SUZY - A selection of posts by Suzy Menkes for Vogue online

S u z y

A SELECTION OF POSTS BY SUZY MENKES FOR VOGUE.COM

S u z y

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A selection of posts by Suzy Menkes for Vogue.com

SUZY is a selection of world-exclusive interviews, fashion show reviews, industry and society news, and independent opinion from the first year of Suzy Menkes as Vogue International Editor. The best-known fashion journalist in the world, since June 2014 Suzy Menkes has written exclusively for Vogue online, covering fashion for 19 editions of the magazine as well as masterminding and hosting the very first Condé Nast International Luxury Conference, in Florence.

Prior to joining Condé Nast, Suzy spent 25 years commenting on fashion for the Paris-based newspaper, the International Herald Tribune.

In 2005 she was awarded the Légion d’Honneur by French President Jacques Chirac for her services to the fashion industry and also received an O.B.E from Her Majesty the Queen for her services to journalism.

In 2013 Suzy was honoured by the City of Florence with the Fiorino d’Oro, presented by then-mayor Matteo Renzi.

Before the IHT, Suzy worked in London as a fashion editor for The Times, The Independent, The Evening Standard, and Daily Express.

Darcel Disappoints

Read Suzy’s full stories online at www.suzymenkesvogue.com and follow her on social media: Instagram @SuzyMenkesVogue, Twitter @SuzyMenkesVogue, and Facebook.com/SuzyMenkes

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Contents

A selection of posts by Suzy Menkes for Vogue.com

S. . . I S F O R S I N G U L A R Respected around the world for her honest and fair reporting, Suzy has written world exclusives about industry giants such as Karl Lagerfeld, Marc Jacobs and Alexander McQueen. For more frank opinion, see Princess Diana’s Disastrous Legacy and why she’s Fighting the Bitch Brigade.

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V I K T O R & R O L F, P A R I S

U. . . I S F O R U N B I A S E D Suzy is the fashion designers’ fashion critic. Read her reviews of Dior, Giorgio Armani, Balenciaga and more. With her unmatched knowledge of technique and historical visual references, she describes the shows that are triumphs and encourages young talent.

Z... IS FOR ZEITGEIST From Karl Lagerfeld’s first exhibition to the new Tiffany store in Paris; the latest shoe styles to petites mains bringing couture fantasies to life, Suzy’s reporting reflects fashion’s role as a barometer of the wider world today.

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Y. . . I S F O R Y O T T A B Y T E S She may have spent five decades in print, but Suzy embraces social media, the Apple Watch and all things hi-tech. Read her views on digital for couture, meeting Instagram’s Kevin Systrom and developing heritage for a modern world.

Published by Condé Nast International, 25 Maddox Street, London W1S 2QN (+44 20 7499 9080) © 2015 The Condé Nast Publications Ltd

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Viktor & Rolf has always been a brand to make an impression, but this season they turned themselves into Impressionists.

Van Gogh’s famous sunflower paintings were the inspiration for their wild and wonderful straw hats, with ultra-long sheaves of wheat that all but concealed the colourful floral dresses underneath.

The design duo of Viktor Horsting and Rolf Snoeren has been so successful with fragrance that I wondered what they could extract from Van Gogh.

“Impressionist!” Perhaps – with the exclamation point essential. Whatever their intentions, it made for a light-hearted and uplifting summer show.

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IF THERE IS SOMETHING MEAN TO BE SAID I N 1 4 0 C H A R A C T E R S , T H E R E I S A LW A Y S S O M E O N E R E A D Y T O D I S H T H E D I R T. P U B L I S H E D 2 6 F E B R U A R Y, 2 0 1 5

Karl Lagerfeld once shocked French society by calling Yves Saint Laurent a pied noir (‘black foot’), referring to the couturier’s childhood in North Africa.

And there was a long-term standoff between Giorgio Armani, maestro of masculine minimalism, and Gianni Versace, with his exuberant sexiness.

I first realised that the popular perception of the fashion world was one of glossy nastiness back in the Nineties, when I was asked to play a bit part in Absolutely Fabulous, the television comedy about two middle-aged fashion colleagues desperately trying to stay cool.

I arrived at the studio to find Joanna Lumley playing Patsy Stone in super-bitch mode, screaming at the studio hairdresser.

She was boiling with rage as he struggled to recreate my quiff on her – the so-called ‘pompadour’. She was even more furious when her hairstyle fell apart in the front row, whereas mine survived the filming.

Yet in the real (not the digital) world, people rarely play nasty. There is a genuine sense of a fashion family – either the actual family or one that has evolved.

The Missonis are the archetype. I saw the cousinhood line-up in San Francisco in May 2014, as Angela and her daughter Margherita received honorary doctorates

IF THERE IS SOMETHING MEAN TO BE SAID IN 1 4 0 C H A R A C T E R S, T H E R E I S A LW A Y S SOMEONE READY TO D I S H T H E D I RT

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at the Academy of Art University, with matriarch Rosita leading the team.

Even if not part of a biological family, as in the Fendi, Ferragamo or Ralph Lauren clans, there are teams so loyal that if the designer jumps ship – as when Nicolas Ghesquière moved to Louis Vuitton – the ‘family’ goes, too.

But this is the world of fashion’s real players, where there is physical connection between creatives and critics – even if it is only at the twice-a-year shows and surrounding social events.

The growth of the Internet has been described as the great democratisation, where crowd-sourcing and online connections have shifted the force of power. But participating via a keyboard, webcam or Twitter feed is a one-way conversation. And being snarky, controversial and just plain nasty is about the only way for a desktop or smartphone commentator to get noticed.

One look at celebrity news website TMZ and the responses to its ‘So we gotta ask’ questions in its ‘Stars and Scars – You Be The Judge’ section and you realise that bitchiness is a sugar rush for readers. And all those increasingly torrid comments are in phase with the opportunities that digital and social media have created.

What’s to be done, as the race to the bottom careers downwards at breakneck speed? I find dispiriting not the harping criticism itself, but the concept that no one can dare to be different, if he/she wants to avoid the e-worst dressed list. I am all for fashion diversity, not dictatorship; for rejoicing not carping.

The bitches have the advantage of speed – an un-thought-out response that may go viral and flag up a new blog to click on. But the instant reaction to Lindsay Lohan’s bikini-revealed bruises, Natalia Vodianova’s elastic post-baby stomach and every designer’s latest resort wear is not worth the rush to judgement.

FENDI, MILAN FASHION WEEK

High Fur Comes to Paris Couture

Indigital.com

Whether it is Gwyneth Paltrow talking about the paparazzi, the Kim and Kanye wedding/baby/marriage or the appearance of Kate (Moss/Middleton), the Twitter stream of catty comments never ends.

One of the two Kates was accused of wearing a Virgin Atlantic air-hostess uniform when she got off the plane in New Zealand on the Royal Tour; the other Kate, seductive at 41, was supposedly showing every wrinkle from her hard partying decades.

Nicole Kidman on the Cannes red carpet was sneered at for looking like ‘Princess Grace of Botox’. And Kim, in her Versailles outfit before her wedding, was deemed all cleavage and no class.

The Internet shows the ugly face of fashion criticism. If there is something mean to be said in 140 characters, there is always someone ready to dish the dirt about the ill-fitting haute frock or the wobbly super-high heels.

A nice comment about how pretty a star looks is as rare as a high-carat diamond. (And even that was dismissed as vulgar when George Clooney finally found his soulmate.)

I have a very different perception of being a fashion critic. And in my new position as International Editor at Vogue, here is my mantra: no bitching.

My personal take on fashion criticism is that I am happy to see a great collection and give credit where it is due. And if the show is a flop? I try to offer constructive, not hateful, comments. It is about being thoughtful as opposed to mean, and analysis rather than a knee-jerk reaction.

Maybe there always was a hint of the idea – especially from outside the business – that the fashion world is bitch central.

There are all those stories from back in the Thirties of Coco Chanel, in her mannish modernity, caustic about the dizzy wit of Elsa Schiaparelli, dismissing her rival as “that Italian artist who makes clothes”.

Fendi haute fourrure – or high fur – by Karl Lagerfeld will be shown in Paris during the July 2015 couture season – a dramatic upheaval in the rarified world of both high fashion and fur.

Lagerfeld – who showed a powered-up, hyper-modern Fendi collection in Milan, inspired by the graphic work of the 1920s Swiss artist Sophie Taeuber-Arp – said that the Paris show was definitely on.

“We don’t have the space in this Fendi collection to do high fur, because the ready-to-wear is now doing so well,” said the designer, who took his traditional bow with Silvia Venturini Fendi at the end of a long runway with images from the geometric, abstract artworks painted on the side walls.

Fendi CEO Pietro Beccari, who has done so much to propel the brand forward over the last two years, could not immediately be reached for comment about the Paris fur show.

But it would make sense for LVMH, which owns the label, to cement Fendi’s status as the most important global fur

brand. Significantly, the Fendi store that opened in January in New York offers an exceptional showcase for fur.

Given the news, fur was not the attention grabber for Autumn/Winter 2015. Instead the collection opened with a lean, white silhouette, maybe set off by red. After that palette cleanser came the dominant hues – patches of colour in shades of orange, mustard and more red. The fur focus seemed to be on shearling, although Fendi always offers a furry puzzle.

Sometimes there were just fur ‘extras’, such as Mongolian lamb legwarmers.

The same curly fur came at the elbow of long gloves. Another variation on leg interest was gaucho-style leather chaps.

Instead of fluffy fur accessories, Lagerfeld sent out the shark-shaped effects of Bird of Paradise flowers, which were used as handbag decoration.

But what stood out were the shapes and volumes extracted from TaeuberArp by Karl’s artistic eye and cultured mind. A few were fashion ‘geometricks’, using vast triangular shapes for short coats; or gigantic riffs on squares, worn as a midriff frame on a panelled dress.

“I wanted very graphic, very lean, only modern shapes and not from the recent past,” Lagerfeld told me.

Then, in a characteristic swipe – this time at Gucci’s new romantic designer, Alessandro Michele – Karl added, “No flea market here.”

PUBLISHED 03 JUNE, 2014 A C C E N T U AT E T H E P O S I T I V E

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Future Perfect?

THE POWER OF PRIVACY Below the exploding fireworks, brighter than the bauble of a full moon, a bride bobbed on the surf in a little boat. The air swelled with Fifties hit, ‘Mambo Italiano’, played with gusto as guests dressed in Capri glamour danced on the rocky shore.

Welcome to Southern Italy! In an exquisite fashion event, Dolce & Gabbana captured the spirit of the Mediterranean in a flurry of full skirts, tiny waists, bold patterns, intricate jewellery, and lush fur seductively partnering two-piece swimsuits.

By the time Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana took their bow, the audience of mainly couture clients was drowning out the music with applause.

The intimacy of this exceptional event, in a secret cove off the Italian island, meant that this was the rarest of fashion occasions: one with no paparazzi.

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The show started with grand opera – a fitting backdrop to an important project for the design duo. They have been taking their private collections around Italy from Sicily, where Domenico has his roots, to Venice and now Capri.

“It’s about the beauty of Italy. We don’t really have Alta Moda here and we wanted to do something for our country,” said an emotional Stefano, as he talked through the collection in an improvised dressing room overlooking the sea. There were details of raised floral embroidery, sandals with clusters of beaded flowers, a gilded crown that might have been a Neapolitan treasure, and a dress with a naïve handpainting of a map of the Amalfi Coast.

The event was joyous and fun, with a casual glamour perhaps last seen in the era of the Duchess of Windsor, Liz Taylor,

Dolce & Gabbana; Indigital.com

Dolce &Gabbana make Capri a paparazzi-free zone

Princess Soraya of Iran, and Jackie O in the high tide of Capri chic. Yet despite its extravagance, it was somehow intimate.

After a Paris haute couture season where few collections seemed dedicated to clients, there was a post-show scramble up to the rustic villa on the hillside, where immediate orders could be placed.

The originality of the collection was that it was multi-seasonal, like its global clients, who dress for Russian winters or balmy Asian shores.

“It was the most beautiful experience, the way that the models arrived in boats over the water as the sun was setting; the marvellous clothes; the mixture of embroidery and simple coats or dresses,” said Georgina Brandolini, who was with her two daughters Bianca and Coco.

The show started with a whirl of full, light, long skirts, sailor-striped or floral, with low-cut bodices framing chests decorated with jewels. This season’s hot

items for exotic beachwear were shorts, pretty and decorative, worn under a swish of a long coat. Even more sensual was the beach babe in a plush fur coat with matching knee-high boots.

