La Parisienne

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February 27, 2013 PARIS By Nicole Phelps Damir Doma set himself a difficult task this season, trying to make a persuasive case for office drab. Backstage he was talking about a "neo-corporate woman." On the runway, he opened with a trio of looks in boardroom gray: a ruched-collar popover top and tapered trousers, a cropped jacket and swingy skirt, a side-zip dress. On the models' feet: sturdy shoes with thick soles over sheer pantyhose, which conjured thoughts of the sneakers that workingwomen sometimes wear for their commutes. So far, so flat. Doma's Spring show qualified as a breakthrough. It makes sense for the designer, who already has his own store despite his still-tender age, to design clothes for urbanites' real lives. Here, though, he backpedaled too far on what made Spring great: color, for one thing, but also a looser, cooler sensibility. The Fall show did improve as it went on. A sleeveless dress tied at the waist with superfluous leather sleeves had an appealing ease, and the fuzzily abstracted houndstooth motif Doma used for a pantsuit added a bit of an edge to the proceedings. An oversize charcoal coat with four narrow stripes at the hem was also strong. And it wasn't all shades of gray. A vivid raspberry added some dimension to Doma's office separates. Unfortunately, it wasn't enough to turn this collection around. Source: style.com

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March 1, 2013 PARIS By Maya Singer Azzaro is in a transitional phase. In October, creative director Mathilde Castello Branco stepped down after only two seasons with the brand; a successor has not yet been named. This collection was designed by the in-house team, and the focus was explicitly on honoring the Loris Azzaro "codes"—crystal and chain, slinkiness and bared skin. Basically, Azzaro designed for the woman who was the life of the party. One thing about being the life of the party that Castello Branco got, as did Vanessa Seward before her, is that glitter and sex appeal won't get you very far unless they come accompanied by a punchy attitude and a good sense of humor. There's a great Helmut Newton photograph, from 1973, of a woman in an Azzaro crystal strass top throwing a glass of champagne at a woman dressed in the same outfit; you could scarcely imagine the woman in the Azzaro looks presented today having the sass to pull that move. This was pretty much glam by the numbers, with a smattering of stronger looks. Hollywood stylists will undoubtedly pick up on the grayish-mauve dress detailed with grosgrain ribbon and floral crystal embroidery, for instance. And a draped gown in a gold and black floral jacquard boasted a nice sense of drama—more of that fabric would have been welcome here. All in all, though, this Azzaro outing felt undirected. Which, for all intents and purposes, it was.

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(Partial Nudity) style.com

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Shinichi Osawa - PUSH (official music video) by ANIA CHORABIK