Fashion week

Fashion

Week 2017 A Designer’s Form of Artistic Expression.

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Fashion Week 101 Q&A What it is and why it matters

New York

9 . 7. 2017 Marc Jacobs Michael Kors

Milan

9 . 20 . 2017 Versace Dolce & Gabbana

Paris

9 . 26 . 2017 Chanel Saint Laurent

Fashion Week

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What It Is and Why It Matters TeenVogue.com

What is Fashion Week?

It’s always kind of like Groundhog Day when Fashion Week rolls around. We’ve all been here before, but in the weeks leading up, we’re like deer caught in headlights—anxiously waiting for the frenzy to start. But what is it? Fashion Week can seem like a mysterious, seemingly glamorous machine that churns out countless runway shows, copious amounts of street style photos, and lots of celebrities preening in the front rows. So, before this season’s madness starts on February 12, we thought we’d break it down to the basics.

Here we go. In a super condensed nutshell, Fashion Week is when the industry’s top designers present their upcoming collections in a series of runway shows and presentations.

When did Fashion Week start?

The first official Fashion Week began as “Press Week” in 1943 at the height of World War II. The American fashion media couldn’t get over to Paris—where the most fashion-y of shows went down—to see the next season’s collections. Silver lining: It was New York (and America’s) chance to show the world what they could do. From then on, Press WeWek turned into Fashion Week and shows were staged in venues all over New York City. But in 1994 the runways found their first home at Bryant Park, conveniently located near the Garment District. Eventually the shows outgrew the iconic midtown grassy green, and “the tents,” as they’re affectionately called (more on that below), moved over to Damrosch Park at Lincoln Center in 2010.

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Who decides which designers get to show at Fashion Week?

Well, it depends. There isn’t an official board or council or overlord that officially decides who gets to sit at the Fashion Week table. But it’s still a bit more politically complicated. In the official MercedesBenz Fashion Week tents, clout and seniority (like if you’ve been showing there for years and years) are important for designers to score one of the limited spots and call dibs on a time slot. For instance, emeritus designers basically show every season, and the industry knows and plans for it. The other issue is budget—not every designer can afford an elaborate show at an expensive venue.

Do different designers show in different cities? How is that decided?

Yes, different designers show in different cities around the world.

There’s no hard and fast rule, but mostly it depends on where the designer’s business and studio (or “atelier”) are headquartered. For instance, native New Yorker Michael Kors shows in his home city, while Paris-based British ex-pat Stella McCartney and French-to-thecore Chanel show at Paris Fashion Week. It’s a way to demonstrate support for their local economy, fellow designers, and retailers. Plus, chances are designers are members of their national fashion council (like our CFDA), so it just makes sense to stay local.

Is the runway collection different from what you see in stores?

Yes. Think of a runway show as a designer’s form of artistic expression. They want to make the biggest impact that they can, while imparting the theme of the collection for the next season. So that means they’ll show exaggerated or more dramatic versions of what ends up in the stores. To wit, your standard LBD isn’t going to beg for instant Instagrams and retweets quite like Jeremy Scott’s insane junk food bag poncho for Moschino will. (Even though the classic LBD would sell way more units in-store than a snack-themed cape.)

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Dolce & Gabbana Summer 2015

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Is a runway the only format for designers to show their collections during Fashion Week?

Nope! You have the runway show production, in which models walk out to show the audience next season’s creations, but there’s also the presentation set-up in which models basically double as mannequins standing-slash-posing in some sort of themed vignette. This allows guests to get a close-up look at the collection, at any time, within the presentation. Some designers opt out of showing their collections altogether and invite editors to visit their showrooms for a peek at the next season’s clothes instead.

Who goes to shows and how do they get invited?

Well, the latter part of that question is key. Because everyone who goes to a Fashion Week show—be it in “the tents” or some glorious, blown-out abandoned building downtown—must be invited. So we’re talking fashion editors, retail store buyers, fashion bloggers, industry influencers, friends or clients of designers, and oh, famous people.

Celebrities in the front row are there either to support their designer friend or, most likely, they’re present to promote the brand (like Jennifer Lawrence at Dior).

What is a show like?

Well, to start, during the aforementioned fashionably late start downtime, this is when the paparazzi goes nuts snapping pics of the biggest stars sitting in the front row—ranging from big-time editors to celebrities (Emma Watson! Blake Lively! ) to socialites to style bloggers. As for the actual runway part, an average of 30 to 40 looks or outfits will be shown by models walking down the runway. There might be a famous face on the catwalk, there might not—it depends on the designer. The most famous model always closes the show though (look out for Bella Hadid and Kaia Gerber sightings this season).

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Bella Hadid

Kaia Gerber

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Q&A Can you watch the shows if you’re not at Fashion Week?

