BEAUTY: Clothing--Misc. Paris Fashion Week

Here are some details from the Fall-Winter '20-'21 shows at Paris Fashion Week I did not want to miss sharing...

Jun Takahashi at Undercover has taken inspiration in the past from films like "A Clockwork Orange" and the cult film "The Warriors" but this collection's inspiration came from Akira Kurosawa's 1957 adaptation of Shakespeare's "Macbeth" called "Throne of Blood." This is the first time Takahashi has made reference to his Japanese heritage and the results are quite lovely. There were some shirts and puffer jackets printed with stills from the Kurosawa film but mostly the looks were interpretations of Samurai armour or Japanese dress rendered in knits and nylon. But it is the combination of color and pattern as well as some of the embellishment that makes these garments stand out...yet each piece as a separate is totally wearable.

The cloud suits designer-cum-conceptual artist Virgil Abloh sent out at Louis Vuitton are fun and light. They feel slightly Dada-esque and psychedelic, like a scene from The Beatles' "Yellow Submarine."

Dries Van Noten made extensive use of faux fox furs in a collection that he said is "about enjoying clothes, dressing: using your sexual power to feel great." The foxes might make one feel foxy, but I really love the platforms, especially the snake pair in the last look below. I know from experience that platforms make one feel sexier...taller, more powerful...and they change your stride into something sexier.

I love a good over-scaled, voluminous scarf like the ones Pierre Maheo showed for Officine Générale:

Rei Kawakubo at Comme des Garçons showed a riot of color and pattern in a show that was a swirl of youthful exuberance. "Color resistance—fighting back with color" were the words Kawakubo attached to it, in an emailed post-release. You get what she means: clothes as a mood-enhancing tool in dark times. But there was an unfortunate backlash against the use of cornrow wigs. Cries of cultural appropriation were hurled at the house. The stylist for the show, Julien d’Ys, said his inspiration was the look of an Egyptian prince, like Tutankhamen. See how the wigs are worn low over the hairline, like they are Egyptian headdresses. D'Ys said the hairstyle choice was an homage to something he personally finds beautiful. I see it...

Gorgeous tall croc boots at Sies Marjan.

And really tall, thigh-high puffer boots at White Mountaineering!

And finally, I always approve of mature and unconventional models on the runway and Junya Watanabe has been an early and consistent proponent of such casting.

http://undercoverism.com/
https://www.louisvuitton.com/
https://www.driesvannoten.com/
https://www.officinegenerale.com/
http://www.comme-des-garcons.com/
https://www.siesmarjan.com/
http://www.whitemountaineering.com/

BEAUTY: Clothing--Dior

For Dior Homme's Fall-Winter '20-'21 collection at Paris Fashion Week, creative director Kim Jones mined the Dior archives to bring elements and materials from 1950's haute-couture collections to this current menswear show. Of this collection, journalist Sarah Mower pointedly asks, "What if the 2020s are a time when it becomes completely anachronistic to think of clothes and fabrics being assigned by gender?" I hope she is right and I hope this is the last time I have to draw attention to the fact that men in this collection are wearing things like silk taffeta, pearl earrings, and opera gloves. They are not women's clothes, they are men's clothes because men are wearing them. A fabric is not gendered, it just is.

This glorious, stately collection is beautiful not only for the political and cultural statement I just outlined (and which we hope will normalize) but because of the simply gorgeous cuts of the garments themselves. This is one of those collections that require study since we are only able to see photos--but do click on each set and look at the exquisite detail of silhouette and material.

Equally as important is the deeper inspiration for Jones' collection: fashion stylist and jewelry designer Judy Blame (née Christopher Barnes) who had a fascinating and varied career. He ran a fashion-forward night club called Cha-Cha, helped shape the look and feel of the 1980s British magazines The Face and i-D, collaborated with club icon Leigh Bowery, was a stylist for Neneh Cherry, Boy George, Björk and Kylie Minogue, and worked with the fashion houses of John Galliano, Louis Vuitton, Gareth Pugh, and Comme des Garçons. But he was best known for his fantastical jewelry creations in which he extensively used found objects. To him, a safety pin was as beautiful as a diamond. Blame died two years ago this February and Jones created a special print for this collection in his honor. Instead of a Toile de Jouy, the traditional French fabric that shows bucolic, pastoral scenes from the 1700's, he blew it up and named it Toile de Judy. And there are some lovely pieces of jewelry that Blame would approve of. Take a look at the long, intriguing trinkets hanging off lapels and over pockets on jackets, or as necklaces, or dangling from belts.

