London calling: The best autumn collections

London calling: The best autumn collections

Ugly. It's not the most obvious buzzword but London's finest collections upheld an unconventional – if not plain confrontational – take on female beauty across the board. Spring's sugary colours were replaced by dowdy hues.

Khaki, oxblood, grey and, of course, black were accented with flashes of virulent green, yellow, purple and tomato. And there were more off-shades too, most prominently mustard and poison green. Move over also the bourgeois silhouette that has dominated the catwalk for so long has gone in favour of severe, boxy lines that either stand away from the body with aggressively sharp edges, or drown it entirely.

Christopher Kane himself described the moiré featured in his show as "disgusting" and the overall look as "a bit sick". This smelt of Teen Spirit, from models' lanky, centre-parted hair to their pallid complexions and heavy black-leather ankle boots and Mary Jane shoes. Here ribbon trim was replaced by more black leather, padded and tied into stiff bows. The silhouette was narrow but never tight throughout – nasty more than nice. Kane said he was inspired by Joseph Szabo's portraits of the ambivalence of adolescence and young girls in clubs "hanging around smoking". The look was as tough as it was accomplished and challenging, too, which after the sweetness of the designer's summer collection, was good to see.

JW Anderson's woman was no shrinking violet either. At times the clothing she walked in was so stiff she appeared barely able to bend her knees – not that that stopped her. Vinyl trouser suits – part space age, part surgical greens – were juxtaposed with tufted tartans and quilted skirts and jackets that, rather cleverly, were styled with un-quilted copies underneath, just in case our heroine is self-conscious enough to worry about her girth although clearly the message is: why should she be? The influence of the early work of both Comme des Garçons and Yohji Yamamoto was at play here: Anderson's not the only fêted designer to look to that just now and it's a smart move.

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A First Look at “Schiaparelli and Prada: Impossible Conversations” Opening at the Met in May

A First Look at “Schiaparelli and Prada: Impossible Conversations” Opening at the Met in May

The magnificent ballroom of the old Palazzo Reale, a spectacular creation of the late-eighteenth-century architect Giuseppe Piermarini, bombed during the World War II and left in its state of ruinous magnificence, made for a surreal backdrop to showcase clothing from the Costume Institute of the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s upcoming exhibition “Schiaparelli and Prada: Impossible Conversations” (opening May 10). Curator Andrew Bolton had arranged seven Elsa Schiaparelli originals from the 1930s in dialogue with seven Miuccia Prada ensembles—a delicious and irresistible teaser.

Schiaparelli’s diaphanous 1935 sari dress in orange organza threaded with golden filament was paired with Miuccia’s golden sari cocktail dress from Prada spring 2004, for instance. Elsa’s jacket with white rococo volutes appliquéd on tidily tailored black crepe (a model that was also ordered by the Duchess of Windsor for her 1937 wedding trousseau), was paired with Miuccia’s playful rococo singerie print dress from spring 2011, whilst the bugs embroidered on the otherwise conventional pink collar of tastemaker Millicent Rogers’s fall 1937 cocktail suit were reflected in the plastic bugs embroidered on Miuccia’s orange tweed skirt from fall 1999–a collection that Miuccia referred to as Lost in the Woods.

“I never would have thought of some of these resonances,” I said to Miuccia, who was wearing a coat in an Op Art print from last night’s runway show paired with ravishing eighteenth-century diamond-and-peridot earrings.

“Me neither!” laughed Miuccia. “The feather is the most obvious,” she added, referring to the finale piece from her fall 2007 collection, a short evening dress of bark-textured silk with a back composed of coq feathers and shiny black plastic fronds. Andrew Bolton had paired this with a ravishing 1934 Schiaparelli evening gown of textured black crepe; just the sort of dress that Man Ray photographed Schiap wearing with a black and white coq feather boa of her own.