Yes! And without having to buy a new outfit, teeter around in crazy high heels (especially in the snow), and deal with glowering security guys guarding the fort, er, tents. Instead you can live-stream over 50 shows—from Marc Jacobs to Charlotte Ronson—during New York Fashion Week, plus various international designers in the weeks following. (Burberry and Topshop in London are always worth setting the alarm for—you know, time change and all.) Stay tuned to catch shows right here on TeenVogue.com.

Why is Fashion Week important?

Well, despite the parties and street style spectacles, Fashion Week is for work—traditionally meaning store buyers come to see the upcoming season’s offerings and put in orders while fashion magazine editors use it to forecast trends and see what looks and pieces they want to feature in their publications. It helps to spark ideas for editorials and fashion features for the next six months!

OK, so what are the logistics?

The designers always show collections for the season ahead, so starting February 12, 2017, we’ll be seeing what will be on the racks for fall 2017/winter 2018, and come September 2017, for fall 2017/winter 2018, and come September 2017, we’ll be watching the spring/ summer 2018 looks strut down the runway. For the official spring/ summer and fall/winter seasons, Fashion Week runs consecutively in major style capitals around the world, starting with New York.

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Paris

New York

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YORK Marc Jacobs

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Michael Kors

September 10, 2017

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“Fashion Week runs consecutively in major style capitals around the world, starting with New York.�

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New York Fashion Week Fashion Week Online

The highest-profile series of events during New York Fashion Week. Owned by WME-IMG, it’s the successor of Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week New York and also includes the more avant-garde MADE, and now NYFW First Stage.

Of the “Big 4” fashion weeks, New York has proven itself to be the largest, most competitive, and far-ranging.

“If I can make it there, I’ll make it anywhere,” goes the famed 1977 John Kander song. So it is with New York Fashion Week, in the minds of many designers from around the world. With such a plethora of shows to choose from on another very full schedule, we thought we’d offer a closer look at some of the shows to look out for from IMG: arguably the most prestigious stage of the season.

A number of designers will be showcasing at NYFW: The Shows for the first time. Some of them, are no strangers to the fashion community, but will be presenting first-ever runway shows. These designers are a mix of established names and top-tier brands who you’ve likely seen before at NYFW: The Shows. The lineup include some of the most anticipated names of the season.

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MARC JACOBS is powerhouse in the fashion world furled by the success of his own eponymous label.

Vogue Online MARC JACOBS is the American fashion designer best known for his eponymous label Marc Jacobs, his diffusion line Marc

by Marc Jacobs and his tenure at Louis Vuitton as creative director.

In the spring of 2001, Jacobs introduced his secondary line, Marc

by Marc Jacobs.

Within ten years of his appointment at Louis Vuitton, Jacobs had quadrupled the company’s profits, turning what was solely a luggage firm into a global fashion powerhouse. Collaborations with the likes of Steven Sprouse, Julie Verhoeven, Takashi Murakami and Richard Prince created highly coveted cult pieces.

In June 2011, he was awarded the CFDA’s prestigious Geoffrey Beene Lifetime Achievement prize. As of 2011 the CFDA had crowned Jacobs Womenswear

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Designer of the Year three times, Accessory Designer of the Year four times and Menswear designer of the Year once.

In the early 21st century Jacobs globally expanded his signature brand and launched a more-affordable line of sportswear, Marc

by Marc Jacobs (2001). He also collaborated with others, including designer Stephen Sprouse, with whom he launched the immediately successful Louis Vuitton Speedy graffiti handbag (2001), which looked as if it had been spray-painted with the company’s name. In 2003 he worked with the Japanese visual artist Takashi Murakami to produce the critically acclaimed Louis Vuitton Eye Love Monogram collection, which replaced the brand’s traditional beige-and-brown monogrammed canvas with a multicoloured palette featuring pop-art graphics.

“I don’t need to be better than anybody or worse than anybody to feel better about myself. I just need to stick on my own path and stay in the moment as best I can.”

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Adult Toyland

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he tone of New York Fashion Week was nostalgic, or at least, there was a sense of designers looking in the rearview mirror. No wonder. As the writer wrote, the past is another country, and if they did things differently there, it might offer some kind of escape route from the peculiar present. It was appropriate that Marc Jacobs, the King of New York, should close the week with a collection he called “the re-imagining of seasons past somewhere beyond the urban landscape of New York City”.

That “somewhere” was a florid state of mind, an adult toyland, a fantasia far, far away. And also, a definitive riposte on the designer’s part to the harsh commercial realities that have allegedly intruded on his business over the past year or so. Jacobs has never been anything but thrillingly engaged as a designer.

Maybe this new collection was so polarising not because hewas disengaging but because he was so clearly turning his back on reality. As in, reality is a concept. Who needs it? Not me!

