Posted: April 30th, 2012 | Author: artintolife | Filed under: fashion | Tags: design, designers, fabric, fall 2011, Fall 2012, fashion, haute couture, spring 2012, trends
Isn’t it kind of intriguing how a designer can design multiple collections simultaneously? It is one thing to create nice clothes. It is altogether another talent to be able to distill the essence of a design house, in the absence of the founding visionary, and to design consistently with the feeling and aesthetic of the house, and at the same time completely shift gears and create a distinct vision for your namesake collection which is utterly separate.
In this context, Marc Jacobs’ relationship with Louis Vuitton is somewhat unusual. Although Louis Vuitton had long since established itself in the world of luggage and leather goods, Marc Jacobs was Artistic Director for the first ready-to-wear collection. So there is, in essence, no Louis Vuitton ready-to-wear style separate from Jacobs. Yet somehow, over the years, he has managed to weave a fairly distinctive look for the brand. Sometimes it is more distinct from the collection he puts out under his namesake label, sometimes less so. Looking ahead to Fall 2012 I’m having an awfully hard time telling the two apart. To a great extent it may have to do with styling. Styling plays a not insignificant role in giving an identity to a collection. But, however you look at it, I find the choices that Jacobs made in presenting these collections surprising.
Louis Vuitton Fall 2012
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Posted: March 10th, 2012 | Author: artintolife | Filed under: fashion | Tags: designers, fabric, fall 2011, Fall 2012, fashion, haute couture, spring 2012
This month’s every-time-I-see-something-I-love-it-turns-out-to-be-by-the-same-designer is Carven. The House of Carven has in fact been around for decades, but in 2010 Guillaume Henri came on board as art director and breathed a new life — of the ready-to-wear variety — into the fabled haute couture house. At least I’m going to go with that as my excuse for not noticing it sooner. Henri is just fantastic.
So, here we have some looks from his spring 2011 collection, Henri’s third collection for Carven, which the designer referred to as “bourgeois, but with a nasty side”. You kind of already have to love it right there.
Carven Spring 2011 collection via Style.com
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Posted: January 24th, 2012 | Author: artintolife | Filed under: fashion, stuff to buy | Tags: British style, designer collaborations, designers, economy, fall 2011, fashion, fast fashion, h&m, haute couture, Jason Wu, marni, mary katrantzou, mass market, popular culture, sale, shopping, spring 2012, target, topshop, trends, versace
Karl by Karl Lagerfeld
Is it just me, or is this whole affordable designer capsule collection thing just spinning out of control? I bet you’re getting tired of reading posts about designer collaborations. I’m getting tired of hearing of them and I am obsessed with the damn things. That suggests to me that something is clearly out of whack. Let’s take stock of the collections since the summer:
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Posted: January 7th, 2012 | Author: artintolife | Filed under: fashion | Tags: alberta ferretti, designers, fall 2011, fashion, haute couture, Philosophy, sale, shopping, spring 2012, trends
A lot of what makes high fashion exciting is it’s distance from reality. Clothes that seem weird, difficult or are controversial, from characters who are even more weird, more difficult and more controversial, makes for exciting buzz. To generalize wildly, the designers tend to be flamboyant men, or remarkably unadorned women who hide behind their hair and oversized unassuming clothes, while creating fantasies which they would clearly never where themselves. But there is a third category of designer who I think tends to get short shrift — elegant well dressed women who design clothes that they represent their personal style. They don’t always get lost in the melé – women like Donna Karen and Diane von Furstenberg have certainly had their moments in the sun, and everyone I have in mind has had a successful career and made a mighty good living designing clothes which is no small feat – but the attention they get is somehow different, and I think doesn’t do justice to their brilliance as designers. In this vein, I am always surprised that there isn’t more talk about Alberta Ferretti. No question, she is acknowledged as a major designer, but it seems to me that she isn’t placed in the same pantheon as say John Galliano, Marc Jacobs, Karl Lagerfeld or Alexander McQueen. And admittedly, her clothes reflect a very different kind of artistry. But season after season, without fail, she designs some of the most pretty clothes I have ever seen (all of which I want, and most of which – even without a supermodel’s figure – I could actually wear).
I don’t know if it’s just my own perception, but “pretty” tends to be something of a dirty word. Like the curse of faint praise. Oh, she’s very pretty. How pretty, dear. As if to say, well, it’s not quite fabulous, but don’t feel bad. Pretty means soft and superficial, lacking teeth. As much as I love grit and edge, I want pretty to be an acceptable, even desirable, quality. When done really well, done just right, pretty can take your breath away. That’s what Alberta Ferretti does. Both with her eponymous line and her younger Philosophy di Alberta Ferretti line, she exudes pretty that’s not saccharine but perfection.
Alberta Ferretti Spring 2012 - Image via Style.com
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Posted: December 10th, 2011 | Author: artintolife | Filed under: fashion | Tags: celebrities, fall 2011, fashion, rants, trends
Every once in a while, a trend comes along that even the most die-hard fashionista simply cannot get behind. This fall it was the mullet dress. Uh huh, the mullet dress. Maybe you’d already heard this one. I had seen them, but heard the moniker for the first time yesterday. And, I have to say, it’s kind of perfect. Not only because it describes the style perfectly, but because the dress style, like the hairstyle, is simply inexcusable.
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