In his opening speech, Milan’s commissioner of culture, fashion, and design Stefano Boeri said that the two Italian-born stylemakers “shared a unique bond with art, womanhood, beauty, and politics.” Emily Rafferty, president of the Met Museum, hailed the upcoming show as the “jewel in the crown” of the institution's historic engagement with Italian culture.

And Miuccia listened, rapt and inscrutable, to the Costume Institute’s Harold Koda’s and Andrew Bolton’s intriguing and thoughtful analysis of the two designers’ very different sources and paths to sometimes oddly similar—or at least echoing—results.

Both designers, in Bolton’s words, “used fashion to provoke . . . to challenge normative values.” He cited areas of mutual engagement, including “ugly chic” and “hard chic,” and explained that film director Baz Luhrmann (currently wrapping his remake of The Great Gatsby) is creating a series of video dialogues between the two exclusively for the exhibition, drawing on the “forthright and often vociferous opinions” that these otherwise shy women have expressed in print and on film.

Bolton ended by asking whether Miuccia and Schiap would have been friends if fate had made them contemporaries?

“I think so,” said Miuccia with her cryptic smile, explaining that since reading more about Schiaparelli—who apparently planted seeds in her ears as a young girl in the hope that it would make her unconventional looks blossom into loveliness—she had become for her “a woman I learned to like. The humanity of the whole thing interests me very much. She was protesting all her life!”

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Versus / Fall 2012 RTW

Versus / Fall 2012 RTW

Sometimes the narrative playing in your head during a show bears little to no resemblance to what unfolded in the mind of a designer while they were working on it. That’s why God gave us backstage access, so those responsible for creating the clothes get the chance to reveal the inner workings of what really went into a collection. A good case in point would be Versus, designed by the considerably talented young Scot Christopher Kane, who followed up a stellar London showing of his own label with a collection for this offshoot of the house of Versace only a few days later. So, Christopher . . . “It's totally Camden cyberdog,” Kane said. “The skinheads, the glitter, the acid tie-dye . . . It starts off angry, then gets more laid-back. But really, in the end, it’s about making everything graphic.” That, as much, was obvious from the get-go, even if Kane’s take on that curious techno/hippie-rock look peculiar to that district in north London wasn’t in any way writ large. But then, that’s the thing with him; like all those blessed with an original way of thinking, you can't always immediately decipher their sources of inspiration at first glance.

Ostensibly, then, Kane seemed to be working in that somewhat medieval/gothic vibe updated for the Rooney Mara generation that Milan has fallen for in a major way, except, like he said, he suddenly blew in some air to lighten the proceedings as the show wound its way to its end. It opened, however, with a series of looks in the by-now-ubiquitous claret: a coat with black leather sleeves and circular black leather patch pockets over a high-necked sweater (the throat, and how it is covered or accentuated, is constantly in focus in Milan); a slim, monastic jacket with a rounded volume in the sleeves over leather leggings; and an abbreviated flared dress, its laced sides and shoulders tautly exposing a flash of skin.

Then the show progressed into a petrol-blue archival Versace print that looked like a morphing of a Jacobean floral with a rather geometric paisley, worked into short flared and pleated dresses worn over thigh-high boots, or as slouchy but slim pants worn with a gleaming black leather cropped jacket and razor-slashed tees over the likes of black lace. That became a recurrent thread, this layering of print and lace and color—beautiful, intense color; violet, citrine, turquoise—with tiny dresses that flared out, or were fluid and diaphanous, almost like lingerie, or were as tight as they were tiny. Those particular ones were part of another narrative too, though. They called to mind the grommet-and-lace fluorescent look that started it all off for Kane a few years back, when sharing a finale bow with Donatella Versace could have only been a dream.

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D.I.Y Summer Bandeau Bras

D.I.Y Summer Bandeau Bras

Spring is almost here! Why not try making some bandeau bras to show off your creativity?

The Hips Have It

The Hips Have It

LONDON — Everyone knows that Christopher Bailey is a hip designer. But as star creative director at Burberry Prorsum , he should know something about hips. Women’s hips.

