Couture Fashion Week 2013: Chanel, Dior, and Ulyana Sergeenko

Click here for previous Chanel posts. 

Chanel's Mary Queen Of Scots collection last season was fantastic, so I can only assume that Karl Lagerfeld used up his yearly quota of awesome on that one. Bearing in mind that this is a Couture show, one would think that it would be better than Pre-Fall. Not so. Instead, the theme (Weimar Germany... something...?) was unclear at best, and totally absent at worst As a kind of psychological palate-cleanser, I'm going to start this post with the ugliest outfit of the show, just so we can get it over with and move on to better things:

This looks like someone put a bunch of lei garlands in a blender, spackled them all over a tube dress, and accessorised it with an apron jacket worn by a Midwestern housewife in the 1980s. Karl Lagerfeld, what were you thinking?

Most of the show was rather more sedate. 68 looks in all, this collection was mostly dedicated to Chanel-classic suits, although the tailoring was unfortunately even boxier than usual. Most puzzling of all were the shoes, which in addition to being open-toed boots (WHY?), were attached to lacey leggings that looked itchily uncomfortable and made the models' legs look wrinkly and shapeless.

The one dress that I'd actually wear:

I find it constantly bizarre that for someone so pathalogically obsessed with thinness (both personally and for women in general), Lagerfeld designs clothes that are just... not slimming at all. I mean, the suits this season are pretty damn cuboid, but this dress is just... a cone. A cone with arm-protectors. No wonder the model is crying her mascara all over her face: her knees are bleeding because the dress is made of concrete and doesn't bend when she walks.

 This is what the woman from the blended-garlands picture wore to her Prom:

Instead of the traditional solo bridal dress finale, Lagerfeld ended the show with a pair of brides as a kind of "fuck you" to the gay marriage debate currently going on in France at the moment. I agree in spirit, but the gowns themselves were... really not all that great.

Dior
Dior relies upon the sweeping, formal gown in the same way that Chanel relies upon the skirt-suit. Moreso, really, since Chanel is really Lagerfeld's brand now, whereas Dior is still very much reliant upon the same designs it was producing in it's heyday, the 1950s. The hope is that new Creative Director Raf Simons will revitalise the brand and become their very own Lagerfeld (or a scandal-free Galliano), but I'm yet to be convinced.

Raf Simons' previous role was Creative Director at Jil Sander, where he introduced a very minimalist design style that led to the hugely popular colour-blocking trend that's been everywhere for the past couple of years. He wouldn't have been my first choice for a ladylike, old-fashioned brand like Dior, but perhaps Dior is trying to take a step away from ladylike and old-fashioned. Whether or not that was their actual aim, this show was not particularly impressive. It had little of the luxurious detail of recent Dior couture collections, seeming more like a combination of rather conservative classic Dior designs with a few jarringly unexpected Raf Simons outfits thrown in to remind everyone that he was there.

This yellow dress was one of my few genuine favourites. The two-layer cutaway is interesting, but the extreme simplicity of the shape and colour of the dress as a whole helped to balance it out. Honestly, it looks far more Raf Simons than Dior, but I'll take it.

 

Ulyana Sergeenko
I had nothing but good things to say about Ulyana Sergeenko's Couture show last year, and even though this was a little cheesier than expected, it had its good points.

In a complete u-turn from last year's nod to Sergeenko's Russian heritage, this collection was all about America. On the bright side, it didn't have any denim-clad cowboys, which is more than one can say for 99% of other USA-themed fashion shows. But it was guided by Hollywood's depiction of America (not exactly an unexplored topic in the world of fashion), leading to things like this pretty but somewhat pointless version of Scarlett O'Hara's green curtain dress in Gone With The Wind:

Rather more to my taste was this ultra-tailored black Puritan dress, which had a kind of fetishised conservatism that the goth in me just can't resist. I'm glad to see that Sergeenko is retaining the long, heavy skirts from her earlier work, since there are so few designers who ever go for this look. Most designers are so concerned with femininity and a slim silhouette that skirts like this are dismissed as unflattering, but Sergeenko is proving that they can be worn with style.

I'm not 100% clear on what this final outfit was supposed to be, but I'm pretty sure Tailor Swift is going to be wearing it in her next video.

Click here for previous Chanel posts.

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Rick Owens, Spring 2013.

Rick Owens is a maximum expert in the field of draping people in 37 yards of fabric that look like either dust sheets or blackout curtains. Conversely, he's also pretty damn good at tailoring, albeit the sort of tailoring required to make the shoulderpads fit really well on things that look like a High Priestess costume in an episode of Star Trek. Given this combination of gothy apocalypse drapery and Needs More Gold alien royalty-wear, it's probably not all that surprising that I kinda love him.

pics from Style.com

This season's show opened with the simplest outfits in the collection, a selection of shapeless shifts that will be surely an A+ choice next time you decide to dress up as a Sexy Coffee-Filter for Halloween. Not being massively psyched about beige shift-dresses at the best of times these outfits didn't really grab me, but thankfully things warmed up pretty quickly after that.

 I loved the styling in this show. This is what Tilda Swinton's kids look like, right?

This is probably what the costumes in Dune would've looked like if the Dune movie hadn't been a visual representation of David Lynch being handed an unlimited budget and promptly going into a psychic tailspin.

(OK, Google just refreshed my memory re: Dune, and actually the costumes are one of the best things about that movie.)

When I'm a rich old lady (which will definitely happen because people whose speciality is "writing niche reviews of movie costume design" always end up rich, am I right?) I fully intend on being a collector of high-end fashion. My entire collection will be made up of outfits that look exactly like black plastic bags but inexplicably cost $$$, and when people look at my collection and judge me I'll just cackle the laugh of the 1%.

Rick Owens provided several variations on the black-plastic-bag theme this season, although I'm sparing you the bin-baggiest of them because I'm a kind and considerate person. Instead I picked out the slightly superior bug-lizard outfits, which are actually pretty OK as long as you're comfortable with looking like you just made a smock out of Xenomorph hide.

The final third of the show was where the Needs More Gold alien priestess outfits truly came into their own. Honestly, I'm rather confused about the target audience this season. The show wasn't particularly out-there in terms of extreme style (although the catwalk itself did involve a waterfall of foam), but at the same time it wasn't wearable or on-trend enough to truly court the Ready-To-Wear crowd. Although the balance of layers and the relaxed, unusual tailoring style are pure Rick Owens, the overall mood and colour palette are a lot less grungy and dramatic than I'm used to seeing from him -- so I'm not altogether sure that he'd even retain his usual audience. Still, it's an eyecatching and interesting collection.

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Spring fashion, 2013: A take-your-mind-off-the-election special edition.

Obviously the appreciation of beautiful things is a universal pleasure, but today's posts (yes, posts, plural!) are specifically a gift to everyone out there who is currently stressing out over the US election results. I'm not even American, and I still feel tense about it. So as a balm to everyone's nerves as we try to ignore the grim horrors of a 24-hour news cycle with nothing to report on until tomorrow, here are some pretty things to look at:

For a label that's managed to bridge the divide between Ready-To-Wear accessibility and fidelity to its own design history, look no further than Thierry Mugler. Four seasons on from Nicola Formichetti's introduction as the label's new creative direction, Mugler are still coming up with fresh designs that run the gamut from Lady Gaga-influenced PVC dresses to some comparatively sedate (but still fashion-forward) business attire.

Sidenote: Does this yellow dress have a crotch-moustache? (Can I say that here? Is that an unfortunate word-choice?) (It's a crotch-moustache.)

The slick PVC outfits were a nod to Mugler's history with fetishwear influences, although this season's offerings were rather more cheerful and mainstream than many of the label's past collections. Also, the high hemlines were often tempered by tight shorts worn under the skirts, which (somehow) worked rather well.

This bug-like carapace dress was a real moment of old-school Mugler, in amongst the various simpler outfits Formichetti had on display during this show.

I was pleased by the variety of different looks on offer during this show, the only continuous design theme being one of origami-like folds, which made themselves known in almost every outfit.

 Viktor & Rolf

Introducing a far softer look than in previous seasons, Viktor & Rolf have decided to take inspiration from the glamour of 1940s evening gowns. There were still hints of the old V & R in the form of metallic fabrics (reminiscent of their many robot-like designs in past years) and shoulder-pads, but both were seamlessly incorporated into the overall vintage look.

Link to Part 2: Yohji Yamamoto.

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A "take your mind off the election" fashion special: Part 2.

Link to Part 1: Thierry Mugler and Viktor & Rolf.

Can I tag this with "apocalypse fashion"? Sure, why not; I do what I want. These clothes may not fulfill my strict requirements of looking like they were dragged from the dismal rubble of a dystopian cityscape and/or desert, but I think the spirit is definitely there.

This season's Yohji Yamamoto was rather grimmer than usual, full of frayed edges and the black, draped fabrics of mourning clothes. While Yamamoto has a history of dressing his models like bag-ladies (his term, not mine), this season had a more graceful look to it -- even though there were still a lot of rough fabrics and scruffy hemlines on show. The only acknowledgement of the Spring season was the amount of skin on show, but thanks to the models' aggressive demeanour and the chilly colour palette, it didn't seem like a very warm or cheerful Spring.

The accessories were one of my favourite things about this collection. They looked like a cross between caveman tools and something constructed directly from a haphazard crayon-drawing by a child.

OK, I'm going to be straight with you here: Yohji Yamamoto is pretty much the real-life Derelicte. If you don't know what that means because you haven't seen Zoolander: go watch Zoolander now, because it's awesome. If you do know what that means and are all, "But HelloTailor, John Galliano is surely the real-life Derelicte!" then I say NO, for John Galliano was too glamourous. Yamamoto really goes for it, you know? Year after year, season after season... countless hundreds of outfits made up of ill-fitting Charlie Chaplin trousers with the cuffs rolled up, and accessories made from rags. And to be honest, Yamamoto is really the only designer who can manage this look without it coming across as a gross mockery of reverse-classism.

I'm quadruple psyched about this grey outfit because I'm hoping it's what Tilda Swinton will wear to our commitment ceremony. Which will take place in a forest and be officiated by a wolf.

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Gareth Pugh, Spring 2013 Ready-To-Wear.

It's important to remember that no matter how obscure your demographic, the world of fashion will have something tailored specifically to fit you. Gareth Pugh primarily designs for the alien robot market, a small but apparently significant group that's managed to keep him in business for several years. It's so hard to find clothes that flatter one's chitinous exoskeleton, you know?

This show was considerably more relaxed than anything else I've seen by Gareth Pugh. It definitely qualifies as Ready To Wear, but is that really what one wants from this particular designer? I miss the metallic robot outfits and the black-and-white pierrot gowns. And quite apart from that, Pugh just doesn't seem to be all that good at more conservative designs like these. By the previous standards of his own work this show was surprisingly wearable, but not necessarily very interesting.

This leather outfit was the low point of the show. Strapless corsets almost always look cheap, and this one is extremely poorly fitted -- a real surprise, coming from a designer who is usually so adept when it comes to structured clothing. In all, the outfit came across as a Halloween costume of some mid-level character in The Matrix.

The latter half of the show reminded me of Jean Paul Gaultier's costumes for The Fifth Element -- or a pale imitation thereof. The bell-bottom trousers seemed particularly dated, a little too close to the late '90s/early '00s to be considered a retro pastiche as of yet. The styling also seemed like something from an early '00s music video, with the models all having jagged side-partings and exaggerated eyeshadow.

The most noticeable development this season was Pugh's reluctant admission of a single colour to his previously monochromatic palette. The end result did allow for some extra variety, but I found that there was a distinct aura of White Stripes stage costume to some of the outfits, particularly this frilled-collar shirt.

The high point of the collection was undoubtedly these ribbed jersey dresses. Although they're far softer than the designs one usually sees from Gareth Pugh, the fabric choice was excellent and their flowing structure made the otherwise rather conservative silhouette into something far more interesting. Ready-To-Wear, but with enough weirdness to qualify as a worthwhile Gareth Pugh design.

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