Gucci Fall 2020 Ready-To-Wear

Gucci was back in its week-opening spot today after a season as the Milan closer, and Alessandro Michele got things started with a major bang, staging a show that was as spectacular as it was intimate. A week ago in New York, the fashion show was declared over (a little prematurely, given Marc Jacobs’s own enlivening experience there). Michele is among our most sensitive designers. He feels the immense strain of producing these in-person events multiple times a year—he called them rituals in his postshow presser, and he absolutely intended the religious connotations—but he also understands how the internet age potentially threatens their future. Is it live, or is it Instagram?

Michele is insistent on the live experience, though he’s plenty savvy about social media too. He sent his show invitation via WhatsApp, an attention-grabbing, modern move that also happened to be a green alternative to the mountains of waste created by show production. A pair of WhatsApp’d images followed the invite; one was a snapshot of Michele doing his best #evachenpose, fingers covered in rings and nails painted an aqua blue, and the other was a close-up of a Gucci label stitched with the words Faconnier de Rêves. That’s “Dream Maker” to you and me.

In ringmaster—high priest?—mode, Michele staged a show in the round, exposing the behind-the-scenes action of the hair and makeup teams and the model dressers at work as they prepared the 60 cast members in their looks. There were shades of Unzipped (the 1995 fashion documentary) here, only in this instance the stage revolved, giving the audience full 360-degree views, and—the designer pointed out afterward—doing the same for the models and the backstage crew. “You were our show, and we were your show,” he said in his typically elliptical manner. Entry into the show space was through a backstage area too, and Michele was seen mingling in the crowd.

Inserting viewers in the action would seem a distinctly 21st-century phenomenon, but Michele found himself connecting it with childhood. Last season he paid tribute to Gucci’s Tom Ford days; there were slip dresses, exposed bras, and ’70s-by-way-of-the-’90s pantsuits—the clothes that made Michele fall in love with fashion. Here, he looked further back, taking cues from “the perfection” of little girls’ clothes—pinafore dresses, school uniforms—and, it seemed, from the outfits of those little girls’ minders, nuns to nurses included.

He did something similar at his men’s outing last month; youth, for him, equates to “beauty and freedom.” For whom does it not? But today, as then, he kept the story lively. There were hippie nods, grunge allusions, and Moulin Rouge!–on-the-prairie gowns. And no, he didn’t bypass kink entirely. A patent leather harness was the accessory du jour.

As ever, the rule-breaking irreverence of his clothes was mirrored by the nontraditional beauties who wore them, but there seemed an inordinate number of overly thin models onstage this afternoon. Truer shape diversity would’ve made the communion of this Michele-orchestrated moment more powerful.

A voiceover at the start and end of the show in which the Italian director Federico Fellini celebrates the art of moviemaking illuminated Michele’s intentions today. “Fellini was talking about the sacredness of cinema and the rituals of filmgoing,” the designer explained. “We all belong to the same circus,” he continued, “and I really want to go on repeating this ritual.” Michele is a believer, and in turn, he makes believers of us too.

Source: Vogue

Fashionado

Louis Vuitton Fall 2020 Ready-To-Wear

“I wanted to imagine what could happen if the past could look at us.”

Nicolas Ghesquière is the cohost of this May’s Met gala (since then cancelled) and Louis Vuitton is sponsoring the Costume Institute exhibition, “About Time: Fashion and Duration,” that the gala celebrates. Ghesquière took as his subject this season the exhibition’s theme: that fashion is a mirror of the present moment—but not any old mirror. At Ghesquière’s Louis Vuitton, it’s a funhouse mirror in which eras, attitudes, and flashbacks intersect. And voilà: we flash forward.