In the normal state of affairs chez Jacobs, that could have been as thrilling as ever. Why it didn’t pan out quite that way was down to a perfect storm of subtexts. Much has already been made of the implications of Jacobs’s new no-set look, with the Park Avenue Armoury stripped to its barest bones. Last time, the audience was ranked in two mile-long rows down the centre of the building. Here, they were seated around the walls of the cavernous space (like the last Vetements situation) in such a way that the emptiness became the set.

Marc Jacobs Runway Review

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Spring 2018 READY-TO-WEAR

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he Marc Jacobs show was silent. All 56 models walked only to the sounds of their shoes on the old wood planks of the Park Avenue Armory. Then they came back out for their finale with the aria from the 1981 French film Diva as an accompaniment. There may be nothing to read into that; then again, indulge us. When Diva was released, critic Roger Ebert argued in his four-star review that the movie was about many things, but that it’s real subject was the joy director Jean-Jacques Beineix took in making it. That jibes with Jacobs’s own written summary of this collection; his program notes called it a “reimagining of seasons past somewhere beyond the urban landscape of New York City.”

And who’s had more fun making fashion than Jacobs in the last 25 years? Yes, if you can believe it, he designed his infamous grunge collection—the one that got him sacked from Perry Ellis and launched his solo career—for Spring 1993, a quarter-century.

There was visual joy baked into

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these clothes. The giant daisies and other overscale flowers; the Crayola colors, tinsel trimmings, and sequins, sequins, sequins; the easy-on-the-ankles sports sandals and easy-on-the-waistline sarouel track pants; the silk turbans by Stephen Jones. Jacobs’s idea here was to return to the archives, passing old ideas and former hits through “exaggerated, decadent, and exotic” filters.

Hence the huge flowers, the hyper-vivid palette, and the weekender-size bags dangling charms that spelled Somewhere. Fanny packs looked like a nod to tourist gear and a simultaneous sidelong glance at the celebrity vogue for wearing the nerdy accessory in paparazzi pics. With the turbans Jacobs was quoting himself. He memorably put Kate Moss in a silver one the year they cohosted the Met Ball.

Marc Jacobs Runway Review

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MICHAEL KORS is an American fashion designer, celebrated for his sports-luxe aesthetic, his tireless charity work and his outgoing personality.

Vogue Online In 1977, he enrolled at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York, only to leave nine months later when he was offered the opportunity to sell his own designs at New York-based shop Lothars. were a little ponderous, and the acid-trippy flowers overly retro.

The soundless room also played a part; music does so much to set a mood and trigger emotion. And again, since that was intentional, it feels like there’s a message there.

It was here that Dawn Mello, the former fashion director at Bergdorf Goodman, gave Kors the opportunity to show his collection to the buyers at Bergdorf Goodman.

A deal was reached and within three years, Kors' collections were stocked in all major luxury outlets in America including Saks Fifth Avenue, Neiman Marcus and Bloomingdales.

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In 1995 Kors told American Vogue: "I think that womenare interested in fashion, but only if it works. They're lookingfor a new answer to an old question."

In 2004 he launched his diffusion line MICHAEL Michael Kors, which offers lower-priced alternatives to his main line. He has collected many accolades throughout his career including: CFDA Womenswear Designer of the Year, 1999; CFDA Menswear Designer of the Year, 2003; the Oliver R. Grace Award for Distinguished Service in Advancing Cancer Research, 2010; the Fragrance Foundation's FiFi Award for Lifetime Achievement, 2010; and the Geoffrey Beene Lifetime Achievement Award from the CFDA, 2010. He was the youngest ever recipient of the latter.

"My legacy would be that you don't have to give up anything.

You can be chic but have a sense of humor, you can be sexy but comfortable, you can be timeless but fresh."

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Michael Kors’ Great Escape

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ichael Kors meant fashion, but the unflaggingly cheerful designer could equally have been talking about himself and his own cockeyed faith in the power of clothes to make things better, his new collection being a case in point. “We went on holiday in Tahiti, and we were thinking, 'How can we bring a little bit of Bora Bora back to this crazy world?'" So out came the sun-bleached tie dyes, the palm frond prints, the sarongs and shorts and floaty tropical linens. But it wasn’t just the holiday that had put Kors in the mood. "It's the minute the weather gets warm," he went on. "I never thought I'd see flip flops in London, but we do. So how do you maintain that laid back attitude in big city life?"

Well, with flip flops, for one thing. And sandals, straw bags, bucket hats, and clothes that were as casual as anything Kors has ever shown, though the layback was infused with his own healthy appetite for luxe. The flip flops were croc, the tie dyes were cashmere, a pair of silk pants ombré-ed in shades of blue was paved in sequins. Still, expensive as they undoubtedly will be, they hardly ticked the big city box. Like much of the collection, they were less suited for steamy sidewalk than the weather-beaten boardwalk the models strolled (assuming that boardwalk would be connecting cabanas in some sensational South Sea resort).