Practical winter clothes included shapely tweed suits, dappled-surface lynx jackets and classic black dresses from a duo whose fantasy is rooted in bodyconscious tailoring. For high summer, there were genuine day clothes: a full skirt with horizontal-striped top, a rose pink lace dress or one with a flower print.

Dolce & Gabbana distilled their fashion codes to produce the essence of Italy. They could easily have fallen into a pastiche of Italian post-war style. Instead, they made couture relevant, all the more so because of the privacy. As Marie-Chantal of Greece, who was with her daughter Olympia, and mother, Chantal Miller, said: “A winter show on the rocks of Capri, with jewels, fur, and boating stripes. And then pasta!”

With former first lady Carla Bruni sitting front row alongside her friend Farida Khelfa, a pink glow suffused the Schiaparelli show.

All the key ‘Schiap’ codes were there: sharp tailoring, funky hats, witty prints and dresses covered in bows like so many kisses. But there was no named designer.

The show opened with a streamlined white pantsuit, with embroidered pins and a tasselled Moroccan hat. It continued with a few day outfits and a focus on the back – huge, flat bows, or a stamp of hands around the spine. The prints were vintage Schiap: pinstabbed hearts, exploding stars, a padlock embroidered on a pocket.

Diego Della Valle, who is behind the label’s relaunch, believes there is enough to draw upon from the life of the designer who pitted herself against Coco Chanel in the Thirties. “We may bring in very young designers fresh from college, but it will be about working together,’’ he said.

The system worked this season.

But the challenge for any famous brand is the same: to find in a noble past a dynamic future.

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SAVAGE BEAUTY INDEED

PUBLISHED 10 MARCH, 2015 A L E X A N D E R M C Q U E E N, ‘ S AVA G E B E A U T Y ’ , V & A

To coincide with the first full retrospective in Europe of the late fashion designer’s work, Suzy Menkes celebrates the wild creative spirit who knew that “flowers must be planted on barren land”

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I first met Lee Alexander McQueen in a small room in London’s East End, fabric ends and tangled threads lying ankle deep as the 24-year-old, trained on Savile Row, worked with a feverish intensity on a jacket shoulder. Our second meeting was backstage at the Bluebird Garage on King’s Road, Chelsea, in 1993, the designer wracked with sobs as he cried, “I’ve blown it; I’ve blown it.” He was referring to his rude-boy gesture of pulling low-slung trousers down over his buttocks and turning to ‘moon’ at the audience.

That look, focusing on the pelvis as an erogenous zone, reverberated via hip-hop to college kids and became the street-style fashion statement of the Nineties. “The body parts that I focus on change depending on the inspirations and references for the collection and what they demand,” McQueen said.

My final encounter with this raw, wild, creative spirit was in 2009, when he held exultantly in one hand the animalistic footwear – half-hoof, half platform-soled boot – in which models walked the runway in densely patterned digital-printed dresses for a show entitled ‘Plato’s Atlantis’.

By the next season, McQueen was dead – a suicidal hanging in his home, killing off at the same time an era of British artistic energy that had marked the last decade of the 20th century. The V&A exhibition, Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty, aims, its curator Claire Wilcox says, to catch this febrile fashion moment, and what she describes as “the craft, the spectacle, multi-layered references, the theatricality – and the assessment of a fashion designer’s life’s work”.

Savage Beauty was staged at the New York Metropolitan Museum in 2011, where it broke all records for a museum fashion display. The London show, by its extended size, taking over three of the V&A’s intersecting exhibition areas, is destined to attract a similarly large audience. The set, using poetic licence, includes an ossuary, its walls covered with skulls and bones.

Why exactly does a fashion designer, however original and talented, deserve two museum shows and such generous display space? For Wilcox, the exhibition in London – McQueen’s home city and his main source of inspiration, especially its Victorian era – is a continuation of the New York version. The ‘cabinet of curiosity’, holding weird and sometimes uncomfortable objects from skulls to carved wooden prosthetics worn on the

Victoria and Albert Museum London

[S]. . . I S catwalk by a double amputee, is similar to the first show. The display is put together by the same creative director, Sam Gainsbury. “There are very few full looks in the cabinet, and they tend not always to be made from textiles,’’ the curator said. “He used metal, leather, glass, feathers, porcupine spines – and all these pieces make the work quite fetishistic.”

Alongside nature came a growing enthusiasm for the technology of the new millennium. By the time of the final ‘Plato’s Atlantis’ collection for Spring/ Summer 2010, not only was the entire show live-streamed by photographer Nick Knight’s SHOWstudio (even if the online participation of Lady Gaga caused it to crash), but also the clothes themselves used technical virtuosity, as in a snakeprint developed from actual scales to create eye-popping, 3D reptilian patterns gleaming like steel on silk. The most dramatic of McQueen’s digital concepts was a hologram of Kate Moss that made its first appearance in 2006, as the finale of his ‘Widows of Culloden’ show.

These high-tech elements contrast in the exhibition, as on the catwalk, with references to Victorian London and to Scotland, part of the designer’s family tree and a source of anger and rage at the country’s history of plunder and pillage.

One crucial thing to understand about the incendiary McQueen, a self-described “big mouth, East End yob”, is how close he was to the artists of his era. Although a charismatic storyteller, he was also rich in visual imagination.

On stage he melded the aggressive with the ethereal, turning his models into patients imprisoned in a sanatorium, clawing at transparent walls – as seen in his performances of ‘Voss’ in 2001. The figures became organic in their creations of raffia, ostrich feathers and mussel shells. The effect was far more of art gestures than fashion statements.

Indeed, to the end of his career, McQueen, although trained on Savile Row as a tailor and cutter, would inject the weird and the wild into the base of his precision cutting. First, there was his provocative choice of materials. A dress might be made entirely of cock feathers (birds being a favoured fetish). His collaborators, such as milliner Philip Treacy and jeweller Shaun Leane, would help to beautify the macabre side of nature – as with a 2006 hat where towering feathered wings rise from a bird’s nest filled with seven Swarovski crystal eggs.

A Leane neckpiece for Spring/Summer 2001 captured nature in the creation of twigs and shrivelled leaves, while ‘The Overlook’ collection, inspired by Stanley Kubrick’s 1980 film, The Shining, had Leane’s aluminium corset as a take on African tribal identity and power women.

I remember, too, from the designer’s years as creative director at Givenchy (1996-2001), male models, their shoulders sprouting with eagle wings, poised under the rafters of the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris. In my memory also are a profusion of dead birds, with dark ruffled feathers and ferocious beaks and claws, laid out for ‘atmosphere’ in shows where the clothes themselves might suggest the decent and delicate side of Victoriana, tinted to a light mourning shade of lilac.

Yet that era could also inspire McQueen to reach the edge of darkness by focusing on serial killer Jack the Ripper.

That was the subject of the young designer’s MA graduate collection at Central Saint Martins in 1992.

For all his streamlined tailoring and delicate dresses, the concept of nature, raw in tooth and claw, was never far from McQueen’s vision. Nor was death.

His work seems eerily akin to artist Damien Hirst, whose shark preserved in formaldehyde was the icon of art in the Nineties. McQueen was close to many of the YBAs, the young British artists who graduated from Goldsmiths and, aided and abetted by gallery owner Charles Saatchi, emerged as a loose group – much as McQueen and fellow Saint Martins

FOR ALL HIS D E L I C AT E D R E S S E S AND STREAMLINED TA I L O R I N G, T H E C O N C E P T O F N AT U R E , RAW IN TOOTH AND C L A W, W A S N E V E R FAR FROM ALEXANDER MCQUEEN’S VISION… N O R WA S D E AT H

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students were linked in fashion terms.

Hirst, Tracey Emin, and her dishevelled bed, and brothers Jake and Dinos Chapman, were not only exploring the same artistic territory as McQueen, they were often also his friends – or became so after he bought their work.

The YBA’s deliberate aim to shock and their exhibitions Brilliant and Sensation were in tune with the fashion designer. They were all, as Wilcox puts it, “the sensation generation”. I could even see in McQueen the spirit of video artist Bill Viola and his physical transformation through immersion in light on water. In my mind’s eye, there was the same shock in McQueen’s 1999 collection when model Shalom Harlow was sprayed with paint by twin robots. In specific cases, artist and designer were on parallel tracks, as in Hirst’s 2007 For the Love of God platinum skull set with diamonds, and McQueen’s repeated skull prints on luxury products from silk scarves, rings and bracelets to clutch bags. His last menswear collection had each and every outfit, and the show’s backdrop, patterned with skulls.

The relationship between fashion designers and artists is complex. There have been many collaborations in the past, from Elsa Schiaparelli with surrealist Salvador Dalí, to Christian Dior with illustrator and theatrical scenery designer Christian Bérard. Yves Saint Laurent’s shows were rich in art references. And Louis Vuitton, a mighty brand with a corporate identity, launched a collaboration between designer Marc Jacobs and Japanese artist Takashi Murakami in 2003.

Other projects followed, including one with artist Richard Prince in 2007, and with designer Yayoi Kusama and her recurring dots in 2012.

McQueen’s expression of art in his shows seemed much more powerful and violent, just as his use of familiar fashion items such as feathers were given what Wilcox calls a “barbaric primitivism”. With artistry came showmanship. Looking back at that period, he and John Galliano seemed to vie with each other to produce the most complex and elaborate storyline. Both designers worked in Paris at Givenchy with the support of LVMH (Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton). McQueen arrived at Givenchy as Galliano moved on to Christian Dior. Then Tom Ford

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and his business partner Domenico de Sole lured McQueen back to London to work on his own label under the auspices of Gucci Group and PPR, a luxury goods company now known as Kering, headed

by François-Henri Pinault.

McQueen often described himself as a romantic. On his right arm there was a tattoo of words taken from Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream: “Love looks not with the eyes but with the mind.” And his first fragrance, Kingdom, took the words “pierce my heart again” from the first line of a poem by Harvard professor and Pulitzer Prize-winner Jorie Graham. He devoured books, including classics such as Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of Species, and was a devotee of film, basing shows not only on Kubrick’s work but also James Cameron’s Avatar.

It was his mother Joyce’s interest in history that fuelled his fascination with his family’s past. These inspirations led to the complex titles of the McQueen shows, where front-row guests were handed plain envelopes containing words from the designer to clarify his thoughts and dreams. Thus, we would be told that

the 2007 collection entitled ‘In Memory of Elizabeth Howe, Salem, 1692’ was a story from his own family records of the fate of a distant relative. To that, he added Egyptian paganism and the eye makeup of Elizabeth Taylor in Cleopatra.

The epitome of such layers of references was the Spring/Summer 2007 ‘Sarabande’ collection, inspired by Kubrick’s Barry Lyndon; the story of early 20th-century muse and art patron Marchesa Casati; and Visconti’s 1971 film of Death in Venice. “I don’t see it as aggressive – I see it as romantic, dealing with a dark side of a personality,” said McQueen of his obsession with death and decay.

The Metropolitan Museum divided each section of its 2011 Savage Beauty exhibition into a play on romance: ‘romantic primitivism’, ‘romantic gothic’, ‘romantic exoticism’ and ‘romantic naturalism’, among others. “Through his runway presentations, McQueen validated powerful emotions as compelling and undeniable sources of aesthetic experience,” claimed Andrew Bolton, its curator.

One subject which cannot be addressed is how McQueen’s work would appear

now, in the second decade of the new millennium, when the high street has made fashion available to all, and ‘normcore’ – anonymous clothes without any design features – is a growing concept.

Because of his early death at the age of 40, Alexander McQueen is already part of fashion history, as is Professor Louise Wilson, who mentored so many students at Central Saint Martins, and who died from a heart attack in 2014. Tough to the edge of cruelty, she fought to bring out the best and the brightest in her students.

“Lee’s seminal shows sent a shiver up the back of my spine – and that does not happen so often,’’ she said.

Her grudging words of praise act as an epitaph for a designer who crammed so much into his work, as if he knew that his time on our muddy, filthy, ugly earth was limited – and that flowers must be planted on barren land.

First published in the Spring 2015 issue of the ‘V&A Magazine’. ‘Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty’ is on display at the V&A until 2 August 2015. Read Suzy’s reviews of the McQueen shows, ‘A Rose by Any Other Name’ and ‘A Geisha Fantasy’ at SuzyMenkesVogue.com

PHARRELL WILLIAMS: HAPPY TO HELP THE PLANET

PUBLISHED 06 SEPTEMBER, 2015

Victoria and Albert Museum London; G-Star RAW; Darren Gerrish

NEW YORK FASHION WEEK

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Pharrell Williams, king of cool, wants to save the planet. The first G-Star Raw for the Oceans collection, in collaboration with the Dutch-based denim company and curated by Pharrell, is now on sale. At New York Fashion Week, a second collection for Summer 2015 was shown, again featuring fabric by his Bionic Yarn textile company, which produces a fibre made of discarded plastic retrieved from the sea.

