Obsessed With Shoes

Recent fashion weeks in Tokyo, Prague and Lisbon inspired sartorial creativity from head to toe. We trained our lenses on some of the more amusing boot and shoe choices worn by showgoers and city residents. From platform mary janes in cartoon-bright colors to fetish-inspired styles without heels that require a balancing act, footwear often stole the show. There were arty wooden wedges, neon-bright sneakers, eclectic booties and embellishments galore: fuzzy animal faces, chains, faux fruit, floral embroidery and even folded $100 bills. An array of quirky socks and hosiery proved equally captivating.

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MIU MIU Fall/Winter 2015 Womenswear Show

Fall/Winter 2015 Womenswear Show Video
“Ciao, I’m Miuccia, nice to meet you,” Miuccia Prada said to Marine Vacth as the French actress made her way through the crowd at the opening of Miu Miu’s new Herzog & De Meuron-designed flagship store in Tokyo’s Aoyama district. Prada and her husband, the company’s chief executive officer Patrizio Bertelli, feted the store Thursday evening along with a roster of Miu Miu campaign girls past and present — namely Imogen Poots, Stacy Martin, Hailee Steinfeld, Mia Goth and Vacth — as well as Zhang Ziyi and Rinko Kikuchi. Comme des Garçons’ Rei Kawakubo and Adrian Joffe popped in on the early side — before most of the other guests arrived, Prada gave the couple a personal tour. And it seems that was only part of the designers’ interaction this week: A source said the two designers met at CDG’s headquarters for an hour and half on Wednesday.

"Instinct? I like that word," said Miuccia Prada after her show. For indeed, like all great designers, she is led by her instincts, and these were animal ones on display today. "I wanted to put things together in a naive way, not caring, always wrong, with that attitude of instinct. It started with the mutation of ostrich in Prada, the genetic modification, the idea of a new species."

Actress Ellen Page:You need to wear a dress or people will think you’re gay

Ellen Page: “I used to feel this constant pressure to be more feminine,” she explains, adding: “You need to wear a dress or people will think you’re gay … Now I feel a sense of freedom in dressing.” (Vouge)

Page is far from the first gay woman to discover new-found sartorial freedom after coming out. Though I realised I was into girls at around four, it took until 14 to come out, and then 17 to tell my mum. I think she must have realised when I started cutting my hair (with a razor, in the shower) to make my hair like Shane’s from The L Word. “Don’t you want boys to like you?” she asked. And now I wonder, like Page, how many women – straight or not – would benefit from never having to consider what a man – real or imagined – thought of their clothes.

After coming out, excluding time spent at uni in the mid-noughties’ ubiquitous cut-off denim skirts, I’ve stuck to outfits a bloke could wear without being heckled – and which I call butch chic. To me, butch chic is printed shirts without frills and skirts without peplums or lace – or any of those things that look pretty, or pretty uncomfortable depending how you look at it. Functionality takes precedence, with elements taken from queer-friendly subcultures: punkishly torn vests, riot grrrl boots, hip-hop’s baggy T-shirts and grungey jumpers. What’s more, most gay women I know dress using elements of the above; it’s not only a uniform, but a Freemason’s handshake. It’s how we could tell the queer from the straight. So it’s no surprise that Ellen Page prefers a Saint Laurent suit to a pretty dress.

Tom Ford: ‘I’m an Equal Opportunity Objectifier’

‘I’m an Equal Opportunity Objectifier’ - “The fashion world’s King of Sex has been accused of using naked women to sell just about everything. Why not, says Tom Ford, and he’s all for male nudity, too.”

“I’ve been criticized for objectifying women,” Ford said, “I’m just as happy to objectify men. The thing is, you can’t show male nudity in our culture the way you can show female nudity.” He then added, “We’re very comfortable as a culture exploiting women, but not men.” His statement rings absolutely true, and it’s one of the things feminists have been trying to fight for decades. And while Ford did not come out and call himself a feminist, he does admit to always “thinking about feminism,” and cites inspiration from his mother, who was a “great feminist.”
Read more at The Guardian

Karl Lagerfeld's interview for Chanel fall-winter 2015/16 collection - Video

Karl Lagerfel

The inspiration and the guidelines of the fall-winter 2015/16 collection. Discover all the looks from the ready to wear fall-winter collection here.