They were clothes for a great escape from the "crazy world."

Michael Kors Runway Review

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ichael Kors is never not paying attention to what women wear: in his office, out to dinner, at the theater, on vacation. Especially on vacation. For his new collection, the idea was to bring laid-back beachy vibes to every urbane piece he put on the runway—from the X to the Y—and, while he was at it, to make some essential pieces for his girls’ next island getaway. Here in the city this summer, Kors saw a lot of cut-offs, flip-flops, and girls going pantsless. This show was also a reaction to that: How do you dress for the heat without looking undone, or worse, sloppy?

Not that that’s ever really an issue in Kors’s world. This is a designer who, when he decides to do a tie-dye sweatshirt, makes it in multi-ply cashmere (and lines it in cotton, to boot) and throws in a matching cashmere blanket to seal the deal. At the sight of a glow-y Carolyn Murphy in that showopening first look, who didn’t instantly wish they were on the next flight to Los Angeles, or better yet, flying private like his front row seatmates Nicole Kid

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man and Naomi Watts likely do?

Kors worked in a palette of breezy pastels—the colors of the New York season—before graduating to navy, gray, and black; and, in addition to the subtle tie-dying, he devised palm tree–shadow prints in the same breezy spirit.

The palm trees covered slip dresses and sarongs, as well as accent pieces that he paired with overscale blazers. It ran the gamut from full-on vacation kit to singular items designed to conjure an outof-office feeling. And, thanks to the color palette, there was something for nearly every personality type, from the extroverted (see most of the above) to the more minimally inclined (a bias-cut white linen gauze sundress; a silk georgette trench dress; and Mica Argañaraz’s tuxedo jacket, silk blouse, and sequin sarong).

Kors was in top form here, and for the record, he’s actually pro flip-flops for next Spring—on one condition: They come in croc (real, not faux!) and they have his name on the sole.

Michael Kors Runway Review

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“Milan fashion week was largely a face-off between different generations. The big names Pradas, Versaces, Missonis and Guccis — continued to do their thing.”

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Milan Fashion Week Fashion Week Online

Seeing world-famous designers of different generations come together in high spirits is a rare occurrence in the fashion industry, especially here in Italy. Yet, that’s exactly what happened at the peak of Milan Fashion Week, when Giorgio Armani, Miuccia Prada, Pierpaolo Piccioli and Alessandro Michele took the stage at the Green Carpet Fashion Awards, organised by the Camera della Moda Italiana (CNMI) and Eco-Age, to receive the CNMI Recognition of Sustainability Award. The moment was epic — and a reassuring signal that Milan is ready to rise. (At least, that’s the hope, because on a practical level the Camera della Moda still needs to fix the local fashion calendar and find ways to promote talented emerging designers.)

Epic is a word that’s been used a lot this week. On the one hand, some of the Milan shows have become truly gargantuan, with collections containing more than 100 looks.

On the other hand, some looked to the glorious tales of the past. (Feeling the burden — and joy — of history is very Italian.) Of course, the most epic show of them all was undoubtedly Versace, where Donatella paid a well-deserved tribute to her late brother Gianni, sending out an amazing retrospective, remodelled for the now, of some of his best creations. As mesmerising and emotional as it was — not to mention commercially savvy, a wonderfully smart way for Versace to reach a younger audience while reaffirming its heritage — the show also felt deeply melancholic.

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GIANNI VERSACE designer to celebrities and royalty such as Princess Diana, Gianni Versace brought vitality and art to an industry considered out of touch with the street.

Vogue Online Born in 1946 in Reggio di Calabria, Italy, Gianni Versace became one of the top fashion designers of the 1980s and ‘90s.

He launched his first clothing line in Milan, Italy, in 1978. In 1989, Versace debuted his first couture collection. He continued to add to his fashion empire, expanding into home furnishings and perfumes. Throughout his career, Versace designed for such highprofile figures as Madonna, Princess Diana, Elton John and Tina Turner. He was shot and killed outside his home in South Beach, Florida, in 1997.

A designer to celebrities and royalty such as Princess Diana, Versace is remembered for bringing vitality and art to an industry considered out of touch with the street. In less than 10 years, he built an empire worth $807 million. His sister took over the

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creative reins of the company after his death.

Donatella Versace was devastated by the death of her brother, but was determined to carry on his legacy. Days after Gianni Versace’s death, Donatella was announced as Versace’s artistic director. By this time, though, she had already taken a leading role in the business. “The last two years of Gianni’s life,” Donatella explained to New York magazine, “I was going up into his apartment, showing him the work, getting the approval from him, but I ran the company because he wasn’t showing himself. It was like a year and a half I did everything.”

