BEAUTY: Clothing--Balenciaga

In December of 2012 when Alexander Wang took over the venerable house of Balenciaga from Nicolas Ghesquière, we wondered--worried?--what would be in store. But Wang has proved an admirable successor to Ghesquière and his Spring Summer '15 collection at Paris Fashion Week showed a menswear collection that, while referencing traditional elements, looked forward to the future. In fact, there is something about the collection--or perhaps it is the location of the photo shoot for the lookbook--that recalls for me the severe, spartan, streamlined costumes from the live action film version of "Aeon Flux" with Charlize Theron.

Below: costumes from "Aeon Flux."

But of course the name of the house will forever ring in my ears as the last word ever uttered, hilariously, by Myrtle Snow, the brilliant Frances Conroy's character, from "American Horror Story: Coven."

http://www.balenciaga.com/

"Pleiades"

Stunning.

Something beautiful for you to see.

Performamce & Choreography : Saya Watatani, Maki Yokoyama
Director : Nobuyuki Hanabusa
Animator : Seiya Ishii, Nobuyuki Hanabusa
Music : Nobuyuki Hanabusa

http://enra.jp/

Sleeping Porch

Now that summer has officially started and the weather is warmer (theoretically... of course here in Northern California, we are still quite temperate), it is time to move out to the sleeping porch!

Many years ago I had a dear friend, since passed, who lived in Berkeley in a wonderful old Craftsman house with a sleeping porch that looked exactly like the one above.

Good night!

BEAUTY: Clothing--Milano Moda Uomo Misc. SS '15

Well, we have wrapepd up this year's Milano Moda Uomo for Spring Summer 2015 and here are a few highlights...

There are usually some good summer shoes to be seen here and there at the SS collections, but it seemed there was a plethora, more than usual, of fantastic sandals and versions thereof...

Iceberg showed some really fun strappy numbers in orange, blue, white, and aged leather!

Angela Missoni erected a geodesic domed yurt decorated with dream catchers for her sexy hippies to saunter through. The footwear of choice there was a multi-colored woven huarache, a type of shoe from Pre-Columbian Mexico!

The classic Missoni pattern seems to lend itself to the idea of South American clothing perfectly...

Ferragamo was founded by shoe maker Salvatore Ferragamo, so it makes sense that Massimiliano Giornetti, menswear designer for Ferragamo, would riff on classic shoe styles for summer sandals. I love how these look like they started out as tasseled and fringed brogues before having their fronts, backs, and sides lopped off!

And Giornetti created a fun little detail for the collection: a giraffe print that, combined with the cut of the clothing, suggests a safari in the 1950s!

And finally, Versace, whose clothing is never attractive to me, showed some really fun footwear: handpainted lace ups, stroppy sandals that look like twisted cloth, Gladiator sandals, and a pink suede lace up with cut out sides, suggesting a sandal more than being one!

Now on to some clothes! There was a lovely faded theme popping up at Fendi... denim in the collection was so faded, it simply read as the texture of a cotton cloud...

...and at Bottega Veneta, sweaters were beyond faded, they were bleached and aged by the elements, giving these pieces a wistful, timeworn sense.

http://www.iceberg.com/
http://www.missoni.com/
http://www.ferragamo.com/
http://www.versace.com/
http://www.fendi.com/
http://www.bottegaveneta.com/

BEAUTY: Clothing--Milano Moda Uomo SS '15 STRIPES!

The clear Hundredth Monkey moment for Milano Moda Uomo (and London Collections: Men) has turned out to be stripes! They are everywhere, starting as pinstripes in London and breaking out into wide bands and naval stripes in Milan!

Ermenegildo Zegna started things off with a nice array of stripes in navy, tan, and cream... I like the striped jacket tied around the waist of the double breasted pinstripe suit.

After Umit Benan's rather uncomfortable split from Trussardi last spring, Gaia Trussardi, great granddaughter of the brand's founder Dante Trussardi, has taken over all designing duties and for Spring Summer '15, she was inspired by zoot suits. Indeed, these stripes feel zoot-y and gangster-y, but in an updated rocker sort of way...

Emporio Armani showed classic, cool, sleek stripes. I LOVE the jacket in the middle in the second set! It reminds me of the amazing black and white striped Siena Duomo in Siena, Tuscany.

