May 18, 2015 |
Fashion month is over. Has been in fact for almost a month. And a month is how long it’s taken us to digest it all. So without further ado, we bring to you our round up of the month that we call future fashions month, starting with New York, which this season was very, very cold apparently. And very, very black. How very New York.
The Rodarte sisters, Kate and Laura Mulleavy may claim to have been inspired by birds, birds flying south or whatever it is birds do for the winter, but we’re going to choose to ignore that and claim instead that they were inspired by The Birds and the bird of paradise that is Cher. And let’s be honest, no one but Cher has ever managed to pull off both sequins and feathers, not to mention a rainbow stripe, till now at least. It felt more playful, more relaxed than usual. it felt disco, which I know sounds like a terrible way to describe something, but it’s true, it did, so why beat around the bush?
Imagine the idea of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre recreated in clothes, but less bloody, with cleaner cuts. That was Proenza Schouler. The slasher flick of fashion. Well, no actually, it wasn’t. Jack and Lazaro did not look to horror for their inspiration, but rather art, which seeing as the show was set against the back drop of the Whitney Museum was rather apt. There were slashes here, and ‘splodge’ prints which some could say resembled pools of blood, but those were inspired by work of American abstract expressionist artists, painter Helen Frankenthaler and sculptor Robert Morris.
Diesel Black Gold was alabaster of skin and black of cloth. Did you see the skin on those models? There was a time, a while ago, where my mother used to claim that you could have your skin transplanted with baby foetus in the quest for eternal youth and flawless pores, and I’m starting to think that maybe she wasn’t just making it up. How else do you explain that skin? No foundation is that good. The clothes though, were apparently inspired by Peter Lindbergh’s black and white pictures of the fairer sex, and they are very Lindbergh woman. Oversized, masculine tailoring layered with feminine sheaths of silk and lace.
We often find ourselves, when faced with a perplexing situation, such as when we wake, what best to wear to face the day ahead, asking ourselves, what would Vera, as in Vera Wang wear? Well now we have our answer, for her latest collection was quite literally based on her wardrobe. And when you have a wardrobe like Vera’s why wouldn’t you? Think layers of streamlined black, relaxed and easy, with a spot of cream every once in a while. We’ve said it before and we will say it again, Vera is the clothing equivalent of MTV’s short lived reality TV show, I Want a Famous Face. Except that in the case of Vera, the results don’t horrify.
Think of Calvin Klein as an essay in sixties patchwork. Different textures, different skins, in a palette of dark blacks, rich browns and soft almost peachy beiges spliced together to great tough looking yet feminine coats and mini shift dresses. This isn’t some version of sites Janis Joplin hippy. This was grittier. Sixties New York, not San Francisco. A fact reinforced by the soundtrack of The Velvet Underground’s Venus in Furs.
Not to sound crass and not to bring to mind the Spice Girls, but Marc by Marc Jacobs really was kind of all about girl power. Or at least empowerment and making yourself heard. There was something almost militant about it. The army detailing, thew elongated layers printed with William Morris florals, the slogans across backs and down arms of ‘suffragette’, ‘solidarity’, ‘our future’. The berets that recalled the Black Panther Party, though apparently were taken from The Guardian Angels, the models walking out to T-Rex’s Children of the Revolution. This was more like a call to arms than a show. A statement of intent rather than a few fashions to take you through to spring.
We’re going to call Ralph Lauren, ranch to city fashion. Because that’s really what it is. And when we say ranch, we mean Ralph’s ranch, the one that Oprah visited. The one with a teepee bigger and with more bathrooms in it than your house. Ralph is about fashion, Ralph is about a life style. A super glossy and luxurious life style where by day you entertain Oprah in a whisp of cashmere, and maybe ride a horses through a field, then when evening strikes you helicopter to some elegant and exclusive cocktail party event in the city. Well, how else are you going to get away with bias but slip dresses worn with furry hats and matching mittens and not much else?
This season, Tommy Hilfiger looked to those two pinnacles of American culture, American football, or shall we call it varsity wear? And Ali McGraw in Love Story. And before you say anything, yes, there was no American football in Love Story, but then Ryan O’Neal did play ice hockey, which kind of has that whole big t-shirt worn over protective plastic things which give the illusion of massive shoulders going on. And so that’s the football part covered. The Ali McGraw part comes in the form of wool capes adorned with a collegiate stripe, or a faux fur duffle teamed with an almost cheerleader inspired flick skirt.
It sort of feels like this will be the season that the Alexander Wang show will be remembered not for the clothes, the venue or after party, but for the fact that North West cried. Which sort of makes a case for shows not being creches. Anyway, this was black. Only black. Very,very dark, with slightly goth undertones, a heavy biker boot, pearl trim and wet looking hair dripping down faces. Imagine if The Crafts Nancy had access to something other than a Catholic school uniform and had had an illegitimate love child with Marilyn Manson? She’d probably look a little something like this. Or, if Rose McGowan and Marilyn had had a girl child? She’d probably have grown up to be Nancy though.
From fancy party frocks to streamlined, super luxe and glossy tailoring, it’s fair to say that Jason Wu is slowly evolving into the high priest of classic American sportswear, that slightly oddly named concept that has little to do with sportswear, but is more about a super polished ease. Think layers of double faced cashmeres, fur and embossed crocodile leathers in a restrained and very grown up palette of olives and greys.