The collection the designer sent out on Monday had nonstop focus on padded pockets, below a waist that itself was outlined with a belt tied in a bow.

Even when the pockets disappeared, there were peplums, say on a soft, autumnal flowered dress, ensuring that the least favorite part of most women’s anatomy was in focus.

Most women do not love their hips unless they jut out, greyhound style, from a concave stomach. But the only greyhounds in this show were the fanged dogs that served as the fancy handles of umbrellas. They went with other country creatures: gilded fox heads as clasps on handbags; or owls, with their baleful eyes drawn on a T-shirt.

Could umbrellas be the new handbags? It looked that way when the finale lineup was live-streamed — not just with the company’s digitalized effects but also with water showering down the clear tent while the models walked under those fancy umbrellas.

The story of the show was of town and field — roughly translated as city-style studded gloves holding the bags with animal decorations.

There were things to love: tailored coats, those foxy ladies in flared riding skirts or slim dresses (minus the pockets) for the evening. The best of the show was streamlined and with a fine attention to detail. And it was played out in soft autumnal colors from owl feather brown, through petrol blue, blueberry and moss green.

But the hips had it. And surely even the gorgeous Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, a Burberry mascot, would prefer some other part of her perfect body to be in focus.

London Fashion Week Fall 2012 Street Style

London Fashion Week Fall 2012 Street Style

The wind in London is bringing clothes to life in a new way: Trenches are billowing theatrically, wide trousers are flowing in the gusts, and even structured overcoats are given a little dynamic ripple. With skies clearer and umbrellas tucked away (at least for now), it’s high time to have some fun with color, like Caroline Issa in electric-blue Sportmax pants, a model’s shocking-pink blazer, or a bright wool bag that, at first glance, appears to be made out of gum balls. It’s just the kind of cheeky accessory that makes London street style so sweet.

Click to see SLIDE SHOW

Click here to view New York Fashion Week Fall 2012 Street Style Part 1.

Click here to view New York Fashion Week Fall 2012 Street Style Part 2.

Into the Woods: McQ Alexander McQueen Debuts in London

Into the Woods: McQ Alexander McQueen Debuts in London

Sarah Burton can’t do things by halves. Just when London expects her to put on a routine, serviceable presentation for the McQ Alexander McQueen collection, as a mere teaser for the opening of its Dover Street store in the spring, she goes mega with a whole runway show and a theatrical performance. Maybe she didn’t want to let London down, or the name of Alexander McQueen in the city he was born. But whatever her motivations were, Burton treated the McQ audience to the full runway experience—a space covered in dried leaves, and a dramatic ending that had Kristen McMenamy wandering into a faux winter-wood to a lonely hut, which then blasted into life with music and flashing lights.

Oh, and there were excellent clothes for women and men, too. The collection majored on a classic McQueen silhouette, the nipped-waist, full-skirted outline transposed onto military coats and jackets and dresses in khaki cloth or embossed leather. The fashion interest kicked up another notch when Burton began using Black Watch tartan as a bustier kilt-dress over a velvet embroidered body, and still another when she introduced burgundy devoré velvet in a leaf-pattern on evening coats and extravagantly huge, petticoated skirts. For the finale, flower-embroidered tutu dresses rounded out a collection that had an unexpected level of luxe about it. 

“It feels great to be back showing in London. Fabulous!” laughed a calm and relaxed Burton backstage, while being congratulated by buyers from Bergdorf Goodman and Neiman Marcus and a throng of press. “I didn’t want it to feel like a second line, but there are more practical, everyday things in here for the McQ woman to wear, and to mix with clothes she’ll buy from the main line.” Ultimately, it was a show which McQueen himself might have approved of. The last time he showed in London, before leaving for Paris, it felt as though London was headed toward terminal decline as a fashion city. But now? The return—even if it’s a one-off event—is part of a citywide fashion renaissance which has creativity, surprise, and brilliantly sellable clothes coming from all directions.

