Couture D’Epoque:Haute Couture Autumn/Winter 2010-2011

As glamorous and sophisticated as they were last January, this season’s Haute Couture collections certainly expressed the Parisian Maisons’ financial difficulty to maintain such standards of luxury. The crisis is here to stay, deeply affecting all sectors of the economy  and even compromising the fortunes of clients who are less keen on making public demonstrations of wealth.

The mood was more reasonable: generally less embroidery, less feathers, crystals and pearls and much simpler cuts. Alth­ough sobriety ruled, present were splashes of unwelcome eccentricity… these oversized unflattering bird-like shoulders!

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Preppy Monsieur:Menswear Spring/Summer 2011

A scent of preppiness, expressed through the revival of colorful prints and a general search for youthful classicism was a definite trend this season, following the success of retro references in womenswear, accessories and all forms of design. Although classically tailored, impeccably cut outfits remain the norm, designers seem keen to avoid austerity. This season’s indispensable accessory: Retro glasses!

Viktor & Rolf, who have been presenting menswear collections for five years, were used to designing and modeling clothes for themselves. The success of their very personal style, deceivingly old-fashioned and brightened by subtle winks of color and prints, encouraged them to “…make clothes for all the other men…”.

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Winter Escape: 2011 Cruise collections

Cruise or resort collections, also known as ‘croisière’, are inter-seasonal or pre-seasonal Ready-to-wear garments that fashion houses present in addition to their usual spring/summer, autumn/winter yearly lines.

Initially designed for a niche market of wealthy jet setters, who went on cruises to exotic destinations (North-Americans to the Caribbean) or vacationed on the warm Mediterranean coasts (Europeans to Italy, Spain, the south of France, etc…) during the winter months.

The nautical style (stripes, gold buttons, navy blue and white, sea colours, shorts, caftans), beachwear and semi-formal evening dresses for ‘dinner at the captain’s table’ and ‘pool-side cocktail parties’ are typical elements of contemporary resort collections, that echo this bygone era. These summer clothes reach stores in November and are sold alongside winter collections. They are targeted at clients who travel around the world or live and work in warm areas and need clothes that can cross climates and seasons.

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Fashion & Contemporary Living: Interview of Greek Fashion Designer Yiorgos Eleftheriades

This week we visited the trendy, historic quarter of central Athens, Psirri, which has recently attracted many artists, to meet the young, charming, Greek fashion designer, Yiorgos Eleftheriades.

No icebreaker is ever needed with Yiorgos. He has already seduced us with his optimistic, easy-going ways and open-mindedness. As he greets us, we sit down for a chat about his style: a combination of ‘strict’, modern tailoring, with luxurious fabrics, like cashmere, jersey, fine wool, silk, high quality denim, vibrant colours and prints.

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Glitter & Glamour: Cannes 2010

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Retro Sentimental

As soon as styles, motifs, materials and techniques become outdated, they are used as a reservoir of endlessly recyclable ideas. Each period of time seems to recall the past according to its needs and experiences.

‘Retro’, a trendier term for ‘old-fashioned’ or ‘timeless’, was born in the early 70’s and refers to an undefined recent or distant past. Nostalgia for old cars, ‘vintage’ clothes (garments originating from a previous era), ‘sentimental’ novels, swinging music and inter-war films evoke memories of past days that are still resonantly familiar. It is certainly the spirit of Christian Dior’s Ready-to-wear Spring 2010 retro collection, which consisted in dresses and ensembles inspired by 20’s and 30’s lace and silk undergarments. Also, fashion icon Dita Von Teese’s total look revived 40’s-50’s ultra-femininity with curves, red lips, pale skin and cinema inspired hairstyles.

Retro aesthetics is clearly a non-historical and popular way to look back into the past in search for emotion and ‘romanticism’. New retro cars like Chrysler’s 40’s PT Cruiser, Volkswagen 50’s inspired new Beetle, or 60’s new ‘Mini Cooper’ demonstrate the sentimental appeal of past styles.

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Art Fabric

Fabric swaddles the newborn, warms, protects and adorns the body, binds up wounds and shrouds the dead. Common to all mankind and dating back to the beginning of civilization, it records life’s most important experiences: marriage, mourning or longing felt by mothers who send clothes to soldiers. Thread represents the life cycle in many cultures: Greek mythology’s three Fates personify destiny, as the life thread is spun, measured and severed.

Textiles, made of living, organic fibres that decay over time just like our body, relate to the natural world. Their depth and rich symbolism allow contemporary artists to express diverse and complex narratives, both literally and metaphorically. Slashed canvases display an aesthetic of ‘deconstruction’ where fabric acts as a metaphor for social deterioration, while fashion designer Martin Margiela’s second-skin slashed clothes show the vulnerability of human condition. Loose, hanging threads or incomplete, unresolved works translate alienation and anxiety, and subvert the soothing tranquillity usually associated with textiles. Weaving and needlework (lace, quilting, appliqué, embroidery, knitting, tapestry, braiding and beading) were crafts traditionally reserved to the domestic sphere of women and once undervalued.

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Sports, Coolitude and the Street

With summer approaching in only one month’s time, advertising campaigns have promptly shifted towards casual chic, active wear, semi-formal wear, business casual and all other sports coolitude formulas. Sports and fashion have, indeed, become more and more connected, forming, with music, the basis of popular culture. They all share a discourse on the body, social and racial mingling, while blurring the boundaries of the feminine/masculine.
The ‘street’, born from the globalization of the American sub-cultures, with their mixture of négligé Hip hop, R ‘n’ B, and sports-themed looks has long been a source of inspiration for fashion brands.
Coolhunters (and now bloggers) have been observing young consumers in their urban environment, the shopping streets of cities on Fridays and Saturdays (the Halles in Paris, Piazza del Duomo in Milan, Soho in London, Soho in New York…) which act as a performance space to express each individual’s adaptation of a ‘fashionable look’, giving clues on chosen colours, tastes and codes. Which are the most successful pieces? How often are they worn and how are they matched?

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The Devil Wants an iPad

Any cyber fashionista, whether amateur, blogger, or professional (editor, stylist, retailer, advertiser, communication manager…etc) owns an indispensable tool: the iPhone. This BFF (Best Fashion Friend) enables her/him to tweet  (post updates on her/his profile and follow other members’ news), watch videos and photos of catwalks, read reviews, post on blogs, take photos of street style looks and share them on Facebook, through ‘applications’ or equivalent iPhone versions of ‘Twitter’,  ‘Sartorialist’, ‘Style.com’, and ‘Vogue Paris’.
Furthermore, ‘Vogue Stylist’ helps users build their wardrobe by photographing their own clothes and pairing them with current trends. Whereas, online shopping applications like ‘Net-à-porter’ (founded in 2000, with 2 million members from 170 countries worldwide) and ‘Gilt’ (a two year-old site which works with 650 brands and recorded 2 million members in December 2009, according to BusinessWeek) place the shopper ‘just one click away’ from the numerous lists offered: clothes, accessories, jewellery, watches, gifts, cosmetics… take your pick.

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Blogs, BLOGS and BLOGGERS

When reflecting on the Internet’s advantages, one would recall ‘freedom of Both speech And opinion’, ‘egalitarian personal relations’ favoured by the decline of hierarchical authority, and an ideal of sharing knowledge, experience and information on a worldwide scale. Virtual communities are known to be prolific, creative, going beyond establishments, corporations and traditional qualifications. As much as it is a vast reservoir of generously offered ideas (of unequal value, of course) and free services, the Internet also equals a chaotic ocean of information, which raises the issue of controlling opinions in a world where citizens are mere consumers.

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