“I think it’s the responsibility of a designer to try to break rules and barriers.”

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Her Brother’s Keeper.

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onatella’s salute reanimated Gianni’s greatest hits in such a way that the new generation could at least grasp some sense of their exuberant don’t-give-a-fuck quality. Before her blinder of a show at the Triennale Museum on Friday night, Donatella Versace had a few journalists in for a chat. It’s been twenty years since the murder of her brother, and those decades have been a very public journey for Donatella, through every self-flagellating stage of mourning, anger, denial, ravening insecurity and, finally, acceptance. “I never had the courage to go there before,” she admitted, as she reflected on a collection which marked Versace’s darkest day with an uplifting celebration of everything her brother accomplished. Upbeat, yes.

Nostalgic, no. “Yesterday I cried,” Donatella said. “Today I won’t.”

And then she said something that completely clarified why the show was a wonder. “This is a chance for a new generation to see what Gianni was about.”

You can never go back, but Donatella managed to capture the same lightning in a bottle with her finale on Friday. The curtains at the end of the catwalk parted to reveal Claudia Schiffer, Naomi Campbell, Cindy Crawford, Carla Bruni and Helena Christiansen posed in classic Versace chainmail dresses, like one of the tableaux that Richard Avedon created for his iconic early-90s advertising campaigns for the brand. Then the models joined Donatella on the catwalk, while “Freedom 90” played. “Nothing had changed,” Donatella said with a laugh. “It was the same competition. ‘I want to be in the centre’, they all said. So there were five people in the centre.” But there was really only one, and that was Donatella. It was so BEYOND and MAJOR and GAGGING and whatever other fashion superlative you care to hurl at the spectacle that you could practically feel the transcendence in play.

Versace Runway Review

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his year marks the 20th anniversary of the brutal murder of Gianni Versace in broad daylight in Miami Beach.

This tragic fact has brought the late designer back into the public eye, most notably as the subject of Ryan Murphy’s next American Crime Story, set to air on FX next year. Versace’s horrible death has been told and retold ad nauseam.

Possibly to redress this, this evening Donatella Versace chose to stage her Spring 2018 show at Milan’s Triennale museum as a tribute to Gianni’s inspirations and creations, to celebrate “a genius . . . an icon . . . my brother.” She wanted the focus to be on his life, not his violent end, but also his feminist leanings and the eternal relevance of his designs.

And so, for the first time since assuming creative direction of the company, she pulled directly from archives the key prints and pieces from the years 1991–95, the period that saw some of Gianni Versace’s most iconic collections: Vogue, Warhol, My Friend Elton, Icons, Baroque, Animalia, Native Americans, Tresor de la Mer, Metal

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Mesh, and Butterflies. From each of these print motifs, Donatella Versace remade and reinterpreted the blouses, square-shouldered jackets, leggings, catsuits, corsets, trenches, mini sheaths, and maxi skirts. Not to mention high-waisted jeans, logo tees, fanny packs, and jeweled stiletto boots. Each thematic grouping was rendered in a full capsule collection so that one can, say, have a full wardrobe of Vogue cover girls to wear day to night, or starfishes, or the faces of Marilyn Monroe and James Dean.

One piece—a black-and-white ball skirt worn originally by Naomi Campbell in the Native American collection (Fall ’92)—was literally from the archives as the work on it was such that it could not be replicated in time for this show (where it was worn by Natasha Poly).

Naomi did make an appearance in gold chain mail (Metal Mesh, Fall ’94), flanked for the the finale

by Carla Bruni, Cindy Crawford, Claudia Schiffer, and Helena Christensen, to the chorus of George Michael’s “Freedom! ’90.”

Versace Runway Review

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& DOMENICO DOLCE and STEFANO GABBANA rose from obscurity to form a partnership that would have them becoming two of the best known designers in the fashion world.

Vogue Online Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana rose from obscurity to form a partnership that would have them becoming two of the best known designers in the fashion world. They have dressed women like Madonna and Nicole Kidman and men like Tom Cruise.

People vie to wear their clothing at public events and to revel in the attention such clothing affords them. According to the Dolce & Gabbana website, their clothes are for a certain type of woman: “The Dolce & Gabbana woman is strong: she likes herself and knows she is liked. A cosmopolitan woman who has toured the world but who doesn’t forget her roots.” And the same, they say, is true for the man who wears their clothes. “At his ease, he dresses for himself; a little hedonistic, he pays considerable attention to details.”

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The pair met in 1980 when they were both assistants at an atelier in Milan. They started their partnership in 1982, although they still did freelance designing for other companies until they had officially started their own company. Fame and fortune, however, did not come immediately to the pair. They struggled to come to the attention of the fashion scene and did everything in their power to show off their designs to bring that about.