Emilio Pucci Names Creative Director

Following the departure of Peter Dundas, Emilio Pucci has appointed Massimo Giorgetti as its new creative director. Giorgetti will split his time between his existing role as creative director for Milan-based label MSGM, and his new job at Pucci, based in Florence. The designer will show his first collection for the house in September. "Massimo Giorgetti embodies the entrepreneurial spirit and ingenuity of a new breed of fashion designers," a statement for Emilio Pucci said of the 37-year-old designer. "Hailed by the international press as one of Italy's most talented young designers, Giorgetti emerged on the fashion scene with a maverick aesthetic that gravitattes towards irreverent, joyful prints and bold colour."


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Roberto Cavalli Taps Peter Dundas
Peter Dundas has been appointed the new creative director of Roberto Cavalli. Formerly creative director of Pucci for seven years, the appointment marks his return to the Roberto Cavalli brand, where he worked between 2002 and 2005. Dundas’ first collection for the house will be presented in September.

Paul Smith Hires First Creative Director
In a move that will allow eponymous designer Paul Smith to spend more time on creative projects, Simon Homes has been appointed as the British brand’s first creative director. Homes has been with Paul Smith since 2004, previously working as head of men’s design.

Suno Names Chief Operating Officer
New York-based womenswear label Suno has appointed Maloni Goss as chief operating officer. Goss joins from Chanel, where she was director of wholesale strategy development, and previously held roles at Gap Inc. and Polo Ralph Lauren.

Givenchy Fall Winter 2015 Fashion Show

Riccardo Tisci - This fashion collection -Simultaneously aggressive and elegant, these paradoxical elements played with contrast and silhouettes. Soft, slick kiss curls were flattened against models’ bedazzled faces.

Encrusted gems were placed strategically up the ears and onto the face below the eyes, across cheeks, and dangling from septums in lavish curled shapes, splitting attention between the spectacle of the face and body.These were what helped give the fashion show some street cred, while the outfits themselves harkened back to silhouettes from the Victorian era. Rich black tail coats, peacock feather-printed silk dress gowns, turn-of-the-century wallpaper patterns worked into velvet tops and sculptural jet-beaded evening gowns all put the designer’s couture-level talents on fine display. But as Tisci has a well-documented love of gothic and things that go bump in the night, this collection had a darkness staining its soul. Vanessa Ives, the character played by Eva Green in the television series “Penny Dreadful,” would be well served by all of the ensembles in this show.
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The Best Set Designs of Fashion Month

Chanel
Waiters, booths, and a full functional breakfast bar were just some of the highlights of Chanel's Brasserie Gabrielle set.

Marc Jacobs
Jeremiah Goodman's watercolor of Diana Vreeland's living room inspired the set at Marc Jacobs' show,
serving as a reference for the image on the red walls and gray backdrop.

Kenzo's show kicked off with six holographic pillars that moved forward like a wall, and then rotated to form
a divider in the center of the runway.

Alexander McQueen
For the second time in her tenure as creative director of the house, Sarah Burton staged a show in the Conciergerie,
the prison that held Marie Antoinette before her beheading. A good—albeit spooky—backdrop to
Burton's collection influenced by Victoriana and mourning.

Louis Vuitton
Inside three reflective domes on the grounds of the Fondation Louis Vuitton in Bois de Boulogne,
Nicolas Ghesquière and co. rigged up a series of cameras that played the show
 live on screens throughout the venue.

Marc by Marc Jacobs
Marc by Marc Jacobs created a safe haven from the snow on the ground outside for its Fall show,
turning a New York pier into a manicured lawn.

Manuela Pavesi, Photographer and Stylist, Dies

Italian stylist and photographer, and longtime Prada collaborator Manuela Pavesi died Friday in her hometown of Mantova after a long illness. She was 65 years old. Pavesi contributed to shaping Vogue Italia, was a passionate collector of fashion and antique jewelry and was a long-standing friend and collaborator of Miuccia Prada. She also was an inspiration to young designers, helping, for example, to launch the career of Jonathan Anderson. Manuela Pavesi worked with photographers such as Albert Watson and Helmut Newton, collaborating with the latter on the 1986 images for the Pirelli Calendar that were eventually published in 2014 to mark its 50th anniversary. “She was very avant-garde, even with this Pirelli project. She anticipated fashion,” said Vogue Italia editor in chief Franca Sozzani. “She forged a new aesthetic and lived her life abiding to it. Like me, she was in love with Yves Saint Laurent, because he was the first to mix separate pieces. She would do that, too, mixing even contrasting looks. She didn’t follow fashion. She would go down her own road. As long as her aesthetic vision was satisfied, and not offended, she could do anything, from styling to photography. There wasn’t one particular thing she preferred to do.”

