ANDREA JANKE Finest Accessories

Paris Fashion Week | Nina Ricci Fall/Winter 2012/13

2012-03-03T13:12:00.000+01:00

Nina Ricci Fall/Winter 2012/13 by Peter Copping

What has the Nina Ricci girl been up to since we last saw her? Playing in her mom’s closet—a French closet, full of tweeds, little black dresses, furs, lingerie, and jewelry, that is. Some of it might well have belonged to granny (with the falling-apart ball gowns and all) and, quite possibly, given the quite enviably sexy outcome of her playtime improvisations—slit skirts, see-through this-and-that, a certain rumpled-hair dishabille look, she’s just on the brink of being up to no good.

Peter Copping’s mastery of the lexicon of the mentality of the Parisian jeune fille took a delightfully dangerous turn for fall. It involved many of the ideas that are streaming through the season: a touch of the bourgeois, a sense of the oversize, and the idea of how being covered up can also result in something provocative. Much of it comes down to just how sophisticated he is at manipulating luxurious fabric in a complex, but lightly casual, way. His girl, a tousle-haired beauty, seems to have spontaneously customized her fur collars, sloppily throwing them on coats to lay asymmetrically across her shoulders, not caring if linings show on the outside of tweed jackets, and enjoying the pretty possibilities of slips and lacy underthings as going-out wear. Some of the pieces she puts on seem too big-jet embroidery might dangle from her overlong sleeves; some of her dresses hang cutely loose, and she comes from a good family, this one. Heirloom jewelry is also within her grasp: diamonds draped naughtily around her neck and festooned as ankle straps around her shoes.

The skill here lies in Copping’s light, modern combinations of “old” materials, and his pitch-perfect color sense in his choice of pinks, lavenders, and burgundys. And that’s not to mention his many draped and embroidered treatments of black, in varying degrees of transparency. It was a personal, brilliant tour-de-force of that offhand chic that makes Paris a mecca for all that is great about fashion.

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Photo Credit/Source: VOGUE

Photography by Monica Feudi

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'Aquilano.Rimondi's Baroque Vision'

Fall/Winter 2012/13 Collection

Aquilano.Rimondi's Baroque Vision

2012-02-28T18:39:00.174+01:00

Aquilano.Rimondi Fall/Winter 2012/13

Back in Tiepolo’s day, women in aristocratic circles might have spent about, oh, two hours or so to get dressed, once they (or more strictly speaking, those indentured in their service) had dealt with the stays, the paniers, and the stomachers, not to mention the parures of jewels. Pity that the likes of Tomasso Aquilano and Roberto Rimondi of Aquilano.Rimondi weren’t around then. The duo had been looking at Tiepolo’s early 18th-century godly orchestrations of paint, canvas, and divinity, as well as the works of Mantegna and Artemesia, for fall.

One of my favorite collections at Milano Fashion Week, - enjoy my previous Aquilano.Rimondo post 'Marble Sculptures by Aquilano.Rimondi' at the end of this post. LoL, Andrea

The result was a baroque vision of short-boned dresses with sculpted hips, elaborately and expertly rendered in iridescent velvet, leather, and silk scrolled with jewels and heat-pressed curlicue motifs, in shades of ruby, emerald, and sapphire, that will take approximately 56 seconds to do up, assuming you have someone at hand to tackle the zipper that runs the length of the back. And unlike those in the royal court, barely able to move with the weight of everything they were wearing, Aquilano.Rimondi’s looks are, if not exactly light as air, then certainly close to it; they were also referencing scuba with those very same dresses.

“We are believers in maximalism,” Aquilano said backstage, in the moments leading up to the show, as he and Rimondi were trying to effect their own divine intervention by getting the models dressed while being interviewed in front of a slew of television cameras. “It’s important to make women sit up and take notice of what you can do. Give them a simple black coat and they’ll think, ‘I could have designed that myself.’ ” So, yes, they had coats, but theirs are in a micro-jacquard that they’d had specially woven for a lean, high-buttoning style cut with a frocklike flow at the back, worn over flared crop pants and velvet bow pumps and bootees.

Both the coats and dresses came with that curiously chic touch that has been all over Milan; a high-necked or curved collar that gives a cardinal-like flourish to the look. With their collection, Aquilano.Rimondi caught the ecclesiastical opulence that has been occurring here as much as the Duomo holds mass, which is to say, several times daily. It’s the kind of excessive richness that Alexander McQueen would have plundered back in the day, a particularly dark and dramatic idea of sacredness. From Aquilano.Rimondi, though, it springs from more earthly concerns. “When the economy here is so bad,” said Aquilano, with a sigh, “you have to make fashion special and joyous. We’re designers, yes, but we also have to interpret what’s going on around us, and do our best to make it a little better.”