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On The Street - Bill Cunningham

DKNY / Fall 2012 RTW

DKNY / Fall 2012 RTW

The fact that there is never a cab around when you need one is a constant gripe of all New Yorkers; the fight to catch one during Fashion Week is a sideshow in itself. There is one place, however, you’re always likely to find a yellow taxi these days, and that’s at the DKNY show, where for the past few seasons, a cab has been parked at the top of the runway and rolls onto the street. Today has undoubtedly been the coldest day this week, and as the army of models swept in from the sidewalk, they brought with them a frosty chill, and fashion editors in the front row huddled together to keep warm. Wearing a shiny black leather and shearling coat fastened securely around the neck, the first model that walked into the spotlight was more appropriately dressed than most for a cold New York winter. That high, wind-shielding collar ran through the entire collection, sometimes worn as a detachable scarf atop one-button blazers with leather sleeves and black dresses with flirty leather peplum insets. Indeed, if there is one insulating top layer set to topple fashion’s current love of fur this season—judging from what we’ve seen of fall thus far—it’s leather. It appears all over the collection, from the head-to-toe look of a skirt suit to the embossed croc corset-like belts cinching a cozy puffer.

That being said, the strongest message to come through for fall resonates at the brand’s very core. It’s time for the young, city-dwelling DKNY girl to go back to black. In the 20-plus years since the label launched, that idea of an urban uniform has became a universal, working dress code across the world. In that sense, it’s easy to forget that the all-black-everything look originated here with women like Donna Karan. When the designer emerged from the street to take her bow at the end of the show, she did so dressed in the shearling that opened the show; the consummate New Yorker through and through.

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February Social!

The room if called Beefeaters on the 2nd floor of Memorial Union.

TASA will be serving free ice cream! Bring food if you would like as well :)

Prabal Gurung Sees the Light

Prabal Gurung Sees the Light

A few days ago in his showroom, Prabal Gurung was fitting the last pieces of his fall collection, the follow-up to a spring show that seemed to mark a turning point in his young career.

“I am a little more confident in my own skin,” he said. “I’m more confident, not only as a designer, but a person. I realized there are two sides to my life. There is the darkness, and the lightness, of myself.”

I told him he was starting to sound like Donna Karan.

But Mr. Gurung indeed seemed confident, or unconcerned, anyway, about the pressure he faced today at his noontime show. That is because the collection reflected his journey as a designer, “from hell to heaven,” as he said.

“I felt like I was in a place where I can slowly give a sense of myself in the collection,” he said.

He started with all-black looks shown on models with dark hair, and ended with all-white looks shown on models with blond hair. The former included dresses with sheer panels inset at the sides, a stiff sweatshirt embroidered with black roses over a kicky skirt, and a black dress superimposed with panels of a shiny neoprene print of an oil spill.

The latter included dresses composed of bits of gold foil, cutaway tulle inserts and strips of sequins, and a gown of gold lamé with cutouts at the sides. The idea was to give the idea of a halo effect (assuming that his customers pray daily at the altar of Equinox).

I was glad to have seen Mr. Gurung’s prints and accessories up close, for there were some hidden surprises. One image, framed in a border of gold roses, was of an enlarged cow’s skull, inspired by the paintings of Georgia O’Keefe. The accessories for Mr. Gurung’s show, made by Fenton, included cuffs and large chokers affixed with what appeared on the runway to be scarabs, but were actually small cow skulls as well. The sunglasses, made by Linda Farrow, were based on a mirror image of the Wayfarer, with a small rose thorn in each corner of the frames.

Out of fashion: Designers finding new ways to sell their style

Out of fashion: Designers finding new ways to sell their style

The opening of New York Fashion Week today kicks off a month of models striding the international catwalks. The loping sashay, the glamorous turn, the retreating back, impossibly nimble on six-inch heels: all have become a familiar archetype, a synecdoche for the fashion industry itself.