This season Ghesquière enlisted the costume designer Milena Canonero, a frequent collaborator of Stanley Kubrick’s, to create a monumental backdrop of 200 choral singers, each one clothed in historical garb dating from the 15th century to 1950. It was a mammoth undertaking, and quite beautiful. “I wanted a group of characters that represent different countries, different cultures, different times,” Ghesquière explained beforehand. “I love this interaction between the people seated in the audience, the girls walking, and the past looking at them—these three visions mixed together.” The time-collapsing sensation was heightened by the fact that the song the chorus performed was a composition by Woodkid and Bryce Dessner based on the work of Nicolas de Grigny, a contemporary of Bach’s who never found fame.

Arguably, all of fashion is a synthesis of the past, but Ghesquière makes a closer study of it than most. He’s compelled by the anachronous. For spring 2018, he clashed 18th-century frock coats and the high-tech trainers of our contemporary period. Here, there was more in play: jewel-encrusted boleros met parachute pants, buoyant petticoats were paired with fitted tops whose designs looked cribbed from robotics, and bourgeois tailoring was layered over sports jerseys. Ghesquière seemed particularly taken with the visual codes of distance and speed—be it race-car driving, motocross, or space travel.

The biggest jolts came from the collection’s sporty parkas, because they tapped into the language of the street. Seventy years from now, or 600, in a tableau vivant of fashion, the early 21st century will be represented by these signifiers of our collective preference for the comforts and ease of performance wear. Ghesquière has long been applauded for his sci-fi projections into the unknown, but he’s just as resonant when he’s locked into the here and now.

We asked him what his hopes are for the future. “What I want is everyone to be safe,” he said. “This world can become a little more serene, that’s what I wish.”

Source: Vogue

FASHIONADO

Fendi Fall 2020 Menswear

Shortly after his participation at the LVMH Prize event last year, the shortlisted designer Kunihiko Morinaga of Anrealage was approached by Silvia Fendi. Would, she asked, he consider being part of her next menswear show? Morinaga said yes, of course, and backstage this morning he could be found watching the final lineup. Fendi, he noted, is a seriously big operation.

When his looks came out the planned Anrealage coup de théâtre did not quite come off. Those of us who attend his women’s shows in Paris could anticipate what to expect, but for the rest of the audience the transformation of his four looks from white slate to logo’d and patterned when placed under UV light was too subtle to startle.

However, that isn’t to say they didn’t make a fitting closing gesture at a show whose very interesting collection felt like it was about putting what is conventionally on the inside on the outside, and about modularity, and about technology, and about the place of classicism in an iconoclastic age—this collection was about a lot. It also looked good.

Backstage, Fendi said her reach-out to Morinaga had come out of the thinking that led to her solar women’s show shortly before that LVMH event last September and because her early thought of this menswear collection had included the notion of “transforming garments.” Away from Anrealage’s photochromatic transformation, Fendi’s shape-shifting attire including three-panel coats in fur or different tones of flannel that could be unzipped according to whether you planned to wear an overcoat, a jacket, or a bolero. There were also pants (from the front) and skirt (from the back) hybrids, which moved easily and looked attractive. There was another dialectic in the patterned jackets, coats, and hats: Some were in patched shearling that looked like cashmere, others in tufted cashmere that looked like shearling. “I want to give everybody the choice,” said Fendi.

She said her fundamental agenda was “to work on the essentials of the classic wardrobe of a man of tomorrow,” and one especially clever, modernizing twist on the classic was bringing the contours of linings and inside pockets to, a whole panoply of coats, vests and jackets. For good measure, Fendi added several credit card pockets and an AirPods compartment, and revived the historical cigar pocket. On contrast tailored jackets, leather jackets, and even shaved shearling, these outlines were both attractive and functional.

Another almost Surrealist but simultaneously functional play on interior and surface was the presentation of bags that appeared to be pieces of Fendi yellow packaging, rather than actual Fendi products. There was an oversize Fendi shopper in leather, and multiple Fendi boxes that were more like tiny trunks. Opening a box to reveal an item designed to be nearly identical to its packaging would surely be the ultimate Barthesian feedback loop.

