La Parisienne

March 2, 2013 PARIS By Nicole Phelps Strength and fragility are Haider Ackermann's lasting preoccupations, the subjects he returns to each season when you see him backstage. "It's a very thin line between them," he said today. Still, this controlled collection came down on the side of strength more so than some previous seasons have. Ackermann reduced his dress offerings to just one for Fall. From a designer famous for straps spilling off shoulders, twisting seams, and trailing hems, the smoky gray panne velvet column gown here was notable for its spare simplicity. Tailoring is where his interests lie at this moment. Some of it was awkwardly oversize, with full-legged pants pooling around the model's ankles, or droopy sleeves extending almost to the knees. Those pieces were moody and evocative as all get out—like a girl in her soldier lover's uniform, or, as the designer suggested afterward, like Marilyn Monroe emerging from the hospital all bundled up against the paparazzi. (Monroe was on the sound track.) But they were also a bit indulgent on Ackermann's part. When you see his clothes in the front rows—and we've seen plenty this week, not just on Tilda Swinton—it's the sharper pieces that his customers gravitate to, with strong shoulders and defined waists. Gratifyingly, there was more of that sort of thing on the runway in the form of a houndstooth military jacket with the collar torn off and the seams left raw, or another jacket in surplus brown with purple velvet lining its ruffled peplum. Fur is new territory for Ackermann, but he proved a dab hand. Women will surely put the power of their wallets behind his shearling flight jackets and his collarless beaver-fur coats. Those were the kind of indulgences that customers will find hard to resist. Source: style.com

Glad to see Mariacarla Boscono! March 5, 2013 PARIS By Tim Blanks "At last, pure French chic," enthused French Vanity Fair's Virginie Mouzat as she exited the Hermès show tonight. It was easy to see why a purely chic Frenchwoman such as she would feel that way after a week in which the waters of Parisian fashion had been thoroughly muddied by ugh! foreigners. Cue huge sigh of relief: The house of Hermès, paragon of all French things bright and beautiful in the eyes of the world, remains in the hands of a countryman, the subtle, earnest Christophe Lemaire. And yet, the spirit of his collection this season felt guided by the spectral hand of the ultimate twisted Anglo, Alfred Hitchcock. To be precise, Hitchcock's Rebecca: Dark romance gone wrong. The setting for Lemaire's show was the library of the Lycée Henri IV, and its wood-paneled walls were appropriate for the governess-y aspect of mid-calf skirts, high-waisted gray flannels, crisp white shirts, and mannish overthings. That mannishness harked back to Martin Margiela's remarkable—and remarkably uncelebrated—moment under the auspices of Hermès. So what heaven it was to see Lemaire tapping the luxe of the house in the film noir gloss of immaculately shaped and textured monochromes, like the light-sucking sheen on the black ponyskin shift worn by Kati Nescher, or the soft-shouldered swoop of the coat that draped Arizona Muse's belted cardigan, or the croc pencil skirt paired with a zipped navy blouson. Lemaire said they were women on a rendezvous. Love seemed like their obvious destination. Loss would be their destiny. Source: style.com

Thanks for all the photos! March 5, 2013 PARIS By Tim Blanks "I've got my feet on the ground, but this collection is up-to-earth, not down-to-earth." While he was speaking, Karl Lagerfeld was strategically placed under the massive globe that majestically revolved, center stage, during the Chanel presentation this morning. So the only way to earth was, in fact, up. But, figuratively speaking, the collection he showed was also "up": one of those confident, energetic, clothes-packed epics that he could probably draw in his sleep. (Not as banal as it sounds—Lagerfeld has often said he awakes from dreams and sketches a collection on the spot. He refers to it as "automatic" designing.) Bouncy confidence hasn't always produced convincing Chanel shows, but here there was a sepulchral undercurrent that was utterly seductive. The globe was dark, as though night had fallen on the world. The clothes were dark, too. And lean: a favorite silhouette fitted to the hip, then flared into a short skirt over leather cuissardes (so much better-sounding than their literal English translation, "waders"). The other key shape was equally streamlined, cut high on the thigh at the front, dipping to mid-calf at the back. This mutant redingote had a slightly libertine flair, which felt more Karl than Coco. Even though it was night, the darkling was sparkling. "Not depressing," Lagerfeld emphasized. Tweeds glittered, metallic thread brought shine to wovens. Aymeline Valade was entangled in a wonderful, shiny spirographic web. The effect was a little starlight spacey, though that impression might also have been steered by the Cardin-esque helmets some of the models were wearing. (They were, said Lagerfeld, actually facsimiles, in fur, of Anna Wintour's iconic bob.) As usual with Chanel, the fabrics defied comprehension. Anything that looked woven was just as likely to be an artful web of embroidery, like the explosions of monochrome flowers toward the end of the show. But, unlike with the couture, we were too far away for specifics, and that sense of distance underscored a point Lagerfeld wanted to make about the size of Chanel's business. The scale of the house's ready-to-wear presentations has often seemed like a metaphor in itself, and today, with the globe that revolved before our eyes, dotted with hundreds of logo-ed flags showing the location of every Chanel shop, it was even more suggestive. If only Lagerfeld had popped out the top at the finale to straddle the planet…he's not usually one to slight a subtext, and Karl-as-Kolossos would simply have reaffirmed his role as the one and only dominator. Source: style.com

Oh! Thank you, Single_Lady! I've given you 5 stars. I admit it's the first time I hear of this model.

Facebook (Eva Voorhees)

Facebook (Eva Voorhees)

Facebook (Eva Voorhees)

Facebook (Eva Voorhees)

Facebook (Eva Voorhees)

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Who's this beautiful black model? Paris Fashion Week - Emanuel Ungaro F/W 13.14

March 4, 2013 PARIS By Nicole Phelps Jeanne Labib-Lamour. Giles Deacon. Esteban Cortazar. Peter Dundas. Vincent Darré. Giambattista Valli. And not forgetting Estrella Archs and Lindsay Lohan. All have passed through the Emanuel Ungaro atelier since the designer's retirement about eleven years ago. Some fared better than others, but nothing stuck for very long. With all the different names that have cycled through the house, the heritage has become a bit muddled; for those in need of a crash course, Ungaro in his eighties heyday was known for flamboyantly feminine designs, often incorporating flowers. Today it was the Italian up-and-comer Fausto Puglisi's turn to try his hand at the house's legacy. Puglisi's daring party dresses, covered in geometric prints and baroque embroideries, make him a reasonably logical choice for this gig. "I wanted it to be very Ungaro, but with a graphic approach," Puglisi said backstage. "It's not romantic, it's more graphic." Instead of flowers, he used other Ungaro signatures, like polka dots and leopard prints and a bright palette of yellow, light blue, and royal blue mixed with black and ivory. The crisp angularity of one-sleeve tops and brief miniskirts looked a bit close to his own work; we associate Ungaro more with drape. Other pieces got closer to brand DNA, including wrap skirts with thigh-high slits and silk blouses with batwing sleeves. In our view, those skirts and the cropped blouson jackets they were paired with were the best things in the collection. Some of the proportions of the rest felt too retro; on other pieces, like pants with each leg in a different pattern, the graphics were too glaring. Puglisi will need more than a few separates to get this latest revamp off the ground, but we're rooting for him.

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