Their style is a mix of traditionally male and female clothing, as they are known to say that fashion and dressing have nothing to do with being straight or gay, but rather that everyone has a part of the opposite sex inside them and that everyone needs to get in touch with that opposite side of their gender to be whole.

“Our fashion for us, it’s an expression; first of all of life, I put all of myself in my fashion. Sometimes it’s good, sometimes it’s bad, but this is a mirror, an expression about Domenico and Stefano. It’s not just a profession: it’s a person with a lot of personality.”

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DOLCE & GABBANA’S GAME OF HEARTS.

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n the last of the big shows at Milan Fashion Week on Sunday, Dolce & Gabbana delivered a heaping helping of femininity Italian-style, with a collection that was pure joy in its rich details, from the rainbow raffia-trimmed hats, to the bejeweled shoes with a single pearl on the tip of the toe. The message on the runway here, as it has been in most of the shows this week in Milan?

Put on a happy face, no matter what cards you are dealt, hence the Queen of Hearts prints and the shuffling cards set piece at the top of the runway. The title of the collection was “Amore e Belezza (love is beauty), which translated into a rededication to the brand’s love affair with La Dolce Vita and all that comes with it — food, family and costumed festivals, with witty prints and embellishments nodding to all three.

They offset romantic 1950s inspired print dresses (who but they could make wearing peapods chic?) with a few sharp pantsuits, one in a red-and-black stripe. And for evening, their crystal mesh gowns in vivid colors of red, orange, pink or green shined like jewelry. What was particularly fun to watch was how they maximized every look, right down to the raffia-trimmed round sunglasses. (Another pair of sunnies had tromp l’oeil manicured fingers on the stems). The front row was full of eye-candy, too, including Cameron Dallas and several children-of, including Myles O’Neal (dad is Shaquille), Christian Combs (dad is Sean) and Rafferty Law (dad is Jude). With Dolce & Gabbana, it’s always a feast.

Dolce & Gabbana Runway Review

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oday’s Dolce & Gabbana runway show was the designers’ second in less than 24 hours. Last night, they staged a not-so-secret “secret show” of their latest evening looks on a cast of mostly millennial sons and daughters for a crowd of mostly clients, at least two of them wearing the light-up tiaras from the label’s last Spring show.

If customers are flying in from all around the world for their #DG fix, why not give them more of what they came for? This afternoon, the millennials were arrayed in the front row for a collection that took love as its theme. “Queen of Hearts,” the designers called it.

Love is an expansive topic. Gabbana admitted as much beforehand, saying, “You can find love wherever.” And find it they did (in the Queen of Hearts). Many of the more elaborately embellished pieces borrowed the regalia and finery of the face cards found in a 52-card deck, in fruit and vegetable prints—who among us doesn’t love to eat?—in cherubim prints (naturally), and in the revival of the lingerie-exposing hourglass wiggle dresses and corseted tailoring

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with which the designers began making their mark more than 30 years ago. It was a week of anniversaries here in Milan—at Versace, at Missoni—so Dolce & Gabbana’s reckoning with the past felt timely.

The collection’s virtue was in its variety. But by positioning the Instagram generation on the sidelines and returning to a straightforward model cast, the show lost some of the heart of the duo’s most recent runway outing, where they invited twentysomethings and plenty of other real-life people to enjoy their own runway experiences. There were tears all around at that show in February; it was a regular love fest. At last night’s “secret show,” Gabbana said, “I think this is the moment for fashion—this is my opinion—to change something, to go to the customers.” They did that yesterday, and they’ll do it next month when they take another new Alta Moda collection to Tokyo.

But prêt-à-porter is the brand’s biggest platform. They should keep rethinking and renewing the model.

Dolce & Gabbana Runway Review

Dolce & Gabbana Spring 2018

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“The official French name for Paris Fashion Week is Semaine des Createurs du Mode.”

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Paris Fashion Week InStyle

In Paris, more is more. This is a city where restaurants routinely offer a choice between a cheese course and dessert, expecting full well that most diners will opt for both. And so it was not entirely out of line with the spirit of French gluttony at the close of fashion week here when both Karl Lagerfeld and Nicolas Ghesquière offered collections that seemed to have a little something for everyone.

Paris Fashion Week happens twice a year and depending on your point of view it is either the best time to be in the city, or the worst. Hundreds of fashion editors, assistants, stylists, models and the general cool crowd descend on the French capital to see what they’ll be wearing the next year.One of the “Big 4”, Paris Fashion Week has the honor of hosting the finale of every bi-annual fashion fest that takes place in the city.

The official French name for Paris Fashion Week is Semaine des Createurs du Mode and, in accordance with its slightly pretentious name, current fashion weeks take place in Carrousel du Louvre. Normally, about a 100 shows in total span the city, ranging from the top fashion houses to lesser-known names.

