Tag Archives: fashion

RICK OWENS — WINTER 2020

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Of all the Parisian designers, RICK OWENS is certainly the one who best captures the essence of the city. For Fall/Winter 2019/2020, he dedicates his prêt-à-porter collection to Larry Legaspi. “Larry who? Never heard of him!” That’s okay, and this is why we love Rick, a great mentor who told us, “Larry was the man responsible for the silver and black space-sleaze looks of LaBelle and Kiss in the 1970s.”

Rick is a man who strongly relates to history. Sixteen years ago, when he moved from Los Angeles to Paris, he located his atelier and boutique—perversely—in the historic, highly refined neighborhood between place Bourbon and the Palais Royal. Charles James—America’s first couturier—had a great influence on Rick, who shamelessly admits he “knocked off [James’] cocoon coat, and reinterpreted it in raw-seamed shearling, nutria, and duvet.” (This season Rick wrote the preface to Charles James: The Couture Secrets of Shape, a contemporary reading of the twentieth-century couturier, edited by Homer Layne and Dorothea Mink.)

Rick is a great innovator who likes to reinvent himself by mixing past and futuristic imagination in present time. This fall and winter, his women will follow a graver, more solemn path. At Palais de Tokyo, the room is troubled, almost opaque, punctured by single points of light emitting from the high-ceiling. The atmosphere is raw like in a temple, keeping the audience alert. One by one, enigmatic figures pass in a slow march, one that welcomes questions and doubts: goddesses draped whole à la Fortuny; hybrid women in subtle yet vivid-colored leather overalls; half-naked girls wearing razor-cut, high-shouldered, raw silk jackets. The rhythm is slow but steady, and this procession gives a feeling of change, of a weird mutation. Thankfully the warm voice on the soundtrack—Michèle Lamy, Rick’s beautiful wife and the love of his life—restores confidence. This binding relationship shared publicly reinforces the trust we feel in Rick’s fashion.

Rick is a wizard who reminds us that with love and dedication, we can find beauty in a fragmented and sometimes unwelcoming world.

Photos © 2019 OwensCorp, France

OLIVIER THEYSKENS — SPRING 2019

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Olivier Theyskens’ spring 2019 collection—though presented in a warehouse during daylight hours—continued to touch on the darker, somber side of nature.

It started with headpieces fashioned from sticks of wood painted black, and it carried on through the prints picturing Hans Bellmer’s famous Doll series. The collection is comprised mostly of dresses, where their fabrics and assemblages woke up some real gothic spirits. Lingerie, corset, lace, patent leather, and transparent knitted cashmere offered a view of the flesh, which was sometimes covered by a pair of long sleeves.

Theyskens here again confirms his personal take on fashion, and a secular soul to accompany it.

VALENTINO — SPRING 2019

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It was in the warmth of a late fall afternoon—in a sun parlor with succulent plants, on a soft white carpet—that the spring 2019 collection of Valentino was presented. Valentino is one of the oldest and most traditional Italian maisons, based in the historic city of Rome. Today, between the guests present and the models parading along, this captivating spirit of high fashion was well celebrated.

To set the tone, the designer PIERPAOLO PICCIOLI opened the march with KRISTEN MCMENAMY, one of the most unconventional models from the nineties era. But this move and, simply, her pride to exhibit her beautiful cascade of natural white hair—falling on a thick, generous black silk robe—felt here simply right and pleasant. There was something comforting in the air. The collection later exposed a wide range of beautiful dresses­—studied silhouettes in ample volumes and precious materials. The round of colors—dark chocolate, spicy orange, dusty pink, and Valentino red—produced a worship of good taste.

After all, with Valentino we’re in the culture of couture, where good behavior and opulence meet, and PICCIOLI is a designer who understands its language very well—who translates it to the present day with agreeable intensity and serene calm.

LUTZ — SPRING 2019

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Lutz invited his audience to the Salle Pleyel in Paris to present his spring 2019 collection. While the red light on the red carpet recalled a nightclub ethos, the Art Deco style of the room harks back to classical and traditional qualities in the atmosphere.

His collection followed this path with rigorous cuts and odd techniques, and illustrated well the breach between past and present times. There was a feeling of couture in the air: a puff-cocktail dress in jacquard under a man’s trench coat, a range of pearls adjusted on the waist to underline a polka-dot dress worn with a bomber jacket. Lutz uses contrasting materials and opposing styles to write stories about people, their differences in age and gender, and how the act of dressing could set them free.

Lutz is a designer whose concerns about gender equality have always been an important part of his practice. It’s a steady course he has pursued since the mid-nineties. Today, his singular fashion is finally meeting a broader audience.

 

NOIR KEI NINOMIYA — SPRING 2019

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Noir Kei Ninomiya’s défilé spring 2019 took place in the same building where Junya Watanabe staged his own a floor below a couple of hours earlier. There is a logical reason for this: both designers are part of the Comme des Garçons group. That aside, Ninomiya takes a very personal and specific approach to clothing.

He knows his classic: the leather jacket. He also knows how to inflect it over a mix of traditional (silk, jersey, tulle) and technical (pvc, tape) materials. His practice is rare, handcrafting fabrics with layers, knots, and pleats—avoiding stitching—that renders a couture-like sensation of unique pieces at each passage. His silhouette is based on a combined play of elongated, spherical, and spacious shapes. The atmosphere is mysterious like in an enchanted forest, where his models resemble night owls with soft, ball hairdos, leaving behind a rain of natural powder.

With this presentation, Ninomiya proves with ease and generosity that he is a noteworthy designer of great skill and expertise.