The packaging riff extended to the garments via yellow taping stamped with Fendi Roma that defined the seams of certain outerwear pieces, and knit bags which had a satisfyingly hand-wrought roughness to them but that also resembled shoe and garment holders. For footwear, Fendi proposed a luxurified version of a mid-calf gumboot, also seen at Dolce, Ferragamo, and Prada. This was a collection rich in obvious luxury, in that the fabrication and construction was both extremely elevated and expertly done. It was also rich in ideas and ambition—a much more subtle but potent ingredient for luxury—and there were in those inside-out pieces quite probably a few of the future classics Fendi said she aspired to.

Source: Vogue

FASHIONADO

Deveaux Fall 2020 Menswear

It's been two years since Tommy Ton joined Deveaux as creative director. The brand’s profile has risen precipitously since the street style photographer signed on, but it’s still a newish arrangement, and Ton and Andrea Tsao, Deveaux’s designer and co-founder, were in a reflective mood at a pre-fall appointment. “We’ve been evaluating what our strengths are and focusing on what’s sold well, but we also wanted to have more fun with this collection,” Ton said. Managing those multiple, contrary instincts takes discipline. Kudos to Ton and Tsao for managing to do so while producing some of New York’s most subtly cool clothes.

Tailoring has proven to be one of Deveaux’s early successes, so they returned to the subject this season, only this time around, going on feedback from customers, they updated their silhouettes to be more body-conscious. A wrap jacket in stretch bouclé fit sleekly underneath a sculptural peacoat in a snakeskin wool jacquard. Another category they have a good handle on is knits. It’s a crowded field, but they’ve got new things to say, among them a polo sweater whose collar buttoned all the way up the chin so it doubles as a turtleneck. “You know I love a two-fer,” Ton said. Also worth mentioning is an unstructured parka in waterproof tech fabric with a faux shearling lining. Its easy beltable shape is the result of people-watching; Ton admired the cocooning oversize shape on certain street style stars.

The unexpected fun came in the form of the colorful patch-worked stripes Ton and Tsao printed on organza (for a camp shirt) and silk charmeuse (for a bias-cut short-sleeved dress), along with another print of color-blocked marble and onyx. These added verve to the mostly neutral lineup, and that’s an agenda they should keep pushing as they continue to grow.

Source: Vogue

FASHIONADO

Tiger of Sweden Fall 2020 Menswear Collection

It’s a wonder he waited this long. For fall 2020 Christoffer Lundman turned Tiger’s Eye to that greatest of Swedish icons, Greta Garbo. True to his extremely thorough process, he commissioned a multi-authored book about his inspiration. This season’s took in Garbo’s early life, her Mata Hari–fueled emergence as a global object of focus, and then her fascinating elusive refusal to be subject to it: “I want to be alone.”

Really fascinating were the images of Garbo in 1971 practicing yoga on her balcony or walking to and from her handsome car while in her Klosters exile: These were shot by Ture Sjölander, the Swedish multimedia artist with whom she collaborated to seemingly promote her image as someone who rejected having an image to promote. Reportedly she proposed that Sjolander shoot a series of paparazzi-style pictures because “people seem to like them.” Later the images of Garbo included an altogether less-wanted portfolio: shots of her on the streets of New York City by Ted Leyson, a photographer who stalked the star for a decade. These proved more uncomfortable making, considering they lead to a simultaneous admiration for Garbo’s style and the non-consensual nature of the images’ creation.

And so the circle wheeled to the collection itself, which was shuttered by its own models as a statement about self image and control of it. The garments serviced self-possession too. From Scandi practical pack-a-macs to foulard shirts printed with Sweden-ized maps of New York City, these were handsome pieces in which to frame yourself. Shirting and jackets featured extra folds of fabric at the neckline to defend unwanted pap shots. The overall atmosphere shared the discreet unassuming masculinity of many of the outfits Garbo was—after her Mata Hari days at least—pictured in.