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KARL LAGERFELD head creative director of the fashion house Chanel. Master of reinvention, having repeatedly transformed himself as well as his labels.

Vogue Online One of the most acclaimed fashion designers in the world, Karl Lagerfeld was born in Hamburg, Germany. While he’s never revealed his true birthday, it’s been reported he was born September 10, 1933. Known for his bold designs and constant reinvention, he’s been hailed in Vogue magazine as the “unparalleled interpreter of the mood of the moment.” By the 1980s, Karl Lagerfeld was a major star in the fashion world. He was a favorite among the press, who loved to chronicle his changing tastes and social life. Lagerfeld kept company with other major stars, including his friend Andy Warhol.

During his career he developed a sort of hired gun reputation for jumping from one label to the next, and also put together a track record of success that few designers can match. At Chanel in

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the early 1980s he did what few thought possible: He returned what was perceived to be a neardead brand back to life with a revamped popular ready-to-wear fashion line.

Around that time Lagerfeld launched his own label, in 1984, which he built around the idea of what he described as “intellectual sexiness.” Over the years, the brand developed a reputation for quality tailoring with bold ready-to-wear pieces like cardigan jackets in bright colors. In 2005 Lagerfeld sold the label to Tommy Hilfiger.

“Beauty is also submitted to the taste of time, so a beautiful woman from the Belle Epoch is not exactly the perfect beauty of today, so beauty is something that changes with time.�

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Chasing Waterfalls at Chanel.

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arl Lagerfeld is adamant that his word is first and last at Chanel, so it would be thrilling to see him set himself some limits. Karl Lagerfeld loves waterfalls.

He finds the ozone in the air around them particularly invigorating. “The healthiest thing in the world,” he called it, after a Chanel show which was staged in an 85 by 15 meter recreation of the Gorges du Verdon, a spectacular natural beauty spot in France’s Midi. Rock walls soared towards the dome of the Grand Palais, water cascaded in a roar over them.

The entire impossible mise-en-scene was, we were assured, environmentally conscious to the last drop.

But it wasn’t his assurance. Lagerfeld always shies away from pinning down what he does. The very thought of the Grand Statement leaves him stone cold. So, when the idea of sustainability, a hot fashion ticket, was raised in relation to his latest offering, he said simply, “It’s just what it is. I liked the idea of water, of lightness.” And not just water, but also water-proofing. The collection was a paean to plastic, from the classic Chanel boater all the way to footwear. The camellia on a handbag was plastic. Other handbags had their own raincoats. Rain hoods accessorized tweed suits. There were dressier pieces that looked like thickets of plastic filaments. And a clear plastic cape was artfully fringed, highlighting Lagerfeld’s respect for the material. “It’s not cheap like it used to be.”

Chanel Runway Review

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Spring 2018 READY-TO-WEAR

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he healing power of nature, the need for optimism, the importance of handcraft, the celebratory power of forwardlooking fashion: All these things have been constant talking points in Paris for over a week now, but it took Karl Lagerfeld and Chanel to actually bring the vertiginous cliffs and coursing waterfalls of the Gorges du Verdon to the Grand Palais and wrap it all up in a final spectacular word on every point.

in the country produced a fashion high that was shot through with relevance. The spray and the sunlight sparkled on clear plastic coats and capes; the house tweeds fluttered with fringes or were reduced to almost transparent cages. Lurex threads and crystal jewelry glinted. The intricate balance between natural-looking textures and advanced technical skills was breathtakingly dynamic to behold.

The scenery—a facsimile of a beauty spot in the South of France—was so naturalistic that a breeze floated along the canyon, blowing off the girls’ clear plastic boaters and setting their extraordinary clothes flowing as they strode on in their thigh-high plastic boots. “Did you feel it?” asked Karl Lagerfeld (rhetorically) afterward.

“The molecules from the water, when you breathe them in, it’s very healthy for you! It’s why you feel good in places like this.”

He had no need to check. We felt it, all right. Whether it was endorphin effects of the big outdoors scenario or the clothes, this walk

With eyes and ears open to the disco-era revival that has been playing across Paris, it was easy to infer a ’60s/’80s youth vibe going on here: See the space-age boots and the astronaut-girl capelets, and wasn’t that the underlying beat of Donna Summer and Giorgio Moroder’s “I Feel Love” on the soundtrack? Karl Lagerfeld was having none of it. “You are too young to remember the Sixties.

They were never like this! The fabrics then were terrible. There’s not a fabric here which you can buy elsewhere. They’re all made by Chanel, in-house.”

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Chanel Runway Review

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YVES SAINT LAURENT designs sat atop the fashion world. Models and actresses gushed over his creations. By the 1980s, he was a true icon.

