Let’s get a few things clear. This is what Dries Van Noten ISN’T. It’s not a label for selfie fans, social media stars, Gen Z, or “look at me I’m so sexy” celebs. So what is it? Well, great actually. And after a few collections this Fashion Month that have been more than a little…
It’s a funny thing about Yves Saint Laurent. Whenever a new designer takes over at the label, he (and it’s always ‘he’) has an ‘Yves moment’ and sends out a collection that tries very hard to reinterpret the house’s signature looks.
If this season has been all about maximalism, then yesterday’s Milan shows were the ultimate expression of that trend. So it was with Dean and Dan Caten over at DSquared2 where the 80s theme underlined that maximalist approach. A quick look at the label’s Instagram page with a picture of Joan Collins as Alexis Colby made…
Who needs minimalism? That question has been answered with a bang this runway season as, just a few years on from Normcore’s seemingly triumphant moment, most designers follow the more-is-more approach. Whether it actually moves fashion forward or simply buries any progressive ideas under layers of shimmer, lace, massive sleeves, chunky platforms and OTT embellishment…
There’s a historical edge to many of the looks seen on the catwalks but it’s more great literary heroines, pop culture versions of fantasy figures or wild distortions of history than a faithful recreation of past style. So while the empire line is having a moment, don’t think Empress Josephine, think Elizabeth Bennet, Miss Havisham,…
Prada collections often divide into two categories. The sublimely perfect and unforgettable. The collections you can mention and everyone (at least everyone in fashion) remembers. Then there are those that are less enduring, that you struggle to reacll. Whether one sells better than another, Prada never actually says, but with the company struggling to get…
The Alessandro Michele story at Gucci has been one of the fashion success stories of the age. Plucked from nowhere (well, plucked from an extremely powerful but surprisingly anonymous position running Gucci’s accessories), he’s remade Gucci since January 2015 and put a big smile on the face of owner Kering by driving up sales and…
Mulberry’s turnaround is still a work in progress so the impact its runway collection makes is a big deal. Last season, Johnny Cocoa’s debut didn’t exactly see the champagne corks popping. But yesterday in London he got a thumbs-up, albeit a conditional one, for the continuing evolution of his new vision for the label.
On a day when London Fashion Week went froth sublime to the occasionally ridiculous, Preen by Thornton Bregazzi was thankful leading the charge for the former. Apparently, the influences for the soon-to-get-married Justin Thornton and Thea Bregazzi included witches, the 1970s, astrology (‘hex appeal’, they called it) and a huge list of more urban themes…
Usually, when designers axe their secondary collections and “merge” them into their main lines, the character of the cancelled label disappears into that of the big sister one. But it’s a funny thing that ever since Marc Jacobs canned his younger, cheaper Marc by Marc Jacobs offer, the big sister has behaved more like its…
