Sometimes its hard to tell who lost it first, fashion writer or designer, when exploring impressions from a collection but in the case of Manish Arora's Spring 2009 collection we think we may both be culpable for taking a creative idea too far, because while he saw a white faced harlequin princess we saw the Queen of Naboo. And we honestly can't say who we think is nuttier.
Marlow may have gone down the Congo in search of Kurtz while Dai Fujiwara searched the Amazon with its Orinoco for inspiration, but both found something in the jungles, thankfully for Issey Misyake fans we weren't left crying "the horror, the horror" after the Spring 2009 collection but rather "the joy, the joy." The Issey Miyake team too their inspiration from the Amazonian jungle's palette in order to come up with the eight hues for the collection's color story. Woody and green colors, filtered into muted final products like the light is filtered the jungle's own canopy.
The collection was soft and futuristic, but rather than dwell on the interior human romance like Anne Valerie Hash's futurism, it gave us a view of a technological future with nature at its core. This deeply comforting, and somewhat humbling, insight from one of the most technically forward of fashion lines is a beacon of light in troubled ecological times. Diaphanous pleated sheath dresses and a classic black cocoon cut-sewn-then-pleated dress made up the core of a collection that was very much in the spirit of the house. Unlike Marlow we need not wonder at " the implacable silence and inscrutable intention" of the jungle, for in the world of Issey Miyake it is that unknowable unwavering silent intention that gives us the lightest of all possible futures.
>> THE MODELIZER —Is Agyness Deyn putting a check on all her exposure recently, or is she just sitting out most of this runway season? She has yet to set foot on a Paris catwalk — not even for her friend Gareth Pugh — and only walked Burberry in Milan. It's all suspect: She was in Paris yesterday, but this evening, she's back in London for a Burberry dinner with Christopher Bailey.
UPDATE: According to her good friend Henry Holland, Agyness is sitting out due to a bad case of bronchitis. She sure has bad luck with sickness — last Fashion Month, she was taken by pink eye. [Grazia]
*image: source
>> For Spring 2009, Ann Demeulemeester has traded in her goth girl for Greek goddess in an outing hailed as "one of her best collections in recent seasons" by WWD. With her newfound muse comes not only lace-up sandals and beautifully draped dresses, but an infusion of color — vivid tangerine and saffron. When the pieces did stay within the bounds of her normal black and white color palette, embroidery or a cascade of rhinestone fringe made the look.
>> THE MODELIZER —Iekeliene Stange is still taking that photography hobby of hers seriously — and having a photographer boyfriend probably doesn't help. Her camera is so attached to her hand backstage at shows, "Somebody would always holler, ‘You’re not going to take that down the runway with you,’” she says. Ike mostly shoots fellow models backstage (left) or a self-portrait before she heads down the runway, but after Paris Fashion Week, she's headed to Nepal to capture some new scenery — with hopes that she'll stage her first gallery opening in London in the Spring. [WWD]
Paris is on the minds of many members of our community as we all collectively carry on with our daily lives after taking a deep breath from a less then stellar Monday, and even while it may seem a bit of cognitative dissonance it is the collected wisdom of the beautiful and the strange that make life worthwhile.
If it's show reviews you crave Couture Cult has in depth looks of Christian Dior (plus a video) and Yohji Yamamoto. I Am Fashion has Nina Ricci covered (though we sort of prefer their in depth financial analysis, and trust us one of these girls as the same Econ heavy alma mater us yours truly so she knows a thing or two) while Shiny Style also takes a stab at Dior. A Wee Bit Skint goes in for some Isabel Marant while High Fashion Girl takes a journey into the surreal with Yohji Yamamoto.
And if you would prefer just a little general blogger awesome then we have a few options as well. Trend de la Creme has a most comprehensive look at paperclips as fashion object. If you are a New York girl with unruly hair and early morning meetings then Beauty of Life may just have found your perfect solution. Hint, it involves a blow out and Bumble and Bumble. And last but not least Wardrobe Oxygen says something we have been thinking for ages. What is the fucking deal with style books. Seriously? How fucking confusing are they for your average woman. Bless her for demystifying and taking them to task.
>> Suzy Menkes's 1.7 million-plus words during her twenty years as fashion editor at the International Herald Tribune were commemorated on Saturday with a special video. "You've made me cry . . . To earn a glowing review from you is the holy grail of fashion," John Galliano declared. Anna Wintour, Franca Sozzani, Karl Lagerfeld and then some all honored the Samurai, Olivier Theyskens with his words as much as his pompadour hairdo — which apparently got a big laugh. Even Marc Jacobs chimed in — but only with kind words, and no sticking out of the tongue. But let's be honest — in the middle of show season, who would dally with such an influential reviewer?
In April we mentioned we were unsure just how Rei Kawakubo's highly conceptual work would translate into clothing for the hoi polloi with her much anticipated collaboration with H&M and now thanks to the power and speed of the blogosphere the full collection is making the rounds faster than a bad cold. And just as we predicted, despite many a young hipster craving a Comme des Garçons look, Kawakubo's designs in cheap polyester are a giant joke on the third estate. Deconstructed clothing that is going to deconstruct even faster thanks to cheap materials is no one's idea of fashion. Just wait to get your hand's on the Comme de Garcon's Spring 2009 collection that showed today OK?
>> BLOWING THE COVER —As promised, Lily Cole's October 2008 cover for Playboy France is here. Inside, 14 pages of a sixties-themed "Sweet Lily" editorial by Xevi Muntane and as Lily requested, accompanying interviews by her friends Jean-Paul Gaultier, Terry Gilliam, and more. [This is Devon, TFS]