But, as the autumn 2012 collections are unveiled, more and more designers are questioning the format; seeking something new in an age where digital culture means every image is beamed straight to an audience at home and cloistered, exclusive runways are no longer the most practical way of promoting their labels.

"There has been a massive change," says photographer Nick Knight, founder of SHOWstudio.com, which live-streams shows as well as interviews and fashion shoots. "The public are seeing clothes as they are shown, rather than in magazines three months later. And they want them when they see them."

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The Importance of Being Elegant: Wes Gordon Fall 2012

The Importance of Being Elegant: Wes Gordon Fall 2012

Just weeks after receiving the Fashion Group International’s Rising Star Award for womenswear, Wes Gordon presented a confident fall collection inside a cavernous warehouse at Pier 59 studios. “I wanted to go darker and more dramatic this season than I’ve ever gone before,” he said. “So it’s a little Rooney Mara meets Great Expectations.” That’s not to say he switched his uptown polish and shine for disheveled leather and ripped denim (although the subtle addition of chain mail anklets draped over black nappa and velvet pumps offered a dramatic, military touch), more that this time around Gordon’s neoteric approach to old-school elegance—onyx and gilt leopard brocade cocoon dresses and emerald silk peplum tops paired with cropped, oxblood pants—carried with it the youthful attitude of a modern girl who, in the designer’s words, “has a bit of bite!”

High Impact: The CFDA Celebrates 50 Years of Fashion

High Impact: The CFDA Celebrates 50 Years of Fashion

To celebrate its 50th anniversary, the Council of Fashion Designers of America has assembled iconic fashion moments from more than 600 of its members past and present for an exhibition, “IMPACT: 50 Years of the CFDA,” at the Museum at FIT opening this Friday (with a party to celebrate the opening tonight) and commemorative book. Looking through all the fabulous images, we fell in love again with some of the  designers featured in the pages of Vogue throughout the years, and while some of the labels may be discontinued, their style endures.

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Armani Privé / Spring 2012 Couture

Armani Privé / Spring 2012 Couture

If you zoomed in on the sheer T-shirts hidden beneath the first skirt-suits Giorgio Armani sent out, you would have been able to guess his theme from the start. The fine, geometric mesh fabric was constructed in the shape of snakes’ scales: this was a collection based on the idea of pythons, serpents, the textures and patterns of the reptile world. On nearly every head, there was a small, upstanding coil—a sting?

Like Karl Lagerfeld earlier in the day, Armani set out to design his collection in a single color range: in his case, green—poison green, teal, deep green, chartreuse. At first, the trope wasn’t declared in full. His day wear—essentially pencil skirts with a folded-in frontal volume, or narrow pants—threw the emphasis on his signature strength in jackets, with a couple of mean, super-luxe crocodile versions with swooped-up shoulders, nipped waists, and peplums as standouts.

Really, though, his audience waits for Armani to stake his claim on grand evening-wear, especially at this time of year. With apposite timing, the Oscar nominations for the Academy Awards were just breaking on the audience’s smartphones seconds before the show began. The designer’s longtime client Glenn Close is on the list of Best Actress contenders. But who else might Armani attract with the event-designed options in this collection?

Perhaps the poufy circle skirts, with their faded digital python prints might be a difficult choice to maneuver in the step-and-repeat ritual. But when Armani reached the conclusion of his visual narrative—the idea of metamorphosis—the forms peeled away to leave some slim, powerful, shining gowns, undoubtedly undulating towards that long, red carpet very soon.

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David Beckham’s Bodywear H&M Launch

David Beckham’s Bodywear H&M Launch

Photo: Tim Whitby/Getty Images
David Beckham, British soccer hero, flew back to home turf from L.A. to launch his new line of men’s underwear at H&M last night. Emerging from being mobbed by men, women, and children at the Regent Street store, he was whisked to the Connaught Hotel to, as it were, debrief in front of the press. He’s not unambitious about it. “I’d like this to be as big as Calvin Klein in underwear,” he said. “I wanted to keep it really simple. I’m 36 now, and I’ve seen my fair share of underwear.” Amazingly, the quality is great and branding minimal. “Men don’t like things splattered with patterns.” His favorite item amongst the line of cotton underthings? A pair of gray long johns. “I noticed girls were buying them in the store just now,” he grinned.