Pharrell, sitting with G-Star Raw’s global brand director Shubhankar Ray, discussed the importance of clothes from “the goliath of denim“ for people who might once have been laughed at as ‘tree huggers’.

“Our planet is sick,” Pharrell says.

“We people are the bloodline and there are some blockages with all the crazy things going on in the world. So many amazing things have happened to me. I’ve had a blessed, generous harvesting. The least I can do is get to our global community and give back to the earth.’’

This philanthropist and musician has serious fashion credentials. He founded the streetwear brands Billionaire Boys Club and Icecream, and heads the best dressed lists

around the world. But when I met him in London he admitted to one fatal flaw in his bid to be a prince of fashion. “I’m sorry, but it’s true,” the seven-time Grammy-winner confessed, looking out from under his signature hat. “I don’t even know how to tie a tie!”

No matter, given that his funky T-shirt, under a pink Céline coat, is adorned with jewellery in gold, jade and freshwater pearls by hip-hop’s favourite, Jacob ‘the Jeweller’ Arabo.

As to the coat, “I don’t know if I got it because it was pink or because it just fit good – and you know Phoebe [Philo] is just a genius at making

women’s clothes that could pass as unisex,” Pharrell said, proving that he has fashion insider knowledge.

The unisex fragrance he has created with Comme des Garçons Parfums (below) is called GIRL, just like the hit album of the same name.

Any collaboration with Comme is bound to be original. The cool-as-itgets Japanese brand was founded by designer Rei Kawakubo in 1969, and turned into a strong business by her partner and CEO Adrian Joffe.

Add to this a collaboration with Christian Astuguevieille, a fragrance master whom Pharrell refers to as “the alchemist”.

“I only collaborate with the masters of each trade,” Pharrell said.

“I’m a proud student. I like to remain as curious and observant as possible.”

Piled up in Comme’s emporium, Dover Street Market in London, GIRL – For Girls and Boys has striking packaging, with Japanese Mangastyle illustrations by New York artist KAWS. “The bottle is an artwork in itself, so is the juice, so is the brand that has produced it,” Pharrell said. “I think it’s quirky and interesting that they could do that with a musician and not make it a celebrity fragrance.”

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MARC JACOBS: VREELAND ON HIS MIND

The great joy and sometimes tears of a life in fashion P U B L I S H E D 2 5 F E B R U A R Y, 2 0 1 5 M A R C J A C O B S, N E W YO R K

“I’ve been thinking about Diana Vreeland a lot – not her particularly, but that kind of obsession and addiction to fashion and the pleasure and then pain of that addiction,” Marc Jacobs says in his New York studio.

I visited Marc to discuss his Autumn 2015 collection, as always a complete departure from the one before, and he explained why he had been inspired by Vreeland, a fashion editor who has became almost a caricature.

“I’m 52 now,” the former hellraiser says. “I look at young fashion and it all seems the same, the idea of what is edgy or cool. It’s style with no substance; it doesn’t seem born of anything. I don’t see the rebellion or edge in it. Maybe nothing’s going on, which has inspired that. That’s why I became interested in someone who found an allure in the past, but was curious about the future.”

While strong designers typically develop a look, usually quite early in their careers, and constantly use that as a benchmark,

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Marc Jacobs has always taken a contrary route. Particularly in his 16-year stint at Louis Vuitton, the concept was always change, surprise and the shock of the new.

“I love how fashion is all about the moment and then the extremity of dismissal,” he admits. “I’m often criticised for doing an about-face from one season to the next, but that’s what I love about fashion. I love that kind of dedication, devotion, obsession with what looks so amazing that you have to have it now.

And then saying next season, ‘Well, I wouldn’t be caught dead in it.’ I love the obscenity and the perversity of that.”

“We always react to what we did the season before. Last season the clothes were all inspired by a military palette and a cartoon vision of military decoration,” he says. “This time I still wanted precision, but more fastidious, sophisticated, severe.”

Some saw, in the intensity of this Parisian perfection, a touch of Schiaparelli, and Marc admits that he misses Paris,

where he spent more than 15 years building up Louis Vuitton. At the same time he developed his own label (with the support of LVMH), and its less expensive offshoot, Marc by Marc Jacobs.

Though he has severed his connection with the Louis Vuitton brand, and handed Marc by Marc Jacobs over to Luella Bartley and Katie Hillier, his namesake company is still supported by LVMH. The workers at his studio, sitting at long tables and focused on almost haute couture-like details, are a testament to his years away from New York.

He shows me a kilt skirt that is actually made of 100 pieces intersected with tulle and embroidered with crystal; and then knitwear that looks like traditional Argyle or Fair Isle, but is in fact embroidered, riveted with grommets and nailed.

Slender and lively, Marc seems ten years younger than he is. But on one subject he will not budge. “I am so appalled by social media,” he says. “I don’t get it, it doesn’t appeal to me. Neither does working on a laptop. I like a book with a hard cover, and text on a piece of paper. I don’t care if I carry around 100lbs of magazines; I’d rather do that than read them online. I am just not of that generation. I get the allure, but it just doesn’t appeal to me.”

To draw him away from his anti-socialmedia tirade, I ask about the collection, and particularly a yellow flowery dress, which seems outside the Vreeland frame; and coats, that turn out to be mink, but feather-light with no linings or facing.

“There’s nothing modern about this,” he says, showing me another coat. “It’s

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razor-cut, double-faced, which has been around since the Sixties. I still think it’s more modern than any laser cutting or gluing that falls apart at the dry cleaner’s.

If you get me started on modernity, and this whole idea of the future, I’d say I’d take a double-faced, razor-cut any day.”

I watch the designer surveying with passion and patience the handwork that is slowly bringing a crystal-embroidered coat together. “There’s a lot of shine also, because with all the dullness of the palette, I wanted to give it a touch of glamour. I wanted everything to sparkle and glisten and gleam,” he says. “That’s why there’s hematite stones and lots of sequins. And the reason why we are sitting here with no clothes is because the French embroidery houses are working around the clock.”

I try to put together the two Marcs: the one who is clearly passionate about his work, and the grumpy old man complaining about selfies and the celebrity circus. Diana Vreeland’s spirit is the link.

“I’ve read and re-read Vreeland’s book, Memos: The Vogue Years because it’s hilarious,” Marc says. “She calls her editors ‘silly cows’ for doing something she told them to do the day before. ‘That was so yesterday!’ But I love the audacity of it. It’s not that she couldn’t make up her mind. She was terribly decisive. It’s just that she changed her mind a day later. She got tired of something she was obsessed with, and that’s what fashion is. You don’t know what you want until you see it; then when you have it you want something else.

That’s what keeps the whole thing going.”

But what about his Paris years? The intense dedication to Vuitton, the stints in rehab and the final rupture, when he sent out models draped in black lace, like widows’ weeds. “I do miss Paris. I learned a lot there and love it,” he says. “It was exhausting, but because you are in the rhythm you don’t think of it that way.

“As a fashion designer, I love change and I hate change. It is a big loss, leaving something you did for 16 years. I was very attached to it; very attached to the group of people I worked with; the habits, the chaos – the pain and the pleasure... I think it’s for the better, but that doesn’t always make it feel okay. Some days, I couldn’t feel happier, and other days, if I don’t have as much to do, I feel a void,” he admits.

“Mrs Vreeland described her apartment as a garden in hell. Which is kind of what fashion is, isn’t it?”

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FROM LEFT: THE DUCHESS OF CAMBRIDGE; DIANA, PRINCESS OF WALES; QUEEN LETIZIA OF SPAIN

PUBLISHED 24 JUNE, 2014

Judged almost entirely through the camera lens, the pressure on today’s European princesses is greater than ever before I gazed at the photo of the Spanish queen, Letizia, sitting in a priestly white outfit next to her angelic daughters, and I felt like weeping. My emotion was not at seeing the inauguration of King Felipe VI. Nor was I interested in who had designed his wife’s outfit. Especially not that.

I felt the same chagrin that I do for all this generation of European princesses, who are smart, intelligent, chosen for love, not their blue blood – yet destined to be seen as nothing but coat hangers.

There is more chitchat about their clothes, their body shapes, their supposed nose jobs and other trivia than there is about the issues and causes that they have been working on for the last decade.

I blame Diana – although it is about her legacy, not her fault. The Princess of Wales did so much good work, from campaigning for treatment for Aids, to the removal of land mines, to helping children with leukemia, yet she was defined more by her charismatic persona than by her deeds. And especially by the way she looked and dressed.

Diana, aristocratic, poorly educated and needy for love, was smart enough to use her clothes as a message board. The transformation of ‘Shy Di’ into a young mother, a scorned wife, a confident divorcée and ultimately a superstar, was deliberately played out in her appearance.

But the disastrous legacy of a caring and committed princess, who would have been a grandmother in her 50s by now, was to lure the next generation of royals towards the mirror. They have focused on looks, which Diana so brilliantly manipulated, following the siren call of the television screen and magazine picture. Theirs is the impossible goal of being a new Lady Di. I watched the Grace of Monaco movie, and realised that the concept of princess-asmovie star started with the real thing: the marriage of Grace Kelly to Rainier of Monaco in 1956. Back then, majesty was presented as a Hollywood vision in silk, diamonds and up-dos that set the style of the time. Today, the image is viewed

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DIANA’S DISASTROUS LEGACY

through a smartphone. But seeing Letizia, or Queen Rania of Jordan in real life is to view tiny little birds, dieted down to a silhouette made for TV. Compare them to their royal wedding albums and everything seems to have changed: body shape, nose, cheeks. These young women, in their early 40s, re-model themselves for the camera.

All the current young royals – Mary of Denmark, Mette-Marit of Norway, or the recently crowned Queen Máxima of the Netherlands – are slim and trim to varying degrees. Stout royal figures are found only in the abdicating generation, like the pigeon plump former Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands, who has a similar silhouette to Britain’s late Queen Mother.

The Duchess of Cambridge is part of the new breed. She went from sporty student to skinny princess and, after showing her post-baby bump on the birth of Prince George, reduced to super-slim in photos and pin-thin in real life. A graduate of the University of St Andrews, like Prince William, she is using her intelligence to create a persona through the language of clothes. Her high-low look, in Alexander McQueen couture one day and off-the-peg Zara the next, sends out a message: “I can be royal – but I am still simple Kate.”

Some of the blame for the focus on clothes must lie with us, fashion editors who are quick to criticise, egged on by a blogosphere of shrill, smartphone critics.

Although we know that all the princesses, from South African swimming supremo Charlene of Monaco to the Tasmanianborn Mary of Denmark to the aristocratic Belgian Queen Mathilde, have causes that they support, it is far easier to comment on their wardrobes than their good works.

Letizia, for example, supports research into rare diseases and the World Health Organisation’s nutrition programmes.

Charlene of Monaco champions children’s causes and water-safety charities. Mary of Denmark is patron of the Danish Cancer Foundation and supports the study of rare disorders. Maybe in their own countries these projects are widely known. But globally, the only comments that stick are like Karl Lagerfeld’s remark that Kate could be Princess Mary’s younger sister.

What else is news? Ah, motherhood!

The anachronism of modern monarchy is that it is still the role of a princess who marries into a royal family – as it has been since ancient times – to produce “an heir and a spare” to secure the throne. Yet that

is not enough in a world of selfies and Instagram. Once she has produced a child, a princess feels that she has to wave a magic wand to recover her silhouette after pregnancy – just like the Hollywood stars.

The only royal to admit to an actual eating disorder (apart from Diana and her bulimia) is Crown Princess Victoria of Sweden, who once suffered from anorexia but now looks a healthy young mother.

Significantly, perhaps, she herself is heir to the throne, not married into a royal family.

Gossip has claimed that Letizia is anorexic, and her present light-as-a-bird look is very different from the powerful television presenter Letizia Ortiz Rocasolano before her marriage in 2004.

I asked Colombe Pringle, for ten years editor-in-chief of French royal and society magazine Point de Vue, why the younger royals are obsessed by their looks. “They all want to be movie stars, and realise that photos can make you look fat,” she said.

In Pringle’s view, the young royals are part of a wider societal change. “It’s the first time that magazines only talk about ‘It’ bags; that Cannes is all about the red carpet. These girls are like coat hangers with diamonds in their ears.”

