Filed under: Uncategorized
When nothing’s going right, at least Balenciaga sheds a little light…
Filed under: musicology
Stuck in my head: My Angel Rocks Back and Forth by Four Tet
For spring, Gareth Pugh took his freakshow (and I mean this in the best possible sense) to Paris, and man, I am quite impressed. While I always respected him for his gutsy, dramatic designs, I could never quite connect with it, because there was just no way in hell I was ever going to wear giant balloons of fabric over my head. His clothes just never really clicked in the right way with me, until this collection. And while this collection could be labeled as more “wearable”, I really don’t think it meant he compromised his avant garde sensibilities. I reallllly like the white-in front, black-in-back idea (reminds me of those fall Chanel tights with lace in front and solid black in back), and there was more than one piece that I could actually imagine someone daring and awesome wearing (Daphne Guiness, perhaps?). The whole show was just so cool looking, in a way that’s hard for me to explain. I’m just intrigued by the ideas, the shapes, and the details. I especially liked the combination of hard-edged, avant garde shapes with softer silhouettes. I think this is a big success for Gareth Pugh.
Rick Owens is too cool for school. As in, if I wore his clothes, I would not be able to afford to go to school. But I still love him and his clothes. For spring, he incorporated a little of the recurring tribal/primitive theme into his awesome black collection. The thing about Rick Owens is that, even though his runway collections may look crazy or unwearable to the timid of dress, when taken piece by piece, his clothes are just awesome. It all looks like clothes you could just wear because you don’t give a damn what other people think. Which basically means I want it all (and it’s all grey and black! YAY!). I’m also strangely attracted to the floppy footwear.
FINALLY. I feel like I’ve been waiting for Paris Fashion Week forever. But it’s finally started, and now I have something to do in my incredibly boring 9 AM stats class (I meannn….I’m totally riveted by this problem about probability and normal curves)! In any case, I immediately had to check out the spring Balmain show, because Balmain’s coolness has been skyrocketing in the last few seasons, thanks to Christophe Decarnin’s cool, ultra-hot clothes. And his spring collection definitely continued this theme. There were studs, there was ripped denim, there were rhinestones, there gowns that could either be worn by really cool people (*cough Carine cough*)and look…really cool, or be worn by really tacky people and look horrendous. I liked the dark mood (I’m kind of maniacally happy that there are so many dark colors being shown for spring), and the fact that these clothes are freaking hot, but in the end, I think I kind of liked the fall collection more.
I really like Meadham Kirchhoff’s spring collection. A lot. I like the orange, the decaying lace, the shininess, pretty much everything. I don’t even feel the need to explain myself much more than that. It’s just cool. Period.
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Shhh…I’ll tell you a secret: I’m not really that into Milan Fashion Week. Obviously there are good shows (Prada), but I just don’t get all hyped up the way I do for New York Fashion Week (it’s at the beginning, so I’ve been deprived of new designs for a while) or Paris (which features some of my FAVORITE designers), so while I shoullld be watching the Milan shows like a hawk, I’ve been doing my Economics problem sets and my Japanese homework instead (I know, I’m terrible). But I’m just biding my time until Paris, which I’m really excited for. In other news, I’m taking a class on clothing this quarter (!!!! The ONLY one at Stanford, which is really sad). More about that soon.
Prada is kind of difficult for me to wrap my head around quickly, so I’m going to let it slowly diffuse into my brain, like I do every season. Miuccia has this way of creating collections that I don’t really get for a while, and then suddenly I’ll realize that it was so right. So I’ll let you decide for yourself:
Of all the London shows, I think I was most excited about Erdem. I’ve been ogling him for so many seasons, he’s starting to really make me feel inadequate about my clothes. Hah. This collection was kind of a departure for him, mostly because it was a lot girlier than most of his older collections, with super sugary, cupcake colors (for some reason I call them cupcake colors, because the word ‘pastel’ makes me cringe a bit), but it still reached that amazing place that makes him almost coutour-like, which those Erdem signatures like lace (he did lace before it was back ‘in’!) and floral prints. I loved the shots of vivid persimmon and lemon that made the lighter shades seem less cloyingly sweet. I still love his darker colors more, but this new development is definitely fun to look at. Man, he is so awesome. I just want to wear his wear his dresses and lounge on upholstered couches, have tea and eat small cakes and read poetry. That or frolic. I do enjoy a good frolic.
Let’s get one thing straight: Louise Goldin is pretty freaking awesome. She’s a knitwear expert, but I never associate her with sweaters or normal knit-fare. Every season, I’m sad because I can never find her clothes on this side of the pond, which I so desperately want to see in person (even if I probably can’t afford to shell out for a lot of it, considering my recent terrible penchant for buying ridiculous shoes). This season is no different. She played with the transparency motif that’s continuing through this season from last year (which I am extremely happy about), and she did a great job with structural clothes that didn’t look stiff. That’s the main problem I have with scuptural clothes: they look amazing and beautiful and everything, but the stiffness is a little hard to wear when you’re running around to class and meetings and events all day and biking and getting into shenanigans. But Louise Goldin’s beautifully structured dresses always looked like they’d be so comfortable to wear, but also awesome. And I love the bleached out color palette.
