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Posts for July 5th 2011

Chanel Fall 2011 Couture
Chanel

Chanel Fall 2011 Couture

>> While Riccardo Tisci is having a white moment, Karl Lagerfeld is continuing his play with the dark.
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>> While Riccardo Tisci is having a white moment, Karl Lagerfeld is continuing his play with the dark. Held at 10:30 pm, after the Paris dusk had faded to night, the Chanel show, called "Les Allures de Chanel," was dominated by blacks, greys, and midnight blues (save a couple of pops of fuchsia). The set this season featured a statue of Coco Chanel placed atop a neon-lit rendering of the Place Vendome column, and for the finale, the toecaps of the models' boots lit up. Lagerfeld said his focus for the collection was "a play on masculine-feminine — pairings of straight up-and-down silhouettes, versus curvy ones, cut from the same fabric." He continued: "I like the idea of metamorphosis — a female evolution from boyish to woman."

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Fall 2011 Givenchy Couture
Givenchy

Givenchy Fall 2011 Couture

>> With all the high profile weddings this year, it's no wonder that the idea of a white, floor-length gown has seeped into Riccardo Tisci's mind.
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>> With all the high profile weddings this year, it's no wonder that the idea of a white, floor-length gown has seeped into Riccardo Tisci's mind. For the Givenchy Fall 2011 couture collection, he produced ten such dresses, shown grouped into three rooms named "tears of angels," the "cloud room," and "bird of paradise" after their respective inspirations.

Explaining his color of choice for the dresses, Tisci said: “I try to find the light in the darkness . . . White has become very strong — when women want to be sexy and romantic at the same time, white is there.” His favorite dress of the collection, covered with hand-cut tulle paillettes, was inspired by his graduation project at Central St. Martins.

 


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Giorgio Armani Prive Fall 2011 Couture
Giorgio Armani

Giorgio Armani Prive Fall 2011 Couture

>> Giorgio Armani, who says that he has always admired “the captivating culture and the refined sense of aesthetic” of Japan, and was “profoundly moved by the tragic events unleashed by the earthquake last March,” deemed his Fall 2011 Prive collection a homage to the country.
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>> Giorgio Armani, who says that he has always admired “the captivating culture and the refined sense of aesthetic” of Japan, and was “profoundly moved by the tragic events unleashed by the earthquake last March,” deemed his Fall 2011 Prive collection a homage to the country. Printed floral silk patterns graced skirts, bow belts emulated the obi, stiff headdresses — into some of which Philip Treacy snuck chopsticks — suggested the sculpted hair of a geisha, and the primarily black collection stuck to a pin-thin silhouette.

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Giambattista Valli Fall 2011 Couture
Giambattista Valli

Giambattista Valli Fall 2011 Couture

>> Giambattista Valli finally got the opportunity to show his own couture collection yesterday (when designing at Emanuel Ungaro from 2001 through 2004, he focused on ready-to-wear while Ungaro himself held the couture reins) as a guest member of the Paris couture calendar.
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>> Giambattista Valli finally got the opportunity to show his own couture collection yesterday (when designing at Emanuel Ungaro from 2001 through 2004, he focused on ready-to-wear while Ungaro himself held the couture reins) as a guest member of the Paris couture calendar.

“The most beautiful thing about the couture is the devotion,” Valli noted after the show, which encompassed a whopping 45 looks focusing on the Valli DNA — bicolored dresses, volume and endless amounts of chiffon, pops of vivid color, and animal prints. The opening look was inspired by the blouse de cabine — the white tunic shirt of the atelier worker — which Valli intended to symbolize his couture as a “work in progress,” and his partner, jewelry designer Luigi Scialanga, was also involved, contributing metal belts that Valli wanted to "suggest the arms of the man around the waist of the girl — savage, wild, strong, against the fragility of the clothes.”

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Fall 2011 Christian Dior Couture
Christian Dior

Christian Dior Fall 2011 Couture

>> At the Dior Fall 2011 couture show yesterday, studio director Bill Gaytten and first assistant Susanna Venegas took the finale bow.
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>> At the Dior Fall 2011 couture show yesterday, studio director Bill Gaytten and first assistant Susanna Venegas took the finale bow. Just last week it was rumored that Gaytten may be in the running for the top job at Dior, and Gaytten, when asked backstage yesterday if he wanted to be Dior creative director, replied, “Yeah, I do,” adding: “I’m not a fool.”

However, despite the rumors and Gaytten's wishes, WWD determined that after his architecture-inspired Dior couture show yesterday (which Style.com called "a misjudged effort to impress an alien thumbprint on an aesthetic that, for better or worse, is one of the fashion industry's most clearly defined"): "If a germ of truth ever existed there [to the rumors of Gaytten taking over], this show likely squashed it."

Cathy Horyn, too, agreed that Gaytten should not be Dior's next creative director (a feeling that seems to have been held across the board): "I like Mr. Gaytten. He’s a sweetheart, but he is not a designer. The collection presented today, with modern architectural shapes as the reference (at least that explains the dumb cubes and balls embedded in the models’ hair), was a hodgepodge."

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Melissa + Jason Wu Shoe Collaboration
Shoes

Jason Wu to Collaborate with Melissa Shoes for Spring

>> This upcoming Spring, Jason Wu and plastic shoe brand Melissa are teaming up to release two exclusive styles.
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>> This upcoming Spring, Jason Wu and plastic shoe brand Melissa are teaming up to release two exclusive styles. Though both shoes are based on pre-existing Melissa bestsellers — the Ultragirl ballet flat and the Lady Dragon peep-toe slingback —  they're injected with a strong dose of signature Wu: a Miss Wu owl logo bow tops the ballet flats, while a sunburst design culled directly from Wu's Fall 2011 collection adorns the pumps. “It was really interesting for me to explore design possibilities with plastic,” said Wu of the collaboration. “I wanted to take advantage of the materials I was given, make it all completely functional and waterproof and yet still remain extremely sophisticated.” Both styles will be available in black, burgundy, nude, and transparent gray, and also feature lining printed with pink and black lace. Wu is the first American designer to collaborate with Melissa; Vivienne Westwood, Gareth Pugh, and Jean Paul Gaultier have all previously partnered with the Brazillian shoe brand.

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