Source: Vogue

FASHIONADO

Martine Rose Fall 2020 Menswear

“This is my daughter’s school, and it’s really great and optimistic. I just wanted everyone to feel that,” said Martine Rose. “Kids, young people, education are our future and we should invest in them. Primary schools are magical. The teachers are here, there’s a lot of people with kids—it’s another community, isn’t it?”

People still talk of the open-air show that Rose put on in a neighborhood square in Chalk Farm for summer 2019; it really was one of those atmospheres that make misty-eyed memories. She was one of the first designers to sit a fashion audience among local residents. Warm, friendly, inclusive vibes, without being saccharine, are what she’s very good at fostering. This time, we were sitting in the hall of the public school that Rose’s four-year-old attends, surrounded by children’s art, banners commemorating the anniversary of the women’s suffrage movement, and boards asking kids, “What kind of leader will you be?” It created that same sort of local family vibe, to start with.

As a character, Rose is a strange mix of unpretentiousness and self-belief. One of her favorite games is playing with logos and slogans. “Martine Rose Expect Excellence” read one. The words “Tottenham, Croydon, Clapham Junction, Tooting” were woven into jacquards on her big, lairy tailored jackets, name-checking all the areas in London that Rose and her family have lived and worked in. She’s actually a champion of the ordinary and the bizarre—and her talent in fashion is that she doesn’t make any distinctions between them, or between what’s considered beautiful or ugly. “The inspirations are always the same. It’s always about outsiders,” she said.

Nor does she particularly comply with seasons, or doing something completely new every time she has a show, which is according to when she feels like it. Her street-cast crew were indeed her avatars of oddness, from the side-swiped frizzes on the top of their heads, to the margins of extra sole beneath their feet, in collab with Six London, according to show credits.

In between, Rose clothed her neighborhood heroes in pieces she said she’s reprised from her archive, “with a bit of friction” from something sexy. Black latex made an appearance as she cut a signature wrap-fastened jacket as an elongated coat-dress, and put kilt buckles on a tight, shiny pencil skirt. Womenswear? No, she hasn’t really done that before. Rose may be a responsible, education-promoting mom of two in her 40s these days, but it was no stretch to imagine her in these bits and pieces back in the day when she was dressing up to club in the ’90s.

Those who buy Martine Rose are, similarly, believers in the offbeat and the slyly subversive, as well as others of the romantic persuasion that there is or ought to be an underground way of dressing. (Whether that’s actually been killed off in the age of constant self-documentation by Instagram is a moot point.) If she intends it or not, her black leather western waders are a dead cert for a street-style pose-parade outside some show at a men’s fashion week in the not very distant future.

There is a lot to appeal to the male fashion geek too: Those who are in the know understand what the Farah brand meant to the Jamaican community peacocks of style in the ’70s and ’80s, including pants with perma-creases, as worn by Rose’s uncle, “but this time expanded to XXXL proportions.” Messing with heads and proportions is also a Martine Rose specialty. The way she belts trousers hitch-up high with a spoof circular metal R-logo buckle, for instance. Ditto with her interpretation of the Casuals’ habit of knotting sweaters around their necks on the way to soccer terraces and pubs in the ’80s; she’s melded the shape to become scarves.

Others may be attracted to Martine Rose pieces because they are just cool and simple to wear; men who don’t want to be carrying a massive brand overstatement around with them. The checked coats fit that practical bill; so do her frill-front shirts. Geek fact: When she started out on her own over a decade ago, Martine Rose tested the waters with a small line of shirts. The waters said that a tide of in-people, designers, stylists, and editors wanted to get their hands on them. Which is how, little by little, Martine Rose became one of the most influential designers’ designers, while remaining exactly who she is, becoming a doting mom, and proudly showing off the neighborhood she comes from. Cheers to all of that, Martine.

