Our first and final show today - indeed our final show of Paris Fashion Week - is Giles. Not to outdone by his Brit counterparts McQueen, Galliano et al on the invite innovation front, Deacon's is certainly unique: an inflatable, Giles- brand dinosaur. Not sure how typography purists may feel about the free-and-easy use of Comic Sans though.
Here's a snap of John Galliano's clapper-board invite to his Norma Desmond-inspired S/S 2010 show - which, gallantly, I braved a tropical storm to attend. I've just posted my review to the SHOWstudio Collections, and now - after our penultimate show and very, veery early on the morning of my final day in Paris, I'm off to bed. More soon...
Is the grass always greener at Hermes? Quite possibly as the whole venue is carpeted in it. As I speak, one audience member has already taken a tumble down the turf-coated stairs! Luckily the models have a neat concrete catwalk. With sports markings running over floor, seats and walls alike, I don't think this will be an excursion into next season's much-loved pastoralism.
Hands down, the best invite of the week is this punched leather number from the world-renowned purveyor of luxe par excellance, Hermes. I figure if I attend their shows over the next twenty or so years I'll have enough hide for a patchwork Birkin. To be frank, it would probably take me longer to save up for one. They are next for me at 6.30, then Galliano to close this penultimate day here in Paris.
06102009196.flv
Here is an extended version of that final walk-through at Alexander McQueen's stellar S/S 2010 collection. You can read my (frankly, rather verbose) Collections review here. Good night, god bless, and for heaven's sake wish me luck to get to Roland Mouret at 9.30am tomorrow - I'll need it!
06102009195.flv
While Nick Knight and the team at Paris' Palais Omnisports work into the night to edit together the Alexander McQueen live stream footage into the final show video, here is my considerably less technologically advance video of the collection's finale. Check out those roving robotic cameras! And the shoes!
06102009193.flv
'Plato's Atlantis' is the title McQueen has given his Spring/Summer 2010 collection - and this holographic invite, oscillating between a woman's face landbound and submerged in watery depths, isn't giving many clues as to what the eventual clothes will look like. Naturally I'll be blogging, tweeting and reporting from the show live, but as you have no doubt already gathered SHOWstudio.com will also be broadcasting the entire event to a world wide audience in a unique online experience! More details on the blog soon from the team back in London HQ - but pencil in your diaries that the stream itself kicks off at 20:15 Paris Time tonight. For now, I'm off to Chloe.
A standing ticket is not to be scoffed at. Especially when designers show in shoebox-sized venues and you end up with a sensational view - like this full-on full-frontal I got earlier this afternoon at Dries Van Noten's show.
Is Karl Lagerfeld a Banksy fan? It wouldn't be a great leap of logic, given that Karl is consistently on the button of anything and everything deemed branche. His invite featured a sprayed graphic of KK riffing on a Gibson, and now the press packs on the seats at his show - the first of the day - have laser-cut stencils so you can try it yourself. Very Art Attack.
Showing at the Salle Wagram, the same nineteenth-century Parisian dance hall in which McQueen staged his 'Dance Marathon' show for Spring '04, Rei Kawakubo sent out girls in skewed patchwork creations and leather armor topped with candyfloss hair. This was my last show of the Paris collections - I leave this evening, leaving our Fashion Director Alex Fury to cover the remaining five days.
With seven (count them) shows packed into a barely-twelve hour period, we've been rushed off our feet and neglecting the much-beloved SHOWstudio.com BLOG today. Here is a snap captured by the intrepid Laura Bradley at Viktor & Rolf's stellar show this afternoon (our review is now live in the Collections) showing a magically bisected tulle evening frock in full sail. Vive la France - or, rather, Vive les Néerlandais, if we're being pedantic. Far more to look forward to between now and Thursday...
02102009188.flv
Laura and I have been hammering out those reports, and our SHOWstudio Collections are now (just about) up to date with all the sights and sounds of the last few fashion-filled days here in Paris. We leave you for today with this hastily videoed excerpt of the Maison Martin Margiela grand finale - alas, what I failed to capture was the model who emerged before ALL these dragging a thirty-something foot white silk train that covered the entire catwalk, and which these girls are treading oh-so-gingerly upon. Does that even make sense? Well, hopefully Chris Moore's images will make method of my madness. I'm catching some shut eye before tomorrow's sartorial onslaught!
After hot-footing it to Maison Martin Margiela in ill-advised wool layers I was, understandably, a little overheated. The ever-delightful Alber Elbaz, however, came to my rescue. This fabulous keepsake fan was left on my seat as a souvenir of the Lanvin show. Admittedly, it was on everyone else's seat too, but it doesn't make it any less special - or welcome!
