sense of freedom that comes with the location," which they've hinted at with windswept locks and fluttering fabrics.
This is the first in a series of many CR. Capsule collections to come says Wilkinson. They'll be produced in limited qualities and made available at select Country Road stores. The next collection will appear in November, just in time for the festive season.
As for Shadforth, whose vision is in high demand among local and global fashion brands, the collaboration was a perfect fit. “I need to have a passion for the subject I’m working with, and I was impressed with the architectural construction of CR. Capsule. It was an honour.”
Read more at:
one-shoulder-bridesmaid-dresses-uk
2017年9月5日（火）
Balenciaga reveals its golden
Balenciaga reveals its golden touch with surprising takes on men's style
Most representations of fatherhood in fashion fall into two camps: the musclebound, black-and-white ideal of an 1980s Athena poster, or the sartorial punchline of “Dad jeans” and the “Dadbod”. Balenciaga’s spring/summer 2018 men’s fashion show on Wednesday – inspired by office workers taking their kids to the park at the weekend – offered a more nuanced interpretation.
The catwalk was a tree-lined sunlight-dappled path in the Bois de Boulogne, a public park on the outskirts of Paris. Of 68 models, seven appeared with their children or their younger siblings: there were pigtailed little girls balanced on hips and kids holding models’ hands as they toddled down the runway.
Models wore elevated versions of diverse, urban weekend clothes: anoraks in raspberry, navy and teal; sports jackets in mustard and royal blue; black leather fringed coats. A few denim jackets were tightly covered in plastic, as though they had been vacuum-packed.
Some of the looks, such as a striped office shirt tucked into straight-leg jeans and worn with loafers, were eerily close to the sort of off-duty Apprentice contestant style that had been the brand’s inspiration. Many of the garments had been tweaked, painstakingly, for verisimilitude: jeans had been frayed – just a little – where the hem rubbed at the shoe; T-shirts had been stretched at the neck and had a soft, slouched shape, as though from regular use.
But the clothes were cut in unexpected ways – funnelling out at the neck or theatrically oversized at the shoulders – that made them feel more “high fashion” than “dog walk”. They were also emblazoned with opaque slogans, including motivational phrases: “think big!” and “the power of dreams”.
Balenciaga is the most influential label in fashion at the moment, seemingly able to predict the zeitgeist like no other. If you want to know what shoes you will be wearing a year or two from now, Balenciaga can offer significant clues. Trend-watchers would have noted, then, that half of the models broke that most basic of style rules by wearing office shoes with their jeans; others wore squidgy trainers that combined highlighter yellow mesh with a deliberately grubby grey plastic.
Much of Balenciaga’s appeal lies in its ability to take items without obvious fashion pedigree and imbue them with ironic appeal. The brand recently caused a furore by selling a £1,365 bag apparently inspired by an Ikea 40p carryall , and a similar exercise in postmodernism appeared on Wednesday: an “enhanced” interpretation of a supermarket shopping bag.
There was also a repeated use of modular trousers – full-length trousers that can be zipped apart at the knee and the mid-thigh to create varying lengths of shorts, surely one of the least cool garments of all time. That Balenciaga can make the fashion pack salivate over them, with all of their associations of men of a certain age on coach-tour holidays, proves the brand’s golden touch.
In its current incarnation, under recently installed creative director Demna Gvasalia, Balenciaga has sparked a host of trends that have trickled down to the high street, including the current vogue for oversized beige trench coats. That look has often been compared to the aesthetic of Kyle MacLachlan as Agent Cooper in Twin Peaks. Not coincidentally, MacLachlan was in attendance at the show. When he congratulated Gvasalia backstage, Gvasalia told the assembled press that he had “always been on my mood board”.
Read more at:purple-bridesmaid-dresses-online
Most representations of fatherhood in fashion fall into two camps: the musclebound, black-and-white ideal of an 1980s Athena poster, or the sartorial punchline of “Dad jeans” and the “Dadbod”. Balenciaga’s spring/summer 2018 men’s fashion show on Wednesday – inspired by office workers taking their kids to the park at the weekend – offered a more nuanced interpretation.
The catwalk was a tree-lined sunlight-dappled path in the Bois de Boulogne, a public park on the outskirts of Paris. Of 68 models, seven appeared with their children or their younger siblings: there were pigtailed little girls balanced on hips and kids holding models’ hands as they toddled down the runway.
Models wore elevated versions of diverse, urban weekend clothes: anoraks in raspberry, navy and teal; sports jackets in mustard and royal blue; black leather fringed coats. A few denim jackets were tightly covered in plastic, as though they had been vacuum-packed.
Some of the looks, such as a striped office shirt tucked into straight-leg jeans and worn with loafers, were eerily close to the sort of off-duty Apprentice contestant style that had been the brand’s inspiration. Many of the garments had been tweaked, painstakingly, for verisimilitude: jeans had been frayed – just a little – where the hem rubbed at the shoe; T-shirts had been stretched at the neck and had a soft, slouched shape, as though from regular use.
But the clothes were cut in unexpected ways – funnelling out at the neck or theatrically oversized at the shoulders – that made them feel more “high fashion” than “dog walk”. They were also emblazoned with opaque slogans, including motivational phrases: “think big!” and “the power of dreams”.
Balenciaga is the most influential label in fashion at the moment, seemingly able to predict the zeitgeist like no other. If you want to know what shoes you will be wearing a year or two from now, Balenciaga can offer significant clues. Trend-watchers would have noted, then, that half of the models broke that most basic of style rules by wearing office shoes with their jeans; others wore squidgy trainers that combined highlighter yellow mesh with a deliberately grubby grey plastic.
Much of Balenciaga’s appeal lies in its ability to take items without obvious fashion pedigree and imbue them with ironic appeal. The brand recently caused a furore by selling a £1,365 bag apparently inspired by an Ikea 40p carryall , and a similar exercise in postmodernism appeared on Wednesday: an “enhanced” interpretation of a supermarket shopping bag.
There was also a repeated use of modular trousers – full-length trousers that can be zipped apart at the knee and the mid-thigh to create varying lengths of shorts, surely one of the least cool garments of all time. That Balenciaga can make the fashion pack salivate over them, with all of their associations of men of a certain age on coach-tour holidays, proves the brand’s golden touch.
In its current incarnation, under recently installed creative director Demna Gvasalia, Balenciaga has sparked a host of trends that have trickled down to the high street, including the current vogue for oversized beige trench coats. That look has often been compared to the aesthetic of Kyle MacLachlan as Agent Cooper in Twin Peaks. Not coincidentally, MacLachlan was in attendance at the show. When he congratulated Gvasalia backstage, Gvasalia told the assembled press that he had “always been on my mood board”.
Read more at:purple-bridesmaid-dresses-online
