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Showing posts from April, 2014

Balmain Spring-Summer 2014 RTW Fashion Show

Overalls at Balmain? Two years ago, when Olivier Rousteing stepped into his creative director role, it was bling, baby, bling. But after a Fall show that often landed on the wrong side of audacious, Rousteing is reconsidering the house's signature intense beading. "I wanted to explore something casual and sporty," he shared backstage. "It's less evening and more real. It's more me." Cue Frankie Goes to Hollywood's "Relax" on the soundtrack and the first look out—a cardigan, of all things, belted over a ruffled skirt that fell all the way to the knees. True, it was black leather, but a skirt that grazes the models' knees qualifies as headline news at Balmain. And there was more where that came from, including quilted bombers, sweatshirts, and baseball tees. We're not saying that Rousteing gave up entirely on glitz. Not at all. The silhouettes were more relaxed than usual, but there was still plenty happening on the surface of th

Anthony Vaccarello Spring-Summer 2014 RTW Fashion Show

“A girl always looks her best wearing a swimsuit,” declared Anthony Vaccarello backstage at his focused show, “and my idea was for my girl to wear a swimsuit like an urban uniform next summer.” So, to a sound track of Janis Joplin’s super slow version of “Summertime,” Vaccarello sent out the skimpiest summer dresses, fashioned from the bonded jersey traditionally used for swimwear, on his admittedly ultra-honed, pool-side fabulous, va-va-voom cabine of glamazons. Those micro dresses and skirts had been cut with a graphic diamond point in front and a longer flap in back—modesty barely preserved by broad, anchoring straps joining front and back, attached with the shiny domed buttons used for French naval uniforms. Vaccarello also used that utilitarian object as a graphic embellishment, dotting it on an inky suede dress or a silvery chain mail knit. The designer used lace for the first time—mixing swirling patchworks of leopard-pattern black lace with a cobweb-fine design for asymmet