Fittings for this latest of brand Beckham enterprises took place at home in L.A., naturally, with the help of his wife, Victoria. They shared sketches. “When you’re married, you trust each other’s opinions,” he said, touchingly. “I’m so proud of her—to go from being a Spice Girl to being taken seriously in the fashion industry.” It turns out, though, that this is no ordinary H&M collaboration. Beckham was already working on the collection under the aegis of XIX Entertainment, the company founded by Simon Fuller which has discreetly steered Roland Mouret’s and Victoria Beckham’s fashion careers to success. When they heard about it, the Swedish High Street retailer stepped in with an offer, and bingo: Now David Beckham Bodywear is to be carried in 1,800 H&M stores for a period of at least two years. Anyone who wants to see more need only watch Sunday’s Super Bowl, when a Beckham commercial will air to an expected TV audience of more than 110 million. That’s a thought that thrills Britain’s sports icon, though not so much his kids, he laughed. “They’re like, ‘Oh my God, Daddy, not again. Everyone’s going to see you in your [under]pants!’”

RAW Artists Madison Launch Party!!!

For more information or to buy tickets for the event, click here--->RAW Artists

Versace / Spring 2012 Couture

Versace / Spring 2012 Couture

Call it the return of the power woman. Donatella Versace’s comeback to the Paris couture schedule was made official today with the first public presentation of her Atelier Versace collection in eight years. If “presentation” sounds like a modest, low-budget affair, forget it: There’s nothing very reserved or quiet about building a golden plinth—a towering set of stairs—on which to pose a troop of futuristic glamazons in sparkling lace gowns and starship bodysuits. It was a tableau that might echo the old days of the Alta Moda, when Italian couturiers showed their dresses on the Spanish Steps in Rome, perhaps, or a sci-fi fantasy. The only aspect that was down-to-earth was the fact that the audience stood to watch, some resorting to sitting on the floor.             
               

The silvery siren gowns and gold filigree dresses and biker jackets were worked in combinations of lace, leather, crystalline sugar-granule beading, and rose motifs. Sharp half-moons of gold aluminum, inserted to jut at the hips, or cut into angular slices to emphasize corsets, gave a sense of futuristic drama to sinuous silhouettes calculated to glorify every curve of the Versace rock-goddess body. With the suggestion of peplums, and the underpinnings of shorts showing through sheer segments of lace, the look hit on two trends of the moment, but really, this was a continuation of everything the house has always done. Stepping back into the limelight of couture is a positive step for Donatella—and a fillip to the spirits of this round of shows. Next time, though, she might have to put caution behind her, and have a full-fledged show—why not, when she’s come this far?

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Spring Kickoff Meeting!!!!!!!!

Please come and join TASA in welcoming the new semester at our Spring Kickoff Meeting tomorrow! It's a great place to meet new friends who are as interested in fashion as you are!

TASA , along with Jody Fossum, will be announcing information about the highly anticipated annual fashion show ESCAPE for designers who want to participate.

TASA will also be providing information on what's in store for the organization this year about socials, trips, other big events and most of all about the executive board for 2012-2013.

If you are new and would like to join, come to the meeting so you can find out more about what we are all about. Dues are $20 for the semester if paid by March 1st, 2012 and $30 anytime after.

Hope to see you there!