Vogue Online Yves Henri Donat Matthieu Saint Laurent was born on August 1, 1936, in Oran, Algeria, to Charles and Lucienne Andrée MathieuSaint-Laurent. He grew up in a villa by the Mediterranean with his two younger sisters, Michelle and Brigitte. While his family was relatively well off—his father was a lawyer and insurance broker who owned a chain of cinemas—childhood for the future fashion icon was not easy. Saint Laurent was not popular in school, and was often bullied by schoolmates for appearing to be homosexual. As a consequence, Saint Laurent was a nervous child, and sick nearly every day.

He found solace, however, in the world of fashion. He liked to create intricate paper dolls, and by his early teen years he was designing dresses for his mother and sisters. At the age of 17, a

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whole new world opened up to Saint Laurent when his mother took him to Paris for a meeting she’d arranged with Michael de Brunhoff, editor of French Vogue.

Over the next two decades, Saint Laurent’s designs sat atop the fashion world. Models and actresses gushed over his creations. He outfitted women in blazers and smoking jackets, and introduced attire like the pea coat to the runway. His signature pieces also included the sheer blouse and the jumpsuit. By the 1980s, Yves Saint Laurent was a true icon. He became the first designer to have a retrospective on his work at the Metropolitan Museum in New York City.

“Fashions fade, style is eternal.”

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Seductive Madness at Saint Laurent.

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t takes a lot of guts to cast the actual Eiffel Tower as the backdrop for your fashion show, but Anthony Vaccarello, the young star now at the helm of Saint Laurent, has plenty of that already.

No one was going to choose to follow Hedi Slimane at the ultimate house of Parisian provocation unless they have confidence, and watching the relatively untested Vaccarello take on that role has been both exciting and, I must say, a little terrifying.

It helps, of course, that Saint Laurent has money. Lots of it, one would presume, given that the company invited guests to a fashion show on Tuesday evening that was presented on a stage constructed over the fountains of the Trocadero at dusk, with a direct view of the Eiffel Tower. At exactly 8:03 p.m., the tower began its nightly shower of twinkles and the show began, with models materializing out of clouds of dry ice, stomping their way across a long plaza before an audience of jaded industry professionals on one side and casual tourists who happened to be in the right place at the right time on the other. I’m pretty sure jaws were dropped on either side.

Being that this is Saint Laurent, it is Vaccarello’s job to provoke, which he obviously did as a colleague immediately complained about the act of dressing young women in such revealing dresses, and shoes that some had trouble walking in.

Saint Laurent Runway Review

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Spring 2018 READY-TO-WEAR

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nthony Vaccarello plumbed the depths of the Yves Saint Laurent archive for his Spring 2018 collection for the house. Shown in the shadow of a twinkling Eiffel Tower, Vaccarello’s collection tracked Saint Laurent’s life from his lush Moroccan garden to his Parisian couture atelier, giving contemporary YSL muses plenty to wear for their own journeys. Sarah Mower’s review will be on Vogue.com shortly—until then, a primer of Vaccarello’s new Saint Laurent cliques.

The Nouveau Bohemians Inspired by Saint Laurent’s villa in Marrakesh, Vaccarello opened the show with a parade of boho peasant blouses, scrunched boots, leather shorts, and eclectic pendants. The look was comprised of many prints, patterns, and fabrics to give off a sumptuous spirit, while still showing enough skin to qualify as a Vaccarello babe. Look for these numbers on Vaccarello fans like Lou Doillon and Caroline de Maigret.

The Victorian Bad Girls Proper, white lace is not a material

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often associate with Vaccarello’s oeuvre, but he found a way to make it his own tonight by shredding, cutting, and splicing broderie anglaise tops together to a revealing end. Worn with leather short shorts and knee boots, it was what the girls from Picnic at Hanging Rock would have worn if their girls school was in late-’70s Detroit.

Sex appeal is par for the course at Saint Laurent. Tonight, that meant a number of skintight black dresses—some with plunging necklines, others with supershort hems—on a bevy of leggy models. While Anja Rubik was not in this section, you know these looks were meant for her. The tower began its nightly shower of twinkles and the show began, with models materializing out of clouds of dry ice, stomping their way across a long plaza before an audience of jaded industry professionals on one side and casual tourists who happened to be in the right place at the right time on the other. I’m pretty sure jaws were dropped on either side.

Saint Laurent Runway Review

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A Collection of Articels on Fashion Week Concept & Design by Sabrina Caruso Body text (Avenir Next Regular 9/13) Additional text (Avenir Next Demi Bold 25/30) (Bodoni MT 50/58) Articles, interviews, photographs, and other texts were collected and organized for the compilation of this book, which was created as a student design project. All content found in these pages is the original property of its creators and owners. Some texts have been condensed, reformated, and edited to increase readability. Photographs have been edited to optimize their printed appearance.

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