Louis Vuitton Women's Fall 2015 Fashion Show Highlights

Highlights from the Louis Vuitton Women's Fall 2015 Fashion Show from Artistic Director of Women's Collections Nicolas Ghesquière. Watch the full show and see more from the show on http://www.louisvuitton.com
The show started with a big statement coat, a fluffy white sheepskin worn by the designer’s go-to model Freja Beha Erichsen, and an even bigger statement bag. A Louis Vuitton box bag - a mini trunk if you will - with the model’s initials engraved on its front.

This was followed by four more voluminous fur coats and jackets and more box bags before finally the designer let the audience get a good look at what was going on underneath.

Their flattering ribbed knitwear separates, with sculptural undulating hemlines and lozenge-shaped openings across the chest of tops, looked smart and sexy. Even sexier were the fitted lingerie-inspired silk dresses and tops with dramatic black obtuse triangles highlighting the bosoms. And let’s not forget the animal-printed pieces covered in a bit of shimmering sequins.

Alexander McQueen Ready To Wear Fall Winter 2015 Paris

Alexander McQueen - This was a McQueen show that was very much in touch with its gentler side. It was as if Burton was finally starting to show a different aspect of herself and the house she now leads. It’s a facet worth exploring further in the future.

First there was the McQueen invitation, a photo of past-their-prime pink roses, shot by David Sims. Then there was the show’s music, the melodic song “English Rose” by The Jam. Designer Sarah Burton clearly had floral ideas on her mind when she came up with her collection this season. It was a starting point that bloomed into one of her most overtly feminine offerings since she took on the top job at the house.

Up until this collection, the McQueen shows have tended to be so theatrical that it was hard to imagine what, of all the wonders that appeared on the catwalk, would ever really make it into stores. Not so this time. Almost every look showed promise.

The micro knife-pleated dresses with the bustier tops, the long and lean leather jackets embossed with blooms and a series of frilly tiered lace gowns only needed the buttons running down the front of their bodices to be closed back up and they would be prim and proper – almost ladylike options. Which is not a term usually associated with the McQueen brand.

A few dresses constructed in whorls of fabric looked like rose petals, transformed the garments into ethereal flora. While other long gowns were festooned with expansive flower motif decorations that had an extreme sense of femininity about them.
Source:NF 

Manish Arora Ready To Wear Fall Winter 2015 Paris

Paris, Paris...winter is coming. Cue epic music followed up by Bowie's “Heroes” at Manish Arora, although straight off the bat you got the idea that his Khaleesi would be nobody's queen but her own. Should you forget that, your skull will be hanging from her arm, bejeweled and fleshless.Hand it to the Paris-based Indian designer. He's quite possibly the only one who could pull off a Game of Thrones-inspired collection that doesn't end up looking contrived. In his invocation of a faraway land full of strife and sorrow, Arora took the artistic license of adding a colorful overtone. Think of this as the chance encounter between Burning Man and Westeros. The thing you have to take on board is that every element on display is meaningful, and painstakingly crafted in his homeland of India.

Dissecting the embellishments would serve no purpose other than to cheapen the instinctive draw that these pieces have. For every sequined jacket, there is a cunningly cut trouser or floppy dress that carries the same DNA without the fluo trip. That use of negative space still feels fresh, a couple of seasons in.

Source:NF

Paris Fashion Week RTW Fall Winter 2015

Models wear creations during a presentation for Belgian fashion house AF Vandevorst's Fall-Winter 2015-2016 Ready To Wear Fashion collection

 

 

Rick Owens Ready To Wear Fall Winter 2015 Paris

Julien Dossena- His fall/winter 2015 show for Paco Rabanne was another considered, sporty chic lineup that put an accent on new volumes, impressive fabric developments and novel disk dress updates. The designer started his show with a group of trapeze-shaped baby doll dress coats in a combination of wool and rubberized leather that had a strong athletic allure. A pair of zippered hoodies emblazoned with images of monolithic concrete buildings and urban signage also underlined the contemporary nature of this collection. The knowledge that said hoodies are reversible and feature a stealthy all black alternative on the flip side is a great indicator that Dossena is just as interested in the bottom line as he is with telegraphing his modern artistic vision.