The Fashion Fund Series Premieres on Hulu

The Fashion Fund Series Premieres on Hulu

You saw the video sneak peaks here on Vogue.com in November and, starting today, the first full episode of The Fashion Fund documentary series premieres on Hulu and Hulu Plus, offering an intimate look at what it takes to be a CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund finalist. Over the years, the Fashion Fund, which was launched by Vogue and the Council of Fashion Designers of America in 2003 to support emerging American designers, has discovered and developed the talents of visionary designers like Alexander Wang, Proenza Schouler, and Rodarte and, in doing so, has established itself as the fashion industry’s most influential and sought-after award. In 2011, more than 200 designers applied, and only ten finalists were chosen—all of whom agreed to give unprecedented access to their lives and work, as shown in this engaging six-part series produced by Break Thru Films and directed by Annie Sundberg and Ricki Stern.

Chanel / Spring 2012 Couture

Chanel / Spring 2012 Couture

Karl Lagerfeld was in the cockpit. The passengers were seated in the flight simulator, a futuristic cabin constructed in a room somewhere under the roof of the Grand Palais. Cue takeoff for Chanel’s spring haute couture: a collection made in blue—154 shades of it, to be precise. Why blue? The sky, of course, in all its infinite changeability. “It’s the color of air, no?” announced Captain Karl, once the “flight” had landed and the audience was disembarking. “It’s the most becoming color. And I’m bored with the red carpet—so why not a blue carpet?” Karl has a new blue-eyed Burmese cat, too. And recently, he said, he’s been looking at the jewels the artist Suzanne Valadon owned, studded with blue chalcedony.

But this wasn’t a collection that needed any explanation to validate it or, truth be told, even such an elaborately (and wittily) constructed set to put it in context. The clothes—from the simple, chic color-blocked dresses, to the treatments of Chanel tweeds,  to the long, skinny dresses—simply spoke for themselves, with no too-obvious puns or tropes about air travel to obscure the beautiful view.

The show opened with clean, supple day dresses bisected with deep bands as stand-away collars and, at the hip, a second inset band at the hip, containing pockets into which the girls thrust their hands as they walked. It was a gesture of ease which called to mind Coco Chanel’s own habitual stance, creating a long-waisted framework for Lagerfeld to work variations in the proportions throughout. To begin, shorter dresses sometimes picked up a flippy volume in the skirt, like a lovely swing of pale-blue duchesse satin beneath a beaded navy dress and short jacket. Then the silhouettes became longer and slimmer: rigorous ankle-length coatdresses, a sequence of narrow skirts slit at the side, the attenuated proportions all emphasized by airy, ballooning sleeves on cropped jackets.

Cohesive and rigorous as the theme was, this was also a collection that demonstrated Chanel haute couture decoration and embellishment to the fullest extent, running from winking crystals and glints of Lurex in chic evening suits, to chunky crystalline embroidery on cocktail dresses with “winged” organza wraps, to slithery all-over paillettes. The variety encompassed something for every age and multiple tastes, from the pretty ingénue dress to the grown-up evening suit for the sophisticate. Karl is one couturier fully in control of every calibration of eveningwear imaginable. Chanel may be flying at the most rarefied of heights at this level, but the very sight of it was truly uplifting.

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Model Call for ESCAPE: Annual Spring Fashion Show!

Description (from Facebook event page)

Hi ladies and gentlemen! It's that time of the year again. The lovely designers from the Textile and Apparel Design program are looking for models for our May 4th Fashion Show.

Try-outs will be held at Union South on February 4th from 12PM to 4PM so stop by at your convenience. Room TBD the day of the event so check out the TITU at Union South when you arrive.

Ladies, please make sure to wear tighter fitting clothes, such as a tank and leggings as we will be taking down your measurements. Please also bring a pair of heels.

We are also looking for a few men and kid models. So guys, don't feel excluded, stop on by! To all, if you have a younger sibling in the Madison area, bring them along too!

This is a wonderful opportunity to model some amazing designs and strut your stuff down the runway in front of hundreds of guests.

If you have any questions or concerns regarding the model call please feel free to contact Lucy Angel at angel2@wisc.edu.

Thanks and can't wait to see you there!