It's a Mona von Bismarck maxim I've used before, but the wit evidently is on the head at Bernhard Willhelm, my first show of the S/S 2010 Paris season. This is my first show of a seven-day, twenty-something show schedule to close the final leg of our latest comprehensive Collections coverage. Frankly, it feels more like an arm and a leg. Log onto our Collections now to read my thought on Mr Willhelm's latest offerings, and stay tuned for more blogs, tweets and roving reportage from our fearless Fashion Features Editor Laura Bradley and I throughout the day. Next up is Vivienne Westwood, then Lanvin, Margiela, Veronique Leroy and Yamamoto to close. Phew!
The latest reports and photos are arriving from Paris. From Gareth Pugh to the recent addition Giles, British fashion power in the French capital seems to be stronger than ever. Don't forget to watch Alexander McQueen S/S '10 Plato's Atlantis live on Tuesday!
There were many highlight's in Gareth Pugh's all-grey show this evening, namely the spectacular versions of the mohawk headpiece, which first appeared in Gareth's 'moodboard' film installation created in collaboration with Ruth Hogben. To coincide with his Spring/Summer show, we are proud to announce that the orginal 'Double-Mohican' headpiece from the film, hand-crafted by Pugh himself will be sold in the SHOWstudio SHOP.
Taking up the 'fashion baton' from Alex Fury, I've just arrived in Paris to cover the first four days of the last leg of the Spring/Summer 2010 shows. There was a pile of intriguing invites waiting at our hotel including a handwritten postcard from Maison Martin Margiela, metallic pink strips from Yohji Yamamoto and a folded A3 sheet bearing a graphic cube courtesy of Gareth Pugh. Gareth is one of the most eagerly-anticipated on today's schedule following his the screening of his 'taster' film in New York, stay tuned for updates!
28092009186.flv
Apologies for the rather washed-out video footage due to the blockbuster spotlights (what else!) of this morning's DSquared2 show, but I felt the fact had to be commemorated as this was our first -and last - show of the day, and the finale to our S/S 2010 Milan Fashion Week.
What have we learned from the last five days? Well, it's galvanised the haute sport feeling of the past few weeks into a genuine trend, and built an ever firmer foundation for, well, firm foundations - namely the boned and bombasted corset and underwear-as-outerwear, everywhere. Dolce e Gabbana originated this almost twenty years ago, and they still do it better than anyone else. They went back to their roots for a collection that will appeal wholeheartedly to every Catholic girl gone bad - and every red-blooded male to boot. What seemed new was a feel for 'poor' fabrics - what the Italians call the 'poverino' look. Long gone are the days when Vivienne Westwood's distressed layers were lambasted by the Italian fashion press with the refrain 'why are you making us look poor? We want to look rich. We are rich!' For next season, Jil Sander presented hacked-up hopsack safari suits and Prada left raw hems unravelling on everything. Admittedly, these two labels constitute Milan's intellectual underbelly - far more Italian (if more raucous Rimni discotheque than Milanese palazzo) was the triumphant, triumphal Versace show, a shameless cavalcade of glitz and glamour, pouting lips and flowing tresses. Everyone's doing Versace these days, but nothing really compares to Donatella's ode to Gianni. It was short, tight, bright and molto, molto sexy Italian fashion at its very finest. The see-through handbag trend also abounds, at Fendi, Prada, DSquared2, to name but few. Is this a rather literal pun on 'financial transparency' in the wake of Madoff - and if so, could there be a less appropriate place than Italy to start an aesthetic conquest for a new economic morality? Far more likely - and Italian - is the fact this puts all your wordly goods on show, rather like those outre Versace handspan PVC skirts, without a doubt my favourite pieces for 2010. The last thing I expected to feel after ten days of non-stop shows was energised, but it's undoubtedly true. Spring/Summer feels like it's finally on its feet - and fighting. Roll on Paris!
I've just written up my views on Christopher Kane's new Versus collection for our Collections reports, but wanted to share this snap of Mr Kane's cheeky little scarlet number in Versace's silk-swathed showroom on Piazza Vetra. By far the most packed of all the presentations in Milan (possibly due to the presence of the slightly-overwhelmed Kane and indefatigable Dame Donatella), the turn-out was well worth it, as very fine the collection looked too. Being a boy, there was little in this molto sexy display for me - but the mini-pochette and hefty holdalls studded with Medusa-head safety-pins in metallic green, red and purple could adapt very easily into my wardrobe for next spring. If only I had a Liz Hurley to accompany them...
From my limited comprehension of the Milano Moda schedule, the Italian word for press appears to be 'stampa' - appropriate really, as that's exactly what the press do to force their way into each and every overrunning, oversubscribed show on the Milan calendar (and London, and Paris...). Here is the stampa stampede outside this morning's Marni show.