Jones squeezed in one more homage: designer Marc Bohan had a 30-year career at the house (he even stepped in when then-creative director of Dior Yves Saint Laurent was called up for military service in 1960); a dazzling, show-closing bejeweled jacket of a pattern that looks like feathers was based on a dress from Bohan’s 1969 autumn-winter collection.

https://www.dior.com/

BEAUTY: Clothing--Thom Browne

In an unexpected move, Thom Browne skipped a runway presentation of his FW '20-'21 collection at Paris Fashion Week in favor of a lookbook. But if you are missing the theatricality and complex storytelling of a Thom Browne show, fear not for I bring good tidings of great joy. This lookbook sports a pretty interesting, visceral story and a fecund set so hang on...

Writing for Vogue, Luke Leitch cheekily summed it up:
"Take a pinch of ALICE'S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND (“Eat Me”). Add just a dash ANIMAL FARM (Stephen Jones’s [who made all of the masks of wool on papier-mâché] pig mask was especially intense) and maybe a soupçon of 'Eyes Wide Shut.' Scatter as seasoning into a significant mixture of Thom Browne. Et voila!"

But Browne's website tells the story like a fairy tale:

this is a tale of eight friends
who share the same taste ...

a statuesque host, his guests,
a cake ...

at sundown the group arrives by limousine,
they stretch their hind legs and shake out their manes,

mr. giraffe leads them inside,
where things may, or may not, be quite what they seem ...

“welcome,” he says “the champagne is on ice”
and they all raise a glass “to one wild night” ...

each guest sets the scene in their classic tailoring,
in twills and tweeds, and an animal motif ...

the group settles in with a roar and an oink,
mr pig and mr lion in skirts: one in checks, one in pleats ...

on two sturdy tables that look almost alive
there are flowers and candles, fruits and rich sweets ...

mr. giraffe opens the dining room doors with a flourish,
his twill suit is living as much as the room is ...

“we begin with dessert,” he tells his companions ...

thom browne surely does look yummy ...
they all marvel at the cake ...

piece after piece they clean their plates,
a confection in layers of red, white and blue ...

when they finish at last, they rise, and toast again,
then head slowly outside ...

now nearing dawn, the host swings his neck in farewell,
“may we do this again, same time next year”

Less about clothing and more about a narrative, this sumptuous, fantastical lookbook says...what? An indictment of hunting and poaching? A plea for vegetarianism for the good of the planet? A wise reminder to all ravenous oppressors that some day, the fork may be in the other hand? All of the above?

https://www.thombrowne.com/

BEAUTY: Clothing--Ann Demeulemeester

When Ann Demeulemeester (previously here) left her own house in 2013, the question was would her sartorial vision continue? Luckily, her successor, creative director Sébastien Meunier has kept the DNA of the house pretty much intact. No surprise there since he had designed the men's collection under Demeulemeester since 2010. And he has kept the original vision alive in wonderfully sweeping, Romantic collections that reference past time periods when clothing was more intricate and well-made.

For the house's FW '20-'21 collection at Paris Fashion Week, Meunier looked at the ballet "L'Après-midi d'un faune" ("The Afternoon of a Faun") by legendary dancer Vaslav Nijinsky, and in particular the costumes which were designed by the painter Léon Bakst. Mixing early to late 19th century garments with a sort of Neo-Classical idea recalls the original source material beautifully. Tights, lace, sheer tops, climbing vine-like jewelry (like the leafy vine wrapping around Nijinsky's costume), and of course shearling and hair-on-hide to represent the fur of the faun are the right elements to tell the story. Additional elements like metallic and mother-of-pearl velvet, and a treated leather that looks like the top of a well-broiled crème brulée add a layer of luxury. And in look number #28, Meunier finally got to the piebald tights worn by Nijinsky when he danced the role.

Nijinsky in photos from the 1912 debut production:

https://www.anndemeulemeester.com/

BEAUTY: Clothing--Yohji Yamamoto

Yohji Yamamoto is a designer who operates within his own vernacular, his own mythology, much like Rick Owens, Vivienne Westwood, and McQueen. For his Fall-Winter 2020-2021 show at Paris Fashion Week, he showed his staples: silhouettes that have a sense of the Depression Era about them, mixed with the kind of roomy cuts one finds in traditional Japanese clothing, and a hint of Edwardian streetwear to temper the looks. It's Romantic, sometimes swashbuckling. But this collection had a bit of an edge: models were dirtied up to look hardscrabbled, and clothing was frayed, much like tempers around the world right now. Yamamoto called this collection "Partisan" and the invitation to the show featured a vintage image of a French woman raising her fist in defiance of Nazis during WWII. Backstage, Yamamoto said, "I am tired. I’m becoming a little bit dangerous, I’m becoming naughty--about myself and to my home country, to the world, to the fashion world...I used to explain my spirit as anti-trend, anti-fashion. I kept saying I’m an outsider. Now the vocabulary is not enough. And I’m angry about what’s going on in fashion, so I have become partisan." The events of our time are forcing us to become partisan. Sitting it out is no longer a choice.

https://www.yohjiyamamoto.co.jp/