Pringle, who made the magazine more intelligent and more political than most ‘royalty rags’, saw Carla Bruni morph from being France’s First Lady into a walking advertisement for Bulgari jewels.

She even admits that Kate Middleton’s mane of hair looks to her more like a shampoo advert than a royal ’do.

So what is the future for these middle-class princesses without the blood

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BEFORE AND AFTER...

DIANA, PRINCESS OF WALES

QUEEN NOOR OF JORDAN

CROWN PRINCESS VICTORIA OF SWEDEN

T H E Y A R E S M A R T, I N T E L L I G E N T, C H O S E N FOR LOVE, NOT THEIR B L U E B L O O D, Y E T DESTINED TO BE SEEN AS NOTHING BUT C O AT H A N G E R S

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royal pulsing through their veins? Happily, the great, historical change is that the firstborn child, female or male, can now inherit the throne, since the rules of royal primogeniture have changed. By happy chance, apart from Prince George, almost all the princesses have produced girls as firstborns. So the Infanta Leonor of Spain, now age nine, will be a queen one day in her own right, along with Princess Estelle of Sweden, Ingrid of Norway, and Catharina-Amalia of the Netherlands.

Will these little girls grow up to be confident princesses and queens, known for what they do, not how they look?

Now that would be a real royal fairy tale.

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RENZI: IS THIS SEVENTIES CHILD A FASHION ROLE MODEL?

“At Gucci, Frida Giannini was half in love with the era, recreating it in a streamlined, luxurious way”

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a streamlined, luxurious, Gucci way. Over at Alberta Ferretti, love children wore fringed suede and some flowery dresses.

MaxMara went mad for the moment when floppy hats and high-rise boots were in vogue. Then they were shown with matching clothes – in the same print. Even at Costume National, designer Ennio Capasa went for suede and fringe.

Of course, modern suede and laser-cutting give a more 21st-century look to the old hefty hide. And digital patterns give a new meaning to Flower Power. But surely it is time that Italian designers looked forward – not back – however witty and stylish some of these pastiches can be?

Prime Minister Renzi, with his penchant for taking off his jacket and appearing in a sharp shirt, has the right fashion idea. Shirts are hot. Or rather, they are cool. And far more suited than suede and fringe to modern times.

2 “At Alberta Ferretti, love children wore fringed suede and flowery dresses”

InDigital.com; Getty

There is a favourite line from rockers, hippies and love children about their misspent, drug-filled, manic youth: “If you can remember the Seventies, you weren’t there!”

One person who can honestly say he was not present is Matteo Renzi, Italy’s youthful Prime Minister. Now just 40, he was born in 1975, well after the Age of Aquarius and the Summer of Love back in 1967. In the Seventies, he was barely in his cradle. So with this dynamic role model of the youngest leader in Europe and beyond, why would designers at Milan Fashion Week appear to be mad about the Seventies?

The colours of that decade are everywhere: mustard, apricot, mud brown and burgundy. There are suede tunics – or suede anything. There are dangling fringes galore. And even – Oh, horror! – variations on flared trousers.

At Gucci, designer Frida Giannini was half in love with the era, recreating it in

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Honouring Jeanne Lanvin

“Costume National’s Ennio Capasa went for suede and fringe”

4 “MaxMara went mad for the moment when floppy hats and high-rise boots were in vogue”

PUBLISHED 05 MARCH, 2015 J E A N N E L A N V I N, PA R I S

Jeanne Lanvin, at the Palais Galliera until 23 August 2015, is an exhibition curated by Olivier Saillard (above left) with Alber Elbaz, Lanvin’s current artistic director (right), as an alter ego.

“I want to give her space,” Elbaz told me. “For so long she was not on anyone’s radar, because Madame Grès was the queen of technique, Vionnet the queen of pattern and volume – and Chanel the queen of everything! Jeanne Lanvin was the first lifestyle designer, she was the smartest of them all.

She did couture, menswear, furniture, children’s clothes, perfume, make-up, powder. She was really the first one, and maybe one of the most intelligent.’’

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DIOR: DIPPING THROUGH THE DECADES At Dior’s haute couture, the models’ hemlines dipped through the decades: a swirl of a skirt from the Fifties; short, bright and striped from the Sixties.

And those tasteless Seventies? There were catsuits, shimmering in silver or multi-coloured jacquard, competing for attention with shoes where chunky transparent heels gave some height.

Raf Simons’s couture for Christian Dior was a conundrum – the handwork so beautiful that you wondered which fairy fingers could have pressed flowers into a translucent plastic coat; or embroidered tiny sequins on guipure lace.

As the models walked down a ramp to the runway, you could tell that each stripe, each decoration – even the double rings that tied the ponytails – were works of art.

Front row guests such as Natalie Portman and Benjamin Millepied gazed in wonder at each vertiginous descent.

The show could be called retro, and David Bowie’s voice from across the decades rang through the room. Yet there was still a streamlined, modern feel, even to full skirts, when teamed with a racy, sporty top.

“Last time we went right YO U C O U L D T E L L T H AT back into the past, and I thought it would be interesting EACH STRIPE, EACH to imagine three decades D E C O R AT I O N, WA S A together: the romance of the WORK OF ART Fifties, the courage of the Sixties and the liberty of the Seventies,” said Raf backstage. He was referring to his last season’s haute couture, whose themes ranged from the 18th-century to the moon landing.

Like any journey, there were dynamic, speedy passages, others less sure-footed –

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and some trip-ups.

Perhaps the set, made of scaffolding, was significant, suggesting a work in progress.

I do not think of Raf as a romantic or a decorator – rather, as an architect. Yet the puffed-up skirts were beautiful and sweet. They looked good, too, as part of an extended circle, with pleated hoops in vivid shades of grass green, yellow, red, orange, and a line of navy.

Cutting the sweetness with a pop of colour modernised the effect, not least with acid-bright vinyl boots. The short skirts seemed more of a problem, although a tailored lemon-yellow coat was cute. Even when the same striped pleats were used, the thigh-high boots, as if from the set of 1968 movie Barbarella, made me doubt Dior’s journey into space.

While I don’t think that Raf Simons quite hit the target, there is a sense of energy at the house. Monsieur Dior would have said it with flowers in the most conventional way. The current designer has a more radical point of view.

Although I did not have a chance to go to the studio, I would imagine that the petites mains (seamstresses), would be invigorated by doing new things with embroidery and paillettes.

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PUCCI, MILAN FASHION WEEK

PUCCI: ITS FATE IS IN THE STARS To cheers and applause – not least from his loyal creative team – Peter Dundas bowed out as Creative Director of Pucci, wearing a T-shirt with his Sagittarius sign of the zodiac – the theme of the Autumn/ Winter 2015 collection.

His fate may already be in the stars, for the word is out that he will join Roberto Cavalli, where he held the role of Chief Designer between 2002 and 2005.

Laudomia Pucci, daughter of the founder and CEO of the brand in which LVMH owns the controlling stake, would not comment on the Dundas departure.

The designer himself said backstage, without citing a name, that he had signed a new deal.

Who is taking over at Pucci? The smart money is on Massimo Giorgetti of MSGM, the 37-year-old designer who won Vogue Italia’s Who Is On Next? contest five years ago. His proven ability to create a profitable business that is expanding globally would make him an interesting proposition for a luxury brand. Also, his energy and ability

to position himself between luxury and main street would certainly cause a shake up at the once-aristocratic house of the late Emilio Pucci.

Dundas followed other designers as the creative head of the label, including British designer Matthew Williamson and couturier Christian Lacroix. So in the never-ending game of fashion-designer musical chairs, what did Peter Dundas bring to Pucci in his seven years at the helm?

Embracing the zodiac signs as Pucci prints was smart and original. In fact, the Dundas skill has been to break away from the signature ‘Emilio’ prints.

With his Nordic background and holiday home in Greece, Dundas has widened the scope of the fashion house beyond Pucci’s native Florence – sometimes rather too brutally. But the Dundas connection with Euro It-girls and his proficiency at producing seductively cut clothes has made him popular with celebrities, and a regular fashion provider for the red carpet.

This season he put some focus on his favourite velvet tailoring, in rich burgundy or navy blue, while white chiffons used for ruffle blouses and floaty dresses were pretty palette cleansers.

But it is the zodiac patterns that will be remembered – along with his cheerfulness.

As Suzy anticipated, Peter Dundas is now at Roberto Cavalli

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BALENCIAGA

SCHIAPARELLI

WESTWOOD

ISSEY MIYAKE

MARGIELA

PUBLISHED 06 MARCH, 2015 BALENCIAGA, PARIS

The curving bosoms, the raised waists, the full hips – and a diamond arrow beside strings of pearls. It was all so very Cristóbal.

Since Alexander Wang’s tenure as Creative Director at Balenciaga he has never before designed a collection with such a perfume of the past. The inspiration of the original Cristóbal Balenciaga, who died in 1972, was helped by Lady Gaga vogueing on the runway before the show, while Gaga and

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Kate Moss then posed together, showing off the formal and casual side of the brand today.

“I liked the idea of including heirloom things and pairing them together with embroideries – it’s a subversive elegance,” Wang said of the mix of past and present.

This show was a big test for Wang, who has given the historic house his sporty touch. For A/W 2015, as the creator of a campedup Cristóbal, he came out with

flying colours. That meant, literally, bright scarlet, although the basic look was of black and white checks to match the catwalk carpet.

The idea of spritzing the scent of the past over the present was done with dash and style. There was still sleek workwear, with rounded coats worn over narrow pants. Although no woman in the Fifties would have dared to wear the trousers, there was a faintly retro feel. The more general look

was of top and skirt, where a taut bodice was tucked into a skirt bunched at the waist, the models walking with that greyhound gait of haute couture in its glory days.

Somehow, it managed not to be a costume party. And when Wang outlined a portrait neck with fur, there was a nobility to this couture look that had even the most jeans ’n’ sneakers members of the audience dream of fashion as it could, just maybe, be today.

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Subversive Elegance

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‘FASHION MIX’ – THE IMMIGRATION GAME When a museum dedicated to the history of immigration opened in Paris eight years ago, no one could have known how relevant and contentious its subject would become.

Not long after the extremist attacks in Paris, I arrived at the Museum of the History of Immigration, at the aptly named Porte Dorée, or Golden Gate, in the city’s 12th arrondissement. What could fashion have to do with this touchy subject of French identity and its economic, social and cultural diversity?

As soon as I walked into the exhibition, Fashion Mix, I was transfixed by a map of the world. It had arrow lines that showed the trajectory of a mass of designers from outside France to Paris, from legends of the past, such as Cristóbal Balenciaga, Charles Frederick Worth, and Elsa Schiaparelli, to the more contemporary names of Junya Watanabe, Azzedine Alaïa, and Alexander McQueen.

The exhibition, curated by Olivier Saillard, director of the Palais Galliera, lives up to its title, placing the grand gestures of John Galliano or Vivienne Westwood beside a Lucile dress from the Twenties. Details, letters, drawings and information about the best-known designers are in display cabinets. It is a great way of documenting fashion.

Saillard divides these ‘fashion immigrants’ into various countries of origin, such as Japan or Russia, although I was not entirely comfortable with the groupings. Surely a distinction should have been made between designers who left their home countries and settled in Paris, frequently ‘Frenchifying’ their names, such as Jean Dessès from Egypt, and those designers, such as Rei Kawakubo of Comme des Garçons, who show in Paris but do not live there.

Equally, the Russian contingent which appeared in the Twenties included designers who were often aristocrats fleeing the revolution, and who used their sewing skills to keep afloat. These were genuine immigrants, rather than designers looking for fashion-world consecration in Paris.

Yet the exhibition includes some touching stories that show how challenging it could be to travel in the early days, before affordable flights. In one video display, Yohji Yamamoto talks about his train journey from Japan, via Siberia, Finland and Denmark and finally to Paris, where he said he “felt I had come home”. For fashion lovers, the exhibition is interesting in that it shows even recent designers, like Helmut Lang, who are now part of history.

Although Saillard hardly mentions the inflammatory ‘immigration’ word, we get the message: the Paris stew of high style does not have purely French ingredients.

‘Fashion Mix’ runs until 31 May 2015

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GIVENCHY

NORMCORE FOR MEN? NO WAY!

There’s no sign of The Man in the Grey Flannel Suit, and that’s okay

MENSWEAR’S MOMENT IN THE LIMELIGHT First and above all, there is the global spread of male style to areas such as Asia or the Middle East, where young men are not bound by the clichés of a European class system. The adoption of sneakerswith-everything and a mix of sporty with

tailored proves how a new dynamic can be created by breaking with tradition.