Fabric Manipulation : How to Make Flowers With Fabric Part 1+2

It's FRIDAY!!
Why not try some of these fabric manipulations to make some pretty flowers for your garments?

HAVE FUN!!

Fabric Manipulation : How to Make Flowers With Fabric Part 1

Secretlifeofabionerd: Fabric Manipulation : How to Make Flowers With Fabric Part 2

Taking Flight: Brood’s Inventive Spring 2012 Collection

Taking Flight: Brood’s Inventive Spring 2012 Collection

“I like the idea of a girl being able to adjust her garment depending on how she feels,” says Brood designer Serkan Sarier, now in his third season. This is why in his spring collection, the German-born, Turkish-Bosnian designer created a number of eye-catching, draped tops constructed from twisted seams, sliding toggles, and zippers, which can be gently manipulated into multiple off-shoulder, on-shoulder, covered-up, or peek-a-boo possibilities—but aren’t quite as complicated as they sound.

An image of eccentric cluster balloonist John Ninomiya captured floating over the West Coast while harnessed to a bundle of silver helium-filled Mylar balloons, gave Sarier inspiration for the utilitarian pieces. “I’m interested in merging couture techniques with athleticism,” says the designer who, after graduating from the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp in 2001, went on to work for Emanuel Ungaro, Haider Ackermann, and Olivier Theyskens at Nina Ricci. While the color palette, in an unexpected combination of blush, tangerine, and violet, reflects quite literally the idea of blurred spectral hues on water, the use of silk taffeta is a purposeful nod to his couture roots, but treated with a far more modern sensibility. “You can just throw these pieces on before jumping into a cab,” he says of the transformative tops which hit Barneys on February 1. “It’s not precious.”

Calling all designers!!!

DESIGNERS!  If you missed last year’s RePurposed Runway Competition at RedLine Milwaukee, here’s another chance!  RedLine is taking applications for what is quickly becoming the most watched design contest in town.  Check out http://www.facebook.com/repurposedrunway2012 for full details.  The idea is simple: Use your favorite ICON, find some materials on their way to the dump, and craft a garment like no other.  TV and Grand Avenue Mall exposure.  Entries will be judged at the RedLine Fusion Fashion Show on Friday, September 21, 2012.   The results will astound you!  Designers note:  Applications due NOW – March 1.  

CLICK HERE FOR MORE INFO AND APPLICATION!!!

Armani Privé / Spring 2012 Couture

Armani Privé / Spring 2012 Couture

Is there really a need for haute couture? Well, let’s put it this way: If it’s about event-dressing (only part of the picture, but a huge one these days), the answer is yes. This year, we have already born witness to the People’s Choice Awards, the Critics’ Choice Awards, and the Golden Globes. Then, in the next few weeks, there’s the SAG Awards, the Berlin Film Festival, and the César Awards, adding up to seven major dress-seeking occasions for actresses (and their strung-out stylists) even before we get to the big one on February 26, the Academy Awards. Not all of those dresses will be chosen or adapted from the haute couture shows, of course—they are the crème de la crème—but, then again, a good sprinkling will be. And this sharpens the relevance of the couture collections which are about to commence this week—at least for anyone who fancies beating her friends at the annual name-the-dress competition while watching the Oscar red-carpet arrivals.
All of the above was the subject of a side-conversation amongst staff at the Armani Privé headquarters as Giorgio Armani (the premier Hollywood awards-show dresser since the 1980s) was concluding fittings for his show on Tuesday. As a point of style, he placed a pagoda-shouldered jacket over the back of a model wearing a serpentine chartreuse-pailletted dress. An aspect of tailoring over dresses or skirts is, of course, an emerging trend. “It looks more casual,” said Mr. Armani. Look more closely, however, and it’s possible to deduce from the dramatic slash in the bodice of the dress that the artistic content of the collection is about the way snakes shed their skins. “It’s a metamorphosis,” he said. “She starts as one thing and ends as another.”