And Gucci showed a collection that was heavily influenced by a nautical theme. The collection and show began with uniform elements but thankfully, Frida Giannini, the Creative Director at Gucci, took a sharp left and the collection softened. What followed was a really fun, relaxed, even sexy, but completely wear-able collection. The last two images look so comfortable... and that last look is like a pajama set. I once spent an evening in Las Vegas touring all the major casinos and hotels in blue and maroon paisley silk pajamas and a long black luxe leather coat--you should try it sometime!

http://www.zegna.com/
http://www.trussardi.com/
http://www.armani.com/us/emporioarmani
http://www.gucci.com/

BEAUTY : Clothing--Dsquared2

The Caten twins at Dsquared2 created a tribute to Andy Warhol for their Spring Summer '15 collection at Milano Moda Uomo. They titled the collection "Stud2io"--the runway was a facsimile of Andy's legendary Factory in Manhattan, complete with "Superstars" and various hangers-on. A remixed version of the late Lou Reed's fantastic "Walk On The Wild Side" kicked things off.

A Warhol-esque silk-screened portrait on a tee peeked out from under a jacket, Warhol-illustrated cats played on a sweatshirt, one tee simply announced "ANDY," and yet another tee was a Dsquared2 version of Warhol's famous Campbell's tomato soup cans. But the Catens did not stop there, in the 60s and 70s; they also invoked Warhol related artists from the 80s. Stephen Sprouse is a legendary name in fashion: he came to prominence in the 80s, using signature day-glo colors and graffiti-style prints. His first collection was presented at the last location of Warhol's Factory, and later in his career he utilized Warhol's day-glo camouflage (with Andy's permission) which is now interpreted for a third time by Dsquared2. Sprouse was also famous for letters and words scrawled in a graffiti pattern which he used liberally on everything from tights to scarves and bags for Louis Vuitton. This graffiti print also made an appearance in the Caten's show, spelling out "Dsquared." And finally, we see some references to Jean-Michel Basquiat, a Manhattan painter who collaborated with Andy on some later works. Basquiat's cartoon-y, scratchy doodle-like, tribal art can be seen here on denim jeans and tees. For good measure, there were brightly colored buttons worn on shirts for a full 1980s effect. Although the references in this show spanned three decades, it all hung together remarkably well, thanks to the legacy of Warhol.

http://dsquared2.com

BEAUTY: Clothing--Frankie Morello

Maurizio Modica and Pierfrancesco Gigliotti, the heads of Frankie Morello, have been exploring large, interesting, photographic prints for several seasons now, and for their Spring Summer '15 collection at Milano Moda Uomo titled "Make Art Not War," they used some very interesting images. They began with shirts, jackets, and coats covered with images from the final scene of Antonioni's incredible film "Zabriskie Point" (one of my favorite films on my film list to the right) in which the contents of an entire home are destroyed, item by item, in recurring ultra slow motion explosions, until finally the home is blown up as well. But Modica and Gigliotti like to imbue their collections with subtext and, perhaps more than any other designer, a progression or evolution of the theme. If one digs a little, one can usually discover what is an actual story in a Frankie Morello collection. After these filmed images of explosions, they presented fractured and digitally scrambled images of classical sculpture, and finally the actual slogan of the theme. From war to art, a civilizing effect... or possibly, considering the reference to Antonioni's film, we need to purge the dross of our lives to get to the real art.

http://www.frankiemorello.com/

BEAUTY: Clothing--Giorgio Armani

Giorgio Armani has been around forever. Almost literally. The designer will be 80 this year. And his houses are still going strong, presenting the kind of luxurious basics that have given him staying power, not only in the fashion industry but in home and interior products as well.

For his Spring Summer 2015 collection at Milano Moda Uomo today, he showed a gloriously simple but lush paradigm for casual living, as if it could be summer all year long. While Armani may not be the kind of show I usually blog about (the kind of show I am drawn toward generally has a theme, and some aspect of performance art, some kind of "fireworks"), I feel compelled to post and share. This Armani collection is rich yet carefree, a reminder of the power of clothing. Just look at the shawl collars, softly constructed suits, silks, cottons, suedes... so unself-consciously plush. Every piece in this collection, while relaxed, speaks to a kind of effortless elegant ease to which, I suspect, we all aspire. It reminds us that if all we have in our closets are clothes of quality construction and luxurious materials, we will always look good. And if you look good, you feel good. That is power.

http://www.armani.com/