Then there is the exploding financial success of menswear.

Nothing encourages a buyer to invest in masculine coats of many colours more than the knowledge that in men’s departments, sales are soaring, while women’s are dragging.

But perhaps the most important change is the recognition that designers are the lifeblood of brand style for both genders: hence designer Stefano Pilati joining Ermenegildo Zegna in Italy; Ricardo Tisci of Givenchy putting the same heat into men’s and women’s shows; and burgeoning British designer Jonathan Anderson getting hired for Loewe.

BERLUTI: MURANO GLASS COLOURS

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It is a long stretch from BERLUTI, PARIS FASHION WEEK well-polished leather shoes to a polished menswear collection, but Artistic Director Since Antoine Arnault has been the Alessandro Sartori has made that leap. brand’s CEO, he has found ingenious The Venetian Murano glass backstage ways to show the collection. This time, formed a pool of translucent orange, male visitors were asked to take off their green, royal blue, and turquoise – the shoes – and had them returned by a waiter same shades that lifted the simplicity on a tray with a box of polish afterwards. of the classic formal and sporty designs.

Never too late to learn to be a gentleman.

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After two weeks of menswear shows, I can say I have witnessed a quiet revolution.

The male runway used to be either conspicuously wild and weird, or a timid attempt to freshen up the classics, which means that bland was the default position of the well-dressed male.

But this is what I have seen on the Paris catwalks: a formal tail suit distinguished by pressed-flower lapel buttons (Dior Homme); a tailored coat in a vivid shade of Murano glass (Berluti); and a cashmere cardigan with silken sweater and glossy calfskin trousers (Hermès). Lanvin showed a mix of the oversized and tautly fitted; sleek simplicity and dense embellishment.

This menswear on the runway is the opposite of Normcore: a deliberately neutral way of dressing. As a style editor, I have always questioned how unassuming clothes could be genuinely defined as ‘fashion’. Choosing a neutral wardrobe is a choice, but not necessarily a fashion statement. But in the last two decades of menswear shows, there has been a root-and-branch change, which I put down to three separate causes.

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A TRIBUTE TO OSCAR DE LA RENTA

The last words Oscar de la Renta said to me, his cheeks rosy from the setting sun streaming into his 42nd Street studio, were, “Flowers! Flowers! Flowers!” As if I had not already taken in the pink roses, peonies and hydrangeas circling the backdrop to his Summer 2015 show – and the rich flower patterns suggesting the eternal spring of an optimistic mind.

Oscar, even at 82, was so convivial, partly due to his background in a privileged world of the Dominican Republic, but also his uptown life in New York.

I never saw him – or his designs – ruffled or messy-casual, which is why it was difficult to take on board a disgraced John Galliano’s one-season period of redemption, when, working with Oscar, he deliberately gave an ‘untidy’ look to the collection.

I think of Oscar as the epitome of elegance, whether in a suit or a torso-tracing tuxedo. He would stand with his wife Annette at his table at the Met Ball, greeting guests graciously, but with a broad smile. The epitome of the gallant gentleman.

I know that the cream of Hollywood – as well as first ladies – wore Oscar de la Renta. I remember Sarah Jessica Parker as Carrie Bradshaw in Sex and the City, hugging herself with joy at the gorgeousness of Oscar’s dresses. Then to the long list of faithful clients came another in his “say it with flowers” gowns – Amal Alamuddin, for her wedding dress and going-away outfit.

What an exit for Oscar! His polished leather shoes will now be filled by Peter Copping, formerly of Nina Ricci.

It would be a mistake to think of him as just a classic designer to high society, starting with Jacqueline Kennedy in the Sixties.

There was always the colour, sumptuous verdure and grandeur of Santo Domingo.

Above all, I shall miss his voice – the way he said “Suzy”, pronounced as a deep, rich “Soozy”, always with a twinkle in his eye.

Oscar de la Renta (1932-2014)

PUBLISHED 21 OCTOBER, 2014 O S C A R D E L A R E N TA , N E W YO R K

I THINK OF OSCAR AS THE EPITOME OF ELEGANCE, WHETHER IN A SUIT OR A TO R S O - T R AC I N G TUXEDO

OSCAR DE LA RENTA IN HIS STUDIO, JUNE 1985

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InDigital.com; Getty

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A light touch

P U B L I S H E D 2 7 J A N U A R Y, 2 0 1 5 GIORGIO ARMANI PRIVÉ, PARIS

“Bamboo is strong but it can bend,” said Giorgio Armani of the verdant leitmotif in this collection.

Armani has always had a penchant for the East, but these were not clothes that shrieked of an Asian origin. Not that this quiet and gentle collection shouted in any way to the many front-row clients, such as actresses Kristin Scott Thomas, Robin Wright, Sonam Kapoor and Paz Vega.

“I love those loose trousers,” said Scott Thomas, referring to the flowy pants that swayed like a forest of tender stems under short or long fitted jackets. We have seen this look before from the designer, but he has refreshed it with delicate details.

Armani celebrates 40 years in fashion in 2015, and, although Armani Privé has had a shorter life, this show seemed to sum up what the maestro stands for: a quiet strength akin to bamboo.

These were clothes to wear with a casual elegance: there was little obvious decoration, and the shades of green, blue and aquamarine suggested water flowing over the body. Any of these outfits could have graced the red carpet. And ‘grace’ is the word for Armani.

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TIFFANY ON THE CHAMPS-ELYSEES On 13 June 2014, Tiffany officially opened its new Paris store on the ChampsÉlysées with a party on the rooftop of the Arc de Triomphe – the monument conceived by Emperor Napoleon himself.

Is this new store a triumph too?

Another success in the battle to reclaim from vendors of cheap food, tourist trinkets and fast fashion what is supposed to be a gorgeous and glorious avenue?

The fact that Tiffany took over from hamburger chain Quick says it all. Now, at 62, Avenue des Champs-Élysées, there is a graceful façade in the spirit of Haussmann – the architect who transformed the face of Paris in the 19th century. Add a wink to

the New York jeweller’s Art Deco heritage and this newcomer looks spiffy.

A decade earlier, Cartier opened in 2004 a noble store on what the French themselves trumpet as ‘the most beautiful avenue in the world’. That was followed in 2005 by Louis Vuitton’s palace of a building on the corner of Avenue George V. Vuitton is still a premier shopping destination, and has been followed by other designer stores who are bringing back some retail class and clout.

The first time I learned about the Champs-Élysées I was studying for school exams and reading Marcel Proust. I longed to be with the sensitive young boy and his

As I stood in Tiffany’s – all steely silver mixed with warmly gilded marble – I had the palpable sense that this street of dreams was undergoing a renaissance. The Tiffany store is elegant, its staircase set around a central vacuum filled with translucent rods. Everywhere is the glint of steel, a soft touch of flat-painted magnolias and a chandelier with a flip of movement to suggest the fringe of a flapper dress.

Frederic Cumenal, president of Tiffany & Co, calls the opening of the ChampsÉlysées store, “the ultimate and symbolic representation of the positioning of Tiffany as a mark of international luxe”.

From starting prices of a few hundred euros for simple, silver pieces, to the light and welcoming bridal and client areas, the store is friendly and airy. The complexity of the jewellery and the prices go up as the floors get higher.

The general effect is enticing and might be called ‘luxury lite’. And that is a fair description of the revival of the ‘Champs’ as a deluxe marketplace.

Further down the avenue, towards the Place de la Concorde, a new Guerlain has emerged at 68, Champs-Élysées. The historic beauty of the fragrance store, with its century-old Carrara marble, has undergone a makeover, bringing a 21st-century glamour to treatment rooms overlooking the wide street and to private areas to welcome special clients.

Like Sephora, the beauty supermarket on the avenue, Guerlain is owned by LVMH (Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton) and Peter Marino, the company’s favourite architect, has refurbished it. Using shimmering pink-beige glass, four Baccarat crystal chandeliers and a giant

flirty childhood friend Gilberte Swann, the two children running through the green gardens of the Champs-Élysées, with the clip clop of horse-driven carriages over the cobbles as Parisian society rejoined its mighty mansions.

Imagine my disappointment when I saw this fabled boulevard through an unstoppable flow of cars in front of dusty trees and grand buildings that had seen much better days. The traffic on the road was matched by the vast plate-glass windows of car showrooms, plus the nondescript, overpriced tourist eateries.

What had happened to the Elysian Fields, the real meaning of “Champs-Élysées”?

PUBLISHED 10 JUNE, 2014 PARIS STORE LAUNCH

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InDigital.com; Tiffany & Co.

THE FRENCH AVENUE TO D AY R E M A I N S S T U B B O R N LY F O R THE PEOPLE. ALL OF THE PEOPLE

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golden star, the blend is old and new in homage to Paris as the ‘City of Light’.

The new area, developed in a space beside the historic Guerlain building as a hall of fragrance, makeup and skin care, ends with something utterly Parisian: a stylish restaurant.

I was almost convinced that the Champs-Élysées had restored a glamorous retail environment. But I recalled the view from Tiffany’s side window: Monoprix – a cheap and cheerful supermarket chain.

Then it hit me: the Champs today is not really about a return to haute luxe. It is, rather, a ringing affirmation that high and low co-exist in today’s consumer world.

I began a full tour of both sides of the avenue, starting with Ladurée, its windows filled with pastel macaroons.

Ever since the City of Paris enlarged the sidewalks, Ladurée’s outside extension has become the favourite street café for foreign visitors. I soon discovered that the Champs-Élysées today offers a masterclass in high-low shopping. Right beside the noble Cartier store, with its richly decorated windows, is a tourist shop with “I Love Paris” in scarlet on its canvas canopy.

Opposite the sleek and modern Hugo Boss store and the equally dynamic and sporty Lacoste, is a McDonald’s. The heavily-marketed Nespresso coffee shop competes with classy Kusmi tea.

But how to define the current-day customer? The Champs has 100 million visitors a year – and they appear to be not so much aspirational as happy to shop at stores from A-list names to Zara.

There is a wave of Chinese tourists that would have been unthinkable a decade ago. People from every culture walk the boulevard, though the Parisians themselves are the rarest of sights, perhaps deigning to pass by on their way to a local cinema.

Famous streets rise and fall. In New York, Fifth Avenue started edging back as a chic spot when Louis Vuitton planted itself at the corner of East 57th Street, opposite the historic Tiffany building.

In London, Burberry’s mansion of a store has brought new life to Regent Street.

Yet the Champs-Élysées is different.

If Proust’s vision was of the ultimate in aristocratic elegance, today it remains stubbornly for the people.

All of the people.

So let them eat Ladurée cake! And mark their love for this wide, welcoming avenue with a silver heart from Tiffany.

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TO RY B U R C H

Magic Carpets “Marrakech meets Chelsea” – whether the New York or London district was not specified, but that was the Tory Burch line for her Autumn/Winter 2015 collection.

One look at the worn, patterned Moroccan carpets on the runway explained the story.

And those rugs worked as magic carpets for this version of 21st-century Bohemia.

The designer, wearing a dress with a rusty North African pattern, defined the look: a new, polished version of Seventies hippie luxe.

It is tough to take on a Moroccan theme without turning it into a parade of sandals and carpetbags. And those generous carrier bags were there, but in a sophisticated way, like the Berber jewellery influences.

Sleek pieces for the season included a tailored coat in jacquard, worn with streamlined pants – not a gypsy skirt.

Tory has developed the idea of taking a subject and running with it – but within the parameters of her own style. The show of Marrakechmade-chic was a fine example of her artistic skills.

P U B L I S H E D 1 7 F E B R U A R Y, 2 0 1 5 TORY BURCH, NEW YORK

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KARL LAGERFELD: BONN EXHIBITION’S GRITTY ROMANCE

THERE IS NO DOUBT T H AT C H A N E L I S T H E R I P E F R U I T O F K A R L’ S FA S H I O N L A B O U R

David Ertl

27/01/15

“I like fashion to be part of daily life,” is the message from Karl Lagerfeld. The words flicker in neon over the first museum study of the designer, with his blessing, in his birth country of Germany.

A mock-up of Karl’s desk, covered with pencils and crayons, surrounded by books and pieces of paper, crumpled and discarded, is the central symbol of Karl Lagerfeld: Modemethode at the Bundeskunsthalle in Bonn (which runs until 13 September).

‘Paper to Paper’ is the theme that P U B L I S H E D 2 7 J A N U A R Y, 2 0 1 5 runs through a show that has a BUNDESKUNSTHALLE, BONN selection of Karl’s working drawings for Fendi and Chanel, before the exhibition reaches its zenith with a ‘Paper Palace’ for haute couture, surrounded by paper flowers and leaves, and ending with blank pads ready for Karl to sketch his next collection.