Source: Vogue

FASHIONADO

Brioni Fall 2020 Menswear Collection

The 15th-century salons and ballroom of the Palazzo Gerini were so darkened at this Pitti presentation—the chandeliers were switched off and draped with tattered muslin, and the only light sources were artificial candles clustered in corners—that at first you could barely see the marbled floors, the lush paintings, the Gabbiani frescoes, and certainly not the Brioni clothes. But as your eyes slowly adjusted to the dimness, what was clear as day was the music. Brioni’s design director Norbert Stumpfl and the evening’s mise-en-scène manager Olivier Saillard had between them recruited some of the world’s finest male classical musicians, dressed them in Brioni, and then left them to it.

Thus in the Palazzo’s Sala Gialla, father and son cellists Andreas and Ingemar Brantelid (of the Royal Danish Orchestra) sat between the two long muslin-covered dining tables in the near darkness playing Tchaikovsky variations. Andreas’s instrument was a Stradivarius later observed to be worth probably more than the Palazzo: They both wore evening jackets, the son’s shawl-collared, the father’s silk and double-breasted with wide (11.5cm, Stumpfl specified later) reveres.

In another room, the star Greco-Peruvian soloist Alexandros Kapelis swayed behind his grand piano as just a few of us stood in the inky salon to be saturated in a Debussy arabesque. He wore classic pianist attire: black tailcoat and trousers in wool Barathea and a white cotton dress shirt.

The most populated chamber was the White Room, or Sala Bianca, in which an eight-strong baroque ensemble led by Andrea Lucchi of Rome’s Orchestra Santa Cecilia on trumpet did stirring justice to two pieces by Purcell, and another by Handel. Double bassist Ulrich Wolff of the Berlin Philharmonic looked rather louche alongside his more formally attired colleagues in piped silk pajamas and a cashmere dressing gown—apparently he was also wearing two pairs of (non-Brioni) long johns for fear of a chill. On cello, Professor David Pia of the Conservatory of Geneva (who looked a little like the Dutch soccer striker Robin van Persie) had shed his mink scarf; his double-breasted mouline wool suit and herringbone jacquard cashmere sweater were insulation enough.

And so it went on, for seven beautiful rooms in total. At the chat afterwards Stumpfl revealed some crazily beautiful details. The almost punkishly animated string trio in the final Azzura room were all wearing decorative jacquard jackets whose fabric had been woven in Venice on a loom dating back to the 1600s. One white cashmere coat was not colored thus, but was sourced from the wool of an albino goat. “We do this to show we can do it,” Stumpfl expanded, “but the clothes are quite simple, quite basic.” By this he did not mean Old Navy basic (oh no), but canonically classic. “For me it’s, ‘I see the man and I don’t really see the clothes.’ ”

That might seem like an obtuse, or even counter-intuitive statement. Because who is going to buy an albino cashmere jacket (with albino horn buttons to boot) and not want it visible? The answer is the sort of unassuming mega-zillionaire—titans of industry, tech, entertainment, or lucky guys who got left a lot of money—who are classically inclined: men who want to wear their success but not have it wear them.

Brioni was at Pitti this season to mark its 75th anniversary. One of the most significant moments in its history happened here in Florence in 1952 when a debonair gentleman named Angelo Vitucci modeled Brioni’s Roman suiting for an audience of mostly American womenswear buyers at Palazzo Pitti. This was the first ever menswear fashion show, and also helped the brand crack a U.S. market (partly also thanks to the enthusiasm of famous customers including John Wayne) that has remained important to the brand ever since.

Tonight Brioni could have homaged that iconic moment much more directly, but instead chose a route more subtle, more refined, and truer to what Stumpfl is working to articulate at this Abruzzo-based house. Florence is perhaps the densest repository of European culture there is, and here he was reminding us—in a modest but undeniable manner—that Brioni is a part of this continent’s myriad mosaic of creativity and invention. This was an exercise in both deep luxury and profound culture that was beautiful to be immersed in.

Source: Vogue

FASHIONADO