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Photo Credit/Source: VOGUE

Photograph by Marcio Madeira

Enjoy my previous Aquilano.Rimondi-post

'Marble Sculptures by Aquilano.Rimondi'

Spring/Summer 2012 Collection

Milan Fashion Week | Jil Sander by Raf Simon

2012-02-26T17:37:00.003+01:00

Jil Sander Fall/Winter 2012/13 by Raf Simon

The audience stood and cheered for Raf Simon as he took his final bow at Jil Sander today. Then they continued to stand and cheer until the designer, overwhelmed by emotion, reappeared on the catwalk. An ovation and an encore: That is the very definition of a hard fashion act to follow. Which is exactly as it should be, given what Simons has achieved in his seven years at Jil Sander. Never mind that this was the best collection he'd presented for the label. In light of the week's events, there was an unwittingly bitter irony to the story it told. After last season's women's-world scenario, Simons wanted to celebrate a day in the life of a relationship, the pure and simple pleasure of two as one. But Raf's no Pollyanna. He was equally engaged by the hard work it takes to maintain such an ideal. So he introduced chaos into his dream world. The most graphically significant element in his collection might have been the slash of shine that split open Julia Nobis' strapless matte black sheath. Thus are hopes and dreams splintered.

Before that climactic moment, however, there was a seamless parade of peerlessly beautiful dresses and coats. A grace note was struck from the moment models entered clutching their coats closed. In Raf's day-in-the-life scenario, these might have been bathrobes, just as insinuations of slips and nighties crept in later. A palette of blush pink, coffee, and pale gray underlined an early-morning feel. The soundtrack was Mazzy Star's "Fade into You" and Sonic Youth's version of the Carpenters classic "Superstar," both songs where love is lorn. Can melancholia be uplifting? Here be proof, compounded by Smashing Pumpkins' "Tonight, Tonight," one of Simons' favorite songs. It sounded like an envoi to the Sander years.

He called his previous three seasons for Sander his "couture trilogy," and even before this week's shock announcement that he was departing and the house's namesake founder was returning, Simons had decided he wanted to unhinge the perfect universe he'd created. The leathered-up menswear collection he showed here in January cued a dark finale for his womenswear, where black leather and PVC threw a fetish wrench in a perfect day. Again, irony, in that the complete control of his Spring collection implied that chaos is a shot away. And here it finally was. Good luck to his successor. She'll need it.

The coats often shrugged open to reveal camisole slipdresses intriguingly pieced from different types of knit, a hand-knit-looking cable for the sleeves, say; the finest underwear jersey for the torso; and a thicker gauge for the gently swinging skirts. Those luxurious double-face coats with their welted seams, a classic Jil Sander signature, were cut like balmacaans or full-bodied swing coats in fine meltons or even a stiff cotton.

Characteristically, however, Simons had reimagined those armorial originals for the modern woman, with poetic asymmetry to the skirts, and in light or innovative fabrics. These included a soft, mauve-pink charmeuse satin, draped like a pareo over a buff-colored bra top, and a fine vinyl, in platinum that winked beneath a pale stone-colored coat, or in black sliced into black wool in a curving spiral, or draped into a dramatic panache over a strapless wool bodice. Those structured bra or off-the-shoulder tops were also worn with high-waist, wide-leg pants, a look that suggested a modern jumpsuit.

Accessories included an elegant strappy high heel that pieced chic neutral colors with a dash of fluo in a sophisticated patchwork, and a simple rectangular clutch in reflective or crystal-dazzled fabrics. Some of the coats were cut to the ankles, like the most luxurious dressing gowns or the kind of “at home” robes favored by midcentury tastemakers such as Mona Bismarck, Marella Agnelli, and Pauline de Rothschild. In this collection, Simons has continued his engagement with the style of those iconic “haute couture” ladies and their lifestyles and couturiers that have intrigued him for several seasons.

The strapless or off-the-shoulder evening dresses, with their full, swinging skirts of origami complexity, for instance, evoked the midcentury masterworks of Charles James, Christian Dior, and Jacques Fath. The first girl to appear wrapped about her a version in soft sugar pink wool faced in stone, and subsequent variants were in subtle colors like orchid and rose pinks, mauve, and a vivid poppy red; colors that were reflected in the ravishing floral arrangements that dotted the stage, modernistically encased within Lucite boxes. (These latter-day Dutch still-lives were the work of Simons’s friend and fellow Antwerp native, Mark Colle.) In a collection as elegant, nuanced, and thoughtful as the designer himself, Raf Simons’s final show for the house of Jil Sander proved an exquisite coda to his remarkable career here.

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Photo Credit/Source: VOGUE

Photography by Marcio Madeira/firstVIEW

Enjoy my previous Milan Fashion Week-post -

'Milan Fashion Week | The Black Dress by Emilio Pucci'

Fall/Winter 2012/12 Collection

Milan Fashion Week | The Black Dress by Emilio Pucci

2012-02-26T13:26:00.002+01:00

Emilio Pucci Fall/Winter 2012/13 by Peter Dundas

At Peter Dundas' Pucci, Brigitte Bardot in her gypsy phase was out, Emilio Pucci and Vibeke Knudsen were in. Vibeke who? Knudsens's name may be less well known than Bardot's, but Helmut Newton's groundbreaking 1975 shot of the model in YSL's Le Smoking is permanently seared into the fashion consciouscness. It's what Dundas tapped into for a fab collection that put the focus not only on men's tailoring but also on a newly covered-up silhouette. Don't get us wrong. Dundas hasn't gone demure. A trio of little black dresses with chiffon-covered slashes set the tone. If there was less bare flesh on display, the collection was still plenty sexy, as a formfitting little number in crocodile with a slit up to there, and a T-shirt gown with a sheer back embroidered in crocodile velvet appliqués both suggest.

Enjoy Emilio Pucci Fall 2012/13 Fashion Show at the end of this post! LoL, Andrea

Tailoring, meanwhile, has always been part of the picture with Dundas, but here it was the star. Joan Smalls' white dinner jacket and beaded-neck black halter gown made for a modern way to do black tie - that look will be making the rounds on the fashion-party circuit. Ditto a sky blue version of the same tux worn with a sheer T-shirt; smartly cut high-waisted, cropped trousers; and a suede cummerbund. A nude patent peacoat and a beaver fur coat also get shout-outs for their sharp looks. He recruited the tailors who make his Pucci menswear to create this show's substantial coats. This was Dundas in peak form, and good timing, too. Too-obvious flashiness is on the wane elsewhere in Milan. Plus, a new Pucci store on Madison Avenue will be up and running by September, right about when these clothes start shipping.

One edge of fashion is tilting toward the darker, more sophisticated side of sexuality, but who would ever expect an Emilio Pucci collection to get there? It's a sign of Peter Dundas's growing confidence as a pied piper to the pack of the hot and fashion-conscious that he devoted the opening of his fall collection to the exploration of black. Proving his skills as a designer who can cut, he sliced the little black dress and patent leather skirts into shapely forms, filling shardlike cutouts with the tulle and slashing hems to show plenty of lissom leg. "Reserved", let it be said, is hardly the word for it. "I was thinking in the beginning about Belle de Jour and about menswear," he said. Between those two starting points, he worked up a collection which was a strong on mannish tailoring and outerwear as it was on taking care of the woman who likes to display her curves.

In sync with the feeling that is breaking out everywhere, there was something distinctly more grown-up in the luxe effects he mastered. Somewhat on the same page as Tom Ford or Riccardo Tisci, he took the idea of alligator skin, first sculpting it into a body-molded sheath dress and blazer, and then using the pattern of scales as placement decoration on a velvet devore top and fit-and-flare chiffom dress. And yes: A nod to the Emilio Pucci house print was in there, eventually in a silk pajama suit, a couple of dresses, and a pleated lamé flyaway peasant dress.

Still, this collection served better to spotlight the depth and range Dundas is bringing to a house he has broadened beyond the limits of jazzy surface pattern. The remit of the Emilio Pucci brand he's quietly been building up in Florence now extends to fantastically tailored coats in menswear checks, patent leather, and fur, as well as tuxedo jackets. He's a man with a skill, and a knack for glamour. But now, there's a grounding in daywear going on here, too, just look at his rendering of a navy peacoat in curly Alpina lamb, with sweeping colar in black goat hair. It has the mark of a fashion trophy of fall 2012, if ever we saw one.

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Photo Credit/Source: VOGUE

Photography by Marcio Madeira

Enjoy my previous Emilio Pucci-post -

'Gypsy by Emilio Pucci'

Spring/Summer 2012 Collection

Milan Fashion Week | Edwardian Dandy by ETRO

2012-02-25T13:09:00.001+01:00

ETRO Fall/Winter 2012/13 by Veronica Etro

Kean Etro has so successfully established an image for the ETRO man, a thinking man with an appetite for adventure - that you kind of feel sorry for his little sister, Veronica Etro, who has had to carve a niche out of nothing. She's looked here, looked there, but she's just been fishing. All too rarely has she latched on to something that feels right for the brand. Still, she's getting there. The ETRO show was a clearly defined statement of intent. Etro's Mitteleuropa dandyism translated appealingly into lean, tailored looks that used the family's signature paisley as a building block. Not in a particularly respectful way, mind. Laser-cut into a patchwork on a net gown, printed on a sheer top, woven into trousers that were legging-light, paisley proved itself to be a profoundly alluring thing. As alluring, in fact, as a tracery of tattoos on skin.

Perhaps it was that sensual association that spurred Veronica on to such extremes as the perforated leather ruff that limned a velvet jacket, or the hard-edged combo of black leather and fishtailed velvet. If there was one word that worked for the whole collection, it was flare. Flare in the leather peplums belts, flare in those fishtailed gowns, flare in the godet skirts. It took discipline to make them all work. Veronica is clearly little sister no longer.

This is the thing about going to the collections; sometimes what can seem like a one-off notion gains traction, and before you know it, it's shaping up to be one of the more insistent impulses coursing through the shows. That said, it's not always necessarily because of its prevalence, but because it stands out as something different. Such is the case with the neo-Edwardian dandy suiting, by way of the sixties and seventies, that made an appearance at ETRO, having already strode out with such conviction on a few runways of late that it might as well have been confidently twirling a cane. Thankfully, it's a lot less historicist than it sounds. At Prada, for instance, Miuccia Prada turned it into lean high-button jackets with cropped kick-flare pants worn with nineties club-kid platform shoes.

Meanwhile, at ETRO, Veronica Etro did it her way, by incorporating it into her new idea of print dressing, a category the house has owned since, well, forever: a longer, leaner, body-conscious line (her killer velvet evening dresses, for instance) that allows for all sorts of interplay with patterns (paisley, specifically) and three dimensional shaping (peplums-as-belts galore, over pencil skirts). Her foppish tailoring was, she said backstage, a way of feminizing the masculine suit, so she made her jackets in velvet, jacquard, and tweed sharply waisted and jutting at the hips, then partnered them with supernarrow trousers. Elsewhere, she buttoned a shapely frock coat over the same pants and turned the gentleman's silk scarf into a fur collar layered with sizeable jet necklace. It's interesting, this idea of transforming men's suitting, albeit from another era, to make it look so curvaceous.

For the longest time, the impulse was to look coolly louche and androgyne in pieces borrowed directly from the boys, but this reverts to the idea of making men's clothes look distinctly shaped for a woman's body. And even more interesting is that that impulse is coming from two female designers with very different viewpoints. Whatever is driving this, one thing is for sure: your boyfriend's/husband/brother's closets just became no-go zones.

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Photo Credit/Source: VOGUE

Photography by Marcio Madeira/firstVIEW

Enjoy my previous Milan Fashion Week-post -

'Milan Fashion Week | Fur Avant-Garde by FENDI'

Fall/Winter 2012 Collection

Milan Fashion Week | Fur Avant-Garde by FENDI

2012-02-24T15:48:00.002+01:00

FENDI Fall/Winter 2012/13 by Karl Lagerfeld

"More fur is flying than ever this winter". The use of leather, reptile, and all kinds of animal pelts is so embedded in fashion now that it's often hard to tell which material is which, or even to distinguish between what's real and what's fake. It's safe to say, of course, that it's all real at Fendi, Italy's premier fur house, where luxurious techniques are their most sophisticated.

For fall, Karl Lagerfeld and Silvia Venturini Fendi treated all the materials at their disposal as an interplay of textures, colors, and angular shapes, cutting them into waisted silhouettes, with skirts patch-worked from asymmetric zones of cashmere and pleats. "Modern femininity without references", describes Lagerfeld. The peplum and the bustle are featured in a navy crocodile skirt, with a panel of accordion pleating in the derriere, and in a nipped-waist antelope suit with an upstanding feathery "tail" perking up in the back of the jacket. Other coat silhouettes were clean and straight up and down; one in matte laser-cut navy leather, another in glossy maroon, with a slice of geometric pleating in one flank. The new Fendi bags are either iPad boxes with a top-handle, or classic-seeming black-and-white crocodile totes - save for the fact that they cascades of goat hair sprouting from the sides.

Standing back, though, what's worth noticing is hust how far the idea of a "status fur" has shifted since the days of floor-length minks and sables were flaunted by Hollywood stars and old aristocracy. They're nowhere to be seen now. Attribute that