The first piece on display is the yellow wool coat with which the young Karl Lagerfeld won a Woolmark Prize in 1954.

It is the only garment which had to be recreated, with the designer demanding from Amanda Harlech – his muse, creative partner and the fashion curator of the show – that it be the exact shade “between I sympathised with Amanda, as joint lemon and daffodil”. curator with the museum’s director, Rein Next comes a wall of drawings by Karl Wolfs, when he said: “I would have liked for Fendi over 50 years, chosen from the exhibition to be ten times bigger.

40,000 by Gerhard Steidl, the exhibition’s There are only 126 mannequins, which designer and Karl’s guru for anything the set enormous challenges.” multitasking photographer and fashion Steidl has made those mannequins, in his creator prints on paper. The background own words, “sensational”, by using a digital is a gritty street, created by Steidl with 3D invention to produce a striking realism. digitally printed cement walls, complete This is especially effective in the joyous with kerbs and photographed in Berlin.

Chloé session of 20 pieces, where the models Even Karl himself seemed surprised at sprawl over a fan-shaped sofa wearing his longevity at Fendi, when I spoke to him Lagerfeld’s Seventies look at his most about the exhibition earlier this month. light-handed and romantic. This section “I have been doing Fendi for 50 years also has the mannequins dancing at a – can you believe it – it is a world record!” fictional Studio 54, one dress famous for he said. “Nobody, nobody! Not even for its embroidered water taps launching their own companies has worked for such a stream of crystals. a long time. But for me it is like the past Already, even before the small 14-piece few days. And I like it much better now.” section of graphic black-and-white clothes Although I was fascinated by a under his own KL label, and the circle of boilersuit and Persian pants from the tailored suits that is the start of a long Eighties – among the 30 Fendi looks – tribute to Chanel, any museum visitor has

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to ask the question: how does Karl juggle all these brands? Steidl has created an entire wall of logos. What is the secret of these alter egos?

“We live in the days of multiple identities,” says Wolfs. “That is Karl Lagerfeld’s strength. He is a good photographer and great at drawing – but we have to celebrate him for fashion.”

For me, the exhibition works because it is so selective. Would I have mentioned the designer’s seed bed at the couture houses of Balmain and Jean Patou? Maybe.

Would I have swapped his dalliance with H&M that set off the high-low trend in 2004, for a showing of some of Karl’s films? Probably. Should there have been less Chanel? I don’t think so.

There is no doubt that Chanel is the ripe fruit of Karl’s fashion labour. The show surveys the brand slowly: the iconic suit, the uniform of black, the wit of accessories including a pair of Coco sneakers from 1983, the year Karl started at the label.

There is even a display of Chanel buttons.

After the ‘Evolution of Tweed’ – including, Amanda explains, trompe-l’oeil woven effects done by embroidery – there is a flash of 18th-century exaggeration.

This includes giant wigs created by coiffeur Sam McKnight, a memory to me of Karl in his baroque, fan-carrying days.

Chanel drawings, turned into vast posters by Steidl, lead to the dramatic ‘Paper Palace’, created by three hand workers over three weeks. The beauty and the workmanship of the dresses are breathtaking – not least because Steidl insisted on no glass cases in the exhibition.

The last mannequin has a Neoprene dress covering a swollen stomach under its ravishing gilded cloak – a representation of the pregnant model who walked the couture runway in 2014.

“It’s about falling in love with Karl; I thought I knew the work, but this has been an incredible discovery,” Amanda said. “It’s the energy, the emotion, the eye that never stops looking and searching for a clear line.

He is a genius of sculpture, texture, colour, detail, lightness – and grace.”

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A JEWEL OF A FAIRY TALE Van Cleef & Arpels creates an evening of Renaissance enchantment

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A magical castle, a beautiful princess, an ogre of a king, a handsome prince – and a donkey. What else could you need for the perfect fairy tale?

Oh, so much more! Parakeets and owls clinging to the shoulders of masked courtiers parading on a terrace high up under the turrets of the Château de Chambord in the Loire Valley.

A medieval banquet that only the French could envisage: tables groaning with fruit, flowers and food; wine bottles fat and full; a waiter service orchestrated by figures dressed in Renaissance costumes; and sweet princesses in silken dresses, lit up by jewels.

Ah, the jewels! In this exceptional fest of French grandeur, the Van Cleef & Arpels collection of high jewellery was

inspired by ‘Peau d’Âne’ (‘Donkey Skin’), the legendary story of a princess who finds happiness (and ultimately her prince) in rural bliss. The jewellery house created artistic images with gemstones: here was an enchanted forest, with a diamond barn hidden in emerald foliage; there, the château, recreated in diamonds around a 39-carat Brazilian emerald.

Most poignant of all were three little princesses, their skirts glittering in pavé work, the craftsmanship as delicate at the back as at the front. Their colours of dazzling sun and muted moon were reproduced in the “impossible” shades demanded from the deranged king when he asked to marry his own daughter.

The story – a dark, Brothers Grimmstyle fairy tale from 1695, was made into

a film of the same name in 1970, directed

by Jacques Demy, with Catherine Deneuve hiding her ethereal blonde beauty behind a donkey-skin robe.

Following the original, the Van Cleef installation was at the bottom of the château’s sweeping stone stairs – believed to have been designed by Leonardo da Vinci. The backdrops were inspired by the woodcuts of Gustave Doré, who illustrated the original story. A drawing of a caparisoned elephant introduced the most exotic Van Cleef jewels: bold neckpieces of colourful stones.

Outside on the lawns, a real elephant, decorated Maharaja-style with wildly patterned floppy ears, joined an eyepopping parade of gilded carriages, unicorns and horn-blowing hunters.

Van Cleef & Arpels; production still from Jacques Demy’s Peau dÂne, 1970. Michel Lavoix © 2003 Succession Demy; InDigital.com

C H Â T E A U D E C H A M B O R D, F R A N C E

That was a reference to the era of Francis I, the young king of France who ascended to the throne in 1515 and built Chambord in a game-filled forest in the Loire Valley. This ultimate hunting lodge has become a powerful symbol of the French Renaissance.

So, like Renaissance royalty, Van Cleef had built an ephemeral tent – this one a colourful Moorish marquee – for the guests for whom the dress code was ruby red or sapphire blue.

Every part of the evening followed a theme of muted elegance, from the soft, silken dresses by designer Gaspard Yurkievich, to the music of Michel Legrand, who composed the original film score for Peau d’Âne.

It is rare to see such a combination of imagination and elegance in a world focused on celebrity, showmanship and brand promotion. With no visible logos, the event transported guests to an enchanted world, while showcasing five centuries of the finest French traditions and, with a sweet simplicity, focusing on craftsmanship and skill.

Behind this evening of earthly delights was Nicolas Bos, President and CEO of the jewellery house.

“We thought it was time to go back in history to discover the art, poetry, literature and architecture of the early 16th century,’’ said Bos, explaining that even the tent was inspired by a structure once created to greet the King of England.

“We wanted to give a 21st-century interpretation using our own art, exceptional stones and the magic of our workmanship,’’ he continued, before fireworks exploded over the turrets and brought the evening to a close.

Poetry and magic are rare in the hyper-world of luxury, making this enchanted night a jewel of an event.

C L A R E WA I G H T KELLER SENT OUT A C O L L E C T I O N T H AT IS THE CLOSEST SHE HAS COME TO CAPTURING THE ESSENCE OF CHLOÉ

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Chloé’s Free Spirit Lives On How poignant that the Chloé Spring/Summer 2015 collection captured so well the sweet, free spirit of the brand.

No one could have predicted the sentiment of a show that would take place one day after the death, at age 93, of Gaby Aghion, who founded Chloé over 60 years ago.

Her period with Karl Lagerfeld at the helm, when he invented le flou – a new kind of fluidity – changed the face of fashion.

By happenstance, the designer Clare Waight Keller sent out a collection that is the closest she has come to capturing the essence of Chloé. It may now be a label for international, rather than specifically French, young women, but the British designer has reached a point where everything is working well.

As the show opened, the new feeling was evident: no hard,

pulsating music with the models throwing themselves at breakneck speed down the runway.

Instead it was a gentle outing for lacy, racy little dresses. Although I must admit, it was not until I was backstage after the show that I realised the amount of work that had gone into fabricating the peacocks that spread their wings across the lace.

The clothes had loosened up.

A lot of the inspiration seemed like hippie-de-luxe from the Seventies – a trend for Summer 2015. But the high quality of a fresh, full-sleeved white shirt worn with tailored shorts, or a shorts outfit in saffron and rust suede, put Chloé in a class of its own.

But it was the handwork that made Chloé’s fresh, young clothes look classy, rather than just cute.

Gaby Aghion would surely have been proud to see the Chloé name that she planted all those years ago is an evergreen, and eternally young.

PUBLISHED 28 SEPTEMBER, 2014 CHLOÉ, PARIS FASHION WEEK

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PUBLISHED 09 DECEMBER, 2014 WHERE THE MAGIC HAPPENS

CHANEL’S METIERS D’ART In the orgy of opulence that was the Eighties, I remember so clearly my visit to the workshop of François Lesage. In the small, dark rooms, where buttons and threads were lined up in empty jam-jars on a worn wooden shelf, the world’s most famous embroiderer would pull open drawers, grab a square of cloth and announce triumphantly, “Schiaparelli!”

Then there was Andre Lemarié, who would treat the feathers all around his warren of rooms not as if we were backstage at the Folies Bergère, but as if each plume were a priceless jewel.

What a difference Chanel makes! As I walked into the light and airy premises of the Métiers d’Art in the Pantin district of Paris, opened in January 2013, I was struck by the age of the petites mains – so

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young! – and the fact that there were a lot of men, not just women, taking up these ancient crafts. These talented workers have been employed since Chanel decided to preserve this French field of excellence by buying treasured specialist companies.

My visit started with a look at the beautiful work from the past, from Elsa Schiaparelli to a Valentino dress, rich with embroidered greenery, and from the spring and autumn couture. But I was impatient to see these human hands at work.

No one understands the art of needle and thread better than Hubert Barrère, artistic director of Maison Lesage. He is responsible for all the fashion world’s exceptional embroidery, carrying the torch for François Lesage, who died in 2011. It seems that these marvels of needlework

can be applied to any fabric, from finest silk to thickest velvet, even for the couture decoration on those Chanel sneakers.

I spoke to M Barrère after Chanel’s Salzburg show, and he told me how much he and his team enjoyed the Métiers d’Art Chanel collection because there was “time to think”. “This collection was a gift,” he said. “Karl just talked about Salzburg and then left us to do it. We researched Mozart, Von Hofmannsthal, the music festival – even The Grand Budapest Hotel film. We studied Empress Sissi, her history, the Romy Schneider movie and all that was romantic and poetic, but also joyous.

We did all those little embroidered flowers

lejournalflou.com; Olivier Saillant

During a visit to Chanel’s workshops, I saw a new generation of petites mains keeping forgotten crafts alive in the name of fashion

and butterflies; we wanted it to be imperial, but also bucolic, historic and romantic.”

The work was dense, intense, but never vulgar or showy. I could hardly believe that a chic bomber jacket had required 330 hours of needlework in gold braid yarn at the collar, with golden waves of metallic sequins at the hip and wrists. No wonder Bruno Pavlovsky, President of Fashion at Chanel, told me at the Salzburg show that Métiers d’Art was close to

couture. However M Barrère surprised me by saying he was a fan of simplicity.

“People think that embroidery has to be very precious, but it can also be fresh and simple, and Karl is a fan of freshness,” he said, recalling his studio’s work for Chanel’s Métiers d’Art show in Edinburgh in 2012. Last year’s Dallas show he called “classic Western”, while for 2011’s Paris-Bombay show they sought the delicate and the metallic rather than the “land of the maharajas”.

The Lemarié feathers, multiple plumes like a nest of birds of paradise, were made into the same effects as I saw in Salzburg.

I asked Nadine Dufat, Managing Director of Lemarié and Lognon, how many people worked on the feathers: “Sixty people and up to 110 before the collections.” She reminded me that the house also produces 40,000 Chanel camellia flowers a year! “It is a mixture of different savoir-faire,” said Mme Dufat, using that French expression for what we might call a ‘skill set’.

These are the details I found on Chanel’s Métiers d’Art delicate ‘Mountain Landscape’ top and skirt: the pattern made from goose feathers, leather, woollen flowers, beads and crystal; on the sleeves, tie-dye sky-blue satin accordion pleats; and star-shaped flowers and forget-menots in blue leather with a bead at centre.

Total hours of handwork: 378.

Of course, the point of these intricately worked designs is that they do not look heavy or weighed down by the decoration.

It is just absorbed into the overall design.

I liked the jaunty Tyrolean hats in Salzburg, with Maison Michel black felt set off by ostrich and chicken feathers. But in my visit to Chanel’s Pantin workrooms, I realised that hats were not so easy to make, even if there seemed to be hundreds of them ready to go in typically Coco-pink checked tweed. I watched milliner Shariff Hisaund making one, and he might have been a five-star chef, stretching the felt, dowsing it, stretching it again and popping it into a giant ‘oven’ to cook into shape.

I am sure that embroiderers Montex, based in the 9th arrondissement of Paris will be super-busy completing orders for Karl’s Salzburg loafers, embroidered with white leather edelweis, white chenille yarns and small glitter balls. They could be as much of a hit as the sneakers.

Then there are the costume jewels from Maison Desrues just outside Paris. The choker, made from enamelled molten glass and velvet ribbon around a filigree metal heart, appeared in Salzburg with one of the most striking looks in the collection: Lederhosen cut into saucy shorts worn with high hose and the edelweiss shoes.

I left Pantin elated that Chanel is not only keeping these Métiers d’Art alive, but they were in the hands of a new, young generation. Somewhere up there, François Lesage is lifting his head from embroidery for the angels and rejoicing.

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REPUBLIC OF FASHION Three designers who showcase their country’s expertise for a global audience RAHUL MISHRA STORIES TO TELL

Y I Q I N G Y I N AT L E O N A R D THE ALLURE OF THE EAST

It was the penultimate collection on the final day of the four-week marathon. But fashion can always come up with good karma.

Here was what Mishra called a ‘Ferryman’s Tale’, as he recounted in streamlined but intensely decorated clothes a design journey to Japan and the inspiration of its traditional artworks, then back to his native India through multiple villages where craftsmen worked on hand embellishment.

Then the fiinshed pieces winged their way across the world to land in stores from Paris to New York.

When the 2014 International Woolmark Prize was given to Mishra, I did not really take in the excellence of these clothes – in their construction and their spirit. I understood the full story only after seeing a zippered jacket over a slim patterned skirt; a delicate organza top overlaid with semi-sheer disks; and a three-dimensional pattern aligned to stylised flowers.

This collection was far more interesting than its sleek elegance suggested. Every piece was decorated in some way with embroidery, but because much of it was in Merino wool, they had modernity built into the design.

“I want to slow down the process of making clothes to make them more beautiful,” Mishra said, talking about creating “beautiful stories”.

One of these tales is that he is THIS COLLECTION encouraging people doing artistic work in India’s city WA S FA R M O R E slums to return to their INTERESTING THAN villages and work for him.

ITS STREAMLINED For me, today’s fashion luxury is found in things ELEGANCE SUGGESTED touched by human hands. In their sophistication and craftsmanship, these clothes touched my heart.

Leonard is a French company known for flower prints, delicate and majestic. The house is marking 50 years of creativity with a celebration planned for Tokyo – one of several Asian countries where Leonard has a major following.

Daniel Tribouillard, who heads this family brand, has recently taken on Yiqing Yin – a Chinese-born, but Paris-raised designer who also built her fashion business here.

During the years when print was ignored by fashion, and then in the recent flood of digital prints, Leonard stayed faithful to its own system: hand-drawn and hand-coloured patterns that are stored in their thousands in the house archives.

Yiqing Yin used denim, probably for the first time in the brand’s history, saturating it with colour and making it into sporty shapes such as a worker’s overalls.

The casual clothes included a strapped bikini top or the denim look with the house’s signature orchid pattern.

It was good to see that for Leonard, new life can begin at 50 by planting a new seed.

HUISHAN ZHANG FA S H I O N F U S I O N

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I caught the end of a show presented in London as an English tea party. I was late, so I saw only the delicately embellished, after-dark dresses from a designer who has been travelling between his native Qingdao, China and the UK, where he studied at Central Saint Martin’s. He also did a stint working with Dior Haute Couture.

Then up close in the French showroom, the work was ultra-delicate but the effect simple.

I picked out the look of the season: a tailored white blouse with one bright patch of embroidery.

It was shown with a semi-transparent gazar skirt, like an embroidered curtain of leaves.

The designer’s successful fusion could also be seen in an embroidery of pandas on a streamlined white dress. Even more delicate was a rainbow coalition of pastel flowers in lacy shadow play.

It is good to think that Chinese handworkers – in collaboration with a fashion-educated designer – can create effects such as chiffon leaf embroideries. I left the showroom thinking that Huishan’s East-West style story is going to have a happy ending.

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HERMÈS

NICHOLAS KIRKWOOD

THE PEACOCK SHOE PECKS OUT THE PLAIN HANDBAG guess what: the peacock shoe has pecked at the plain bag – and spread its wings.

AQUAZZURA

PUBLISHED 18 MARCH, 2015 PARIS FASHION WEEK FOOTWEAR

Throughout the international collections, I saw one smooth-as-glass bag after another.

Barely a scaly surface, lump, bump, or metal hardware erupted over the clean surfaces. Only a Seventies suede fringe sometimes broke the sweet severity. But

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The prize piece from Aquazzura was peacock footwear. A feather-covered high boot, in plumes of many colours from green shading to grey or fuchsia pink and sky blue, was the strutting example of how decorative shoes have borrowed fancy effects from handbags.

Aquazzura is the name of the Florencebased brand from Colombian designer Edgardo Osorio. His shoes are wildly decorative and mostly high and strappy.

Responding to the trend for high-low, there were also suede snow boots, in ginger with a knotted fringe. By contrast, a shocking pink suede shoe with turnedback flaps at the ankle was unashamedly a stiletto.

With a boutique in Florence’s Palazzo Corsini, the historic building looking over the river Arno, Aquazzura teams the intense hand skills of the Italians with the wild energy of Columbia. A peacock is its perfect symbol.

ROGER VIVIER In a dark den with music pounding, the shoes stood out: crystal baubles at the end of high heels. There were more sparkles on

ROGER VIVIER

ankle boots that were curved open at the side to reveal flesh.

This was the vision of the ‘Butterflies of the Night’ collection at Roger Vivier, where designer Bruno Frisoni looked back to the Eighties, but brought that world into the 21st century.

Some shoes even went back to the style of Marlene Dietrich. But mostly, the designer focused on sensual and sexy high-heeled shoes – adding a practical side in tiny, evening draw-up bags, for those who want to take their belongings onto the dancefloor.

I S S E Y M I YA K E , PA R I S

PAUL ANDREW Paul Andrew’s variations on his signature stretch boots might be knee- or thigh-high, but are always seductive in their dark or bright colours.

British-born, US-based Andrew cut his teeth designing shoes for Alexander McQueen, before moving to New York to work under Donna Karan, Calvin Klein and Narciso Rodriguez.

He is newly nominated for the CFDA/ Swarovski 2015 Award.

Andrew created high heels inspired by the High Line – Manhattan’s raised downtown walkway. Although it would be a brave woman who walked that path in the designer’s stilettos.

Letting off Digital Steam PUBLISHED 06 MARCH, 2015

NICHOLAS KIRKWOOD

InDigital.com; Nicholas Kirkwood; Hermès

AQUAZZURRA

PAUL ANDREW

The heyday of Carnaby Street and Mary Quant back in the swinging Sixties was the inspiration for Nicholas Kirkwood – but not as a retro look. The designer focused on the futurism of that era, with the op art, or optical illusions, of artist Bridget Riley appearing as modernist effects in black and white.

The Carnaby story included Plexiglass heels in a concave shape and silver platinum-style, with graphite adding metallic cool. For winter 2015, Kirkwood envisaged the Olly boot mixing a peep-toe with rabbit clasps to add what was called ‘fun fur’ back in the Sixties.

Issey Miyake, the brand’s founder, always had a sense of drama in his presentation.

I remember many shows that brought the clothes to life in a spectacular way.

So it is good to see that Yoshiyuki Miyamae, who now holds the reins as artistic director, is producing shows that enchant as well as inform.

The great skill of the current designer is to create performance art, this season using a Japanese musician and singer, and to concentrate visually on the way the collection takes shape in colour and texture.

The show started with Steam Stretch fabric technology developed by the Miyake company. The material is pre-woven with ‘mountain and valley’ folds, becoming, under steam, permanent 3D patterns.

It sounds weird, yet the effect was rich and colourful, with the depth of shades in plum, moss and purple. Miyamae and his Tokyo team have taken three seasons to perfect this textural revolution.

I hope customers receive information about this 21st-century clothing when they shop at Miyake, and appreciate how smart it was of Issey to find a designer as ready as its founder for experimentation.

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INSTAGRAM’S SYSTROM VISITS THE FASHION WORLD

POLO RALPH LAUREN

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Was it a mirage, a miracle or technological wizardry that had a fashion show held in a shower of water over the lake in New York’s Central Park?

Standing on Cherry Hill, an invited audience waited for the Polo Ralph Lauren event that was staged to celebrate the opening of the brand’s first dedicated store on Fifth Avenue.

The projection started in a whorl of spray, showing the sporty, colourful clothes on models who were apparently walking on water. Their ethereal presence made it difficult to see the garments in detail. But the effect was mesmerising – not least when Ralph Lauren, an unmistakable figure with his silver hair, appeared in a cloud of droplets.

As I was standing next to the designer and his family, I was only partly convinced by this magic.

But David Lauren, who had masterminded the 4D experience, received plaudits from the crowd.

More dramatic projections of the Polo collection were offered to the public in Central Park for the following two nights.

Kevin Systrom stretched a long arm across the dinner table and reached for Catherine Deneuve’s mobile phone. The iconic French actress, sitting beside the host of the evening, Jean Paul Gaultier, was being persuaded by her friend Farida Khelfa to sign up to Instagram. And L A S T Y E A R I T WA S Systrom, the 31-year-old A P P L E ’ S J O N AT H A N billionaire co-founder of IVE WHO WOOED the photo-sharing app, T H E FA S H I O N C R O W D, did not keep her waiting.

Et voila! The sign-up WITH THE APPLE instantly succeeded.

WAT C H . N O W I T ‘ S Madame Deneuve could SYSTROM’S TURN be responding to your posts now!

Last year it was Apple’s Jonathan Ive who wooed the fashion folk, with the new Apple Watch. This time, it is Systrom’s turn, the CEO of the four-and-a-half-year-old phenomenon that is Instagram – whose number of active users has grown from 200 million to 300 million since a year ago.

“We find value in keeping things simple,’’ said Systrom, who had been community,” he said, adding that his team viewing Paris like any tourist – except he had voted for him to start his European had been able to take a selfie not just at the adventure in Paris.

Eiffel Tower, but also in the sacred rooms “The second value is creativity,” the of Coco Chanel on the Rue Cambon. young executive continued. “We inspire And he had a post-dinner appointment people to tell their stories.” with Karl Lagerfeld himself, during the Systrom’s decision to visit Europe now designer’s all-night photoshoot. must surely be connected to Instagram’s “People are going to ask me, why does new policy to accept advertising – Instagram care about the fashion world?” something that has just started in the UK he said, before going on to list the values and is destined shortly for France. He said that the company holds dear. that to keep Instagram upscale, luxury “Our first value is community. Seventy advertising would be ideal. per cent of users are outside the United “We try to keep ads as high level as States, so I’ve left San Francisco to visit our possible,’’ he told me. “We model a lot of

PUBLISHED 09 SEPTEMBER, 2014 R A L P H L A U R E N, N E W YO R K

PUBLISHED 05 MARCH, 2015 KEVIN SYSTROM DINNER, PARIS

what we do on Vogue – if we can keep what we are doing as high quality, and fitting with the content, then we are good.”

What are Systrom’s aims and dreams for Instagram? To keep expanding, it seems.

He says that outside the thirty per cent of users in the US, strong areas are Australia, Brazil, Canada, Mexico and Russia. In Asia, the app is already strong in Vietnam and Thailand, with South Korea and Japan steadily on the rise.

After Europe, it looks like Systrom, with just 200 employees in California, is going to have plenty more members of the evergrowing Instagram community to visit.

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A FIRST LOOK AT THE APPLE WATCH

Harper’s Bazaar, and Andrea Rosso, Creative Director of Diesel Licensing, to debate the bracelet’s form and function.

While admiring its technical aspects, Roitfeld admitted that she would not wear one for its aesthetics. Meanwhile, Tory Burch has taken a digital step forward by collaborating with Fitbit to produce a health-focused wristband.

Apple’s credo is – and has been since the global success of its smartphones – to make technology personal.

For Jony Ive’s team, the ticking heart of this timepiece is that it is not purely functional but becomes part of its owner’s identity. Their hope is that an entire generation of under-30s who abandoned the wristwatch will take up the smart bracelet challenge.

The essence of the Apple Watch, which comes in two sizes, is that its face has four lenses with two emitters, two sensors – and infinite choices.

First you select the externals: one of seven different straps – including stainless steel, rubber, and quilted leather.

Then you turn to the face, where, by using the watch crown, there are Apps to download, as with a smartphone.

Your watch face can be personalised, making the functional into an aesthetic decision. That can mean Mickey Mouse or something more nuanced.

The timepiece offers myriad visual possibilities. In London your screen may show the sun rising over Big Ben, while in Bali it sets over an idyllic beach.

It has synthesised sound, sports functions, medical apps that help you keep

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In California, I held the new Apple Watch in the palm of my hand. I saw PUBLISHED 09 SEPTEMBER, 2014 its face fill with pixels of colour that morphed into myriad butterflies, T H E A P P L E WAT C H , C A L I F O R N I A jellyfish, flowers…

I stroked the different straps, from warm in secret for three years, this was the rose gold to bright, sporty rubber, facing off moment when an online global audience, an aluminium frame. projected at 60 million, would stop I tried to absorb the vast possibilities of following the countdown on Apple’s personalisation and a fantasy of functions. website and rush to digital judgement.

And I still don’t know whether the But not until this watch, its function fashion world will embrace this smartest of embedded within the smartphone, goes on watches, or whether a new generation that sale on April 24 will Jony and his team has its phone as a timepiece will find the know whether their minutely studied wristbands compelling. gamble will pay off.

Apple’s long-awaited announcement in Already there is competition. Samsung Cupertino, California, at the same Flint launched its own multifunctional timepiece, Centre for the Performing Arts where the the Galaxy Gear S, on August 28. In New original Macintosh was launched 30 years York, I slipped that around my wrist, and ago, in 1984, was a symbolic gesture and listened to a seminar in which Samsung’s a highly emotive one for Jony Ive, Apple’s Younghee Lee, Executive Vice President senior vice president for design. of Global Marketing for Mobile The ghost of Steve Jobs, the genie of Communications, and Howard Nuk, Head digital, who died in 2011, still hovers over of Industrial Design, invited the fashion the memory. For Ive, whose 17-strong gurus Carine Roitfeld from Harper’s design team has been working on the watch Bazaar, Stephen Gan from V Magazine and

InDigital.com; Apple

Suzy Menkes appraises the hottest tech launch of the decade

healthy and, for the first time in the smart gadget world, style and self-expression are built into the functions.

I did not have long enough with this awesome object to grasp more than the basics: that the wristwatch works only in tandem with an Apple smartphone, and that the price will start from $349 for a sports watch and rises for the rose gold.

I also experienced how the powerful technology allows you to make the tiny display zoom in and out; that there are maps, calendars and other apps that seem, to me, to replicate a smartphone’s content and capabilities.

The Apple Watch could tell me to stand up and stretch – without my setting it. Let’s just hope it doesn’t read my blood count and then tell me to stop eating chocolate!

How will watch collectors respond to this 21st-century object, which will be constantly updated rather than savoured and passed on to the next generation?

From a fashion point of view, the aesthetic seemed neutral: neither superstylish nor repellent. I would imagine that geeks would love it more than aesthetes.

Yet smartphones have already transformed the fashion world in a way we never imagined, bringing backstage to the wide world and turning shows into a forest of point and click instant images and videos.

I suspect that I, as a non-digital specialist, would fail to use this device to its full capacity. But I like the idea of setting the visual aspects according to my mood – and perhaps my wardrobe.

Violets to set off my purple outfits?

Why not look at my watch – and dream.

HERMÈS

AQuiet Contender Great woven rafters curved over a vast stable, where there was a whiff of horses, and an elegant wooden construction put in place

by Hermès.

A new filly had arrived, and the fashion crowd had come to put her through her paces.

Nadège Vanhee-Cybulski was making her debut at Hermès, and the result was one of those quietly beautiful moments: clothes as apparently simple as they were rich in fabric and execution.

“I wanted to pick up the heritage and ancestral tradition of this house and bring it to a contemporary woman,” the designer said.

She made it look so easy: a blouson riding jacket in lambskin with a padded lining like a saddle.

Axel Dumas, CEO of Hermès, talked about bringing in a new member to the family.

Nadège was so overcome with emotion that she spent time backstage before running to the front in her yellow and orange sneakers. Were they trainers like the ones Hermès showed this week?

“No, they are Nike,” she said.

PUBLISHED 09 MARCH, 2015 KARL LAGERFELD AND SUZY WEAR THE NEW APPLE WATCH

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DVF: The Scarlet Woman

QUEEN ELIZABETH SPARKLES IN FRANCE

“Seduction” was the key DVF word, from a dress where the bodice was drawn in a crescent moon across the bust, to a lace column split open down the side.

From the opening white dress, shaped and draped, every outfit seemed to have a waist outlined with a curve and accentuated with a belt. “Isn’t that what women want?” DVF asked with false innocence about her “sexy but strong” woman. “By day she commands her world, by night she inspires fantasy,” was the mantra.

Perhaps this woman, who was once supposed to be a tiger in the boardroom and a pussycat in the bedroom, still exists. But I find this view of womanhood tethered to that period in the late Seventies when Diane invented her famous wrap dress. She has moved on from this period, sartorially and in her life, so I was puzzled as to why she would bring it back to the catwalk.

You have to respect DVF for believing so deeply in what she does. If her clients want to play that man-woman card, there were pinstripes on sheer chiffon blouses, slender button-through dresses, and a Yves Saint Laurent-style satin-lapel tuxedo in a bold blue.

But it was the 50 shades of scarlet that left their mark on this show: the red coat with a girly gathering below the pockets, a polka-dotted onesie below a red lace bra top, red satin shoes with matching clutch bag – and finally, Diane herself, with red patterns on her short silken dress.

There was seduction in the air, but I think it’s time to lay the scarlet fashion woman to rest.

An afternoon in the garden with Her Majesty and friends

QUEEN ELIZABETH GARDEN PARTY

Offering British cheese to French diplomats, politicians, and Parisian high society might seem like a challenge. But when two chefs carried out an edible crown made entirely of cheese balls, tomatoes and cucumber, even the most formal guests had to smile, including the Queen of England.

The summer garden party held at the British Ambassador’s residence in Paris in

LEE RADZIWILL AND PHOEBE PHILO

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CAROLINA HERRERA

Wave Form

InDigital.com

PUBLISHED 09 JUNE, 2014

honour of a state visit to France by Queen Elizabeth and her husband Prince Philip, was like a scene from Alice in Wonderland.

Miraculously, the drizzly Paris weather turned fine, with a deep blue sky above the grand residence. The lawn was bright green, the grass a little damp, and a challenge for those women foolish enough to wear high heels.

Military figures in full decoration competed with a band in full regalia. They performed marching music in front of the royal couple, seated on red satin thrones.

The news that Her Majesty would not be wearing her habitual hat frightened off most women from wearing fancy headgear. The Queen wore an off-white dress woven with knots of sparkling threads, recycled from the outfit worn at the 2012 Diamond Jubilee for the river pageant. (So it appears it is not just Kate, Duchess of Cambridge, who is thrifty with her wardrobe.)

The dress was from Angela Kelly, who has brought a new dynamism to the Queen’s wardrobe. In fact, there had been a series of outfits since her arrival in France, starting with a white coat with black hat to celebrate 20 years of Eurostar, the train that runs through the Channel tunnel from England to France.

That coat was peeled off to reveal a black-and-white suit with white hat, while there was a pink suit for the ceremony at the Arc de Triomphe in Paris.

Angela Kelly was present at the garden party, along with the Queen’s personal hairdresser Ian Carmichael, who had turned the royal bob a regal silver.

British fashion designers invited for the event included Clare Waight Keller of Chloé, who was also wearing white, and Phoebe Philo of Céline, who came with Lee Radziwill, the sister of the late Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis.

According to Kelly, there was royal splendour to come for the dinner at the Elysée Palace the next day, after a solemn visit to Normandy to commemorate 70 years since the Allied invasion, which led to the end of World War Two.

“Making waves” said Carolina Herrera backstage after a graceful and refined show where the movement of water was translated into the language of clothes.

There was something mesmerising about patterns of sea swell and rippling water, whether they appeared in swooshes on a long gown or simply on daywear.

Carolina’s style is always a classy glamour, which does not change much with the seasons. But the Winter 2015 outfits were treated with techno droplets or photo prints of the swelling sea.

The balance of cream, black and white with a touch of hotter colour was well done.

If the Herrera sophistication is exceptional, so, too, is her current concept of modernising it with digital explorations. The show could have been more tightly edited, but it had enough edge, with its flat shoes and 21st-century printing, to seem modern.

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Who else is moving and shaking? Peter Dundas might be tempted to leave Pucci and go back to Roberto Cavalli where he enjoyed earlier success.

Already colourful Candy Crushes are lined up: Hermès has appointed Nadège Vanhee-Cybulski as creative director – she was a hit at The Row in New York.

Alessandra Facchinetti trained at Gucci, was briefly at Valentino, and is now under the wing of Diego Della Valle at Tod’s.

Marco Zanini is out at Schiaparelli, leaving yet another vacancy. Other young designer collaborations include Alexander Wang for Balenciaga, in Paris. In Milan, Anthony Vaccarello is working at Versus for Versace. While in New York, German brand Hugo Boss picked up Jason Wu, one of Michelle Obama’s favourites.

Just like in video games, there are big winners and stark eliminations. In my heart, I would wish for young designers not to get hooked on this fascinating but dangerous game.

There may be an instant buzz, but I think that a long and steady stay – for example Alber Elbaz at Lanvin – is the way to lasting fashion happiness.

Since publication, Peter Dundas has moved from Pucci to Roberto Cavalli; Massimo Giorgetti of MSGM is at Pucci; and Alessandro Michele has been promoted to Creative Director at Gucci.

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Kering’s Balenciaga and joining LVMH’s Louis Vuitton in 2013.

And what about Christopher Kane, the brilliant young British designer now at Kering? He worked with Donatella Versace in Milan. Would he be a good fit for Gucci?

There are so many more Candy Crush opportunities. Young fashion designer Olivier Rousteing at Balmain is still in place. But he has had to face the sudden death of Balmain CEO Alain Hivelin.

Another smart young designer, Guillaume Henry, has left Carven for Nina Ricci, filling a space vacated by Peter Copping – who has in turn gone to Oscar de la Renta in New York, following Oscar’s death in October 2014.

I N M Y H E A R T, I W O U L D W I S H F O R YO U N G DESIGNERS NOT TO GET HOOKED ON THIS FA S C I N AT I N G B U T DANGEROUS GAME 12/12/14 InDigital.com, Getty

There are more designers and executives moving around the big brands than you would find on a gaming app. Forget creating a wrapped candy or clearing a jelly – the current game in fashion is even more colourful than Candy Crush Saga!

Out after her final Gucci show in Milan in February is Frida Giannini, creative director – along with her partner in work and life, Patrizio di Marco, Gucci CEO. Will Riccardo Tisci of Givenchy now move into Frida’s hot spot, leaving a space to fill at his current house?

That is the rumour. It would mean Riccardo leaving luxury group LVMH and moving to its rival, Kering – not unlike Nicolas Ghesquière leaving

R O B E RTO C AVA L L I

Sunny Delights “I feel happy with summer. I like the light, the sun and the colours – it is the easiest time for me,” said Roberto Cavalli front-ofstage by his catwalk. It was made of wooden planks, like a path to the beach except with shiny gilded sides.

‘The Light of Summer’ was the show’s title, and Cavalli started with a display of swimming-pool blue, sunshine yellow and juicy oranges on wildly patterned dresses. Oh no!

Please not those Seventies again!

But Cavalli’s illumination was much more subtle than a game of tones. Light seeped through

a white lace dress, and emanated from a white fur bag. Black dresses filtered light through transparent fabrics, and brightness bounced off crocodile skin.

Sparkles glimmered from dark denim, or a white shirt set off blue-jean fabric. The white materials were often crunchy and three dimensional in their different takes on lace.

Maybe it is Cavalli’s passion for nature photography that has fed into a sense of subtlety and shadow play. Just for once, the collection would have looked equally as good photographed in black and white.

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