La Parisienne

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March 2, 2013 PARIS By Maya Singer This was a strong collection for Viktor Horsting and Rolf Snoeren. Though short on fireworks, the clothes on the runway today were rather eloquent, with a passage of looks with trompe l'oeil hand embroidery standing out as particularly expressive. It was tempting to read this collection as a conversation some young woman might be having with herself as she tries, day by day and moment by moment, to decide what kind of person she is. Is she a bouncy individual who wears a fitted sportif sweater and short, godet-pleated, quilted black leather skirt? Or is she sober and serious and even a little bit militant, outfitted in a trim, double-breasted black wool jumpsuit? Perhaps she's just seething with punkish rage, and wants to rip her clothes apart, as Horsting and Snoeren's cool, fraylike embroideries suggested. And maybe she's just a huge Viktor & Rolf fan, and therefore wants her staple leather jacket to boast a giant, signature Viktor & Rolf bow. Who knows? We each contain multitudes. From the first look out, an abbreviated black dress whose sculpted volumes, depending on how you looked at it, evoked either a rumpled bow or an angry black cloud, this collection was kind of a Rorschach test. What was absolutely clear, however, was that these clothes were meant to sell: Even the most challenging pieces—the white shirtdresses tricked out with ruffles and lacy fray embroidery—were relatively accessible. And items like a pleat-accented leather jacket, or a flared miniskirt topped by a bow, could conceivably find a warm welcome at your average upscale mall in middle America. Strange days, indeed. Source: style.com

The Fashion Spot (Nymphaea)

The Fashion Spot (Nymphaea)

The Fashion Spot (Nymphaea)

The Fashion Spot (Nymphaea)

The Fashion Spot (Nymphaea)

The Fashion Spot (Nymphaea)

The Fashion Spot (Nymphaea)

The Fashion Spot (Nymphaea)

The Fashion Spot (Nymphaea)

March 4, 2013 PARIS By Alex Veblen It's hard to go terribly wrong when Françoise Hardy is your reference. But Lydia Maurer went a lot further than channeling the French star's soigné style. She delivered a sharp, tightly edited collection that connected the early years of Paco Rabanne with the present, while departing from the sexpots of her debut collection last season. Another theme that Maurer explored was aviation; the opening look, a trim suit in inky blue, upgraded a pilot uniform with a pleasing sleekness. Then she brought back chain mail, but turned it into the type of collared shift better suited to a mod ingenue than a disco queen. A closer inspection backstage revealed that the metal mesh had been flocked on the inside; mostly, Maurer explained, she did that to add comfort. But flocking also appeared on the outside whenever she sought to cast a matte shadow atop the metal grid. "Flocking is something technical and not found in luxury so much," she said. "It just kind of clicked." The clicking continued—particularly well in the case of a long-sleeve chain-mail jumpsuit—as Maurer alternated between looks that were principally solid or shiny. Eventually, they mingled on leather skirts that featured chain-mail inserts and tunics that relegated the shiny bits into a larger grid pattern. And then, just when the show seemed to reach its cruising altitude, Maurer unbuckled and gave us three black and blue chain-mail dresses that melted into lace. They veered a little too close to negligees, but they also showed a softer side that closed the collection on an unexpected boudoir note. "When you start in a house like this, there are so many things you can do. Last time, I was very effervescent, very new, and I wasn't able to put my point across as much as I wanted," said Maurer after the show. "This time, I decided to make the collection much smaller and precise so it would read better." It hasn't taken long for Maurer to find her wings.

vogue.co.uk

vogue.co.uk

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vogue.co.uk

vogue.co.uk

vogue.co.uk

vogue.co.uk

vogue.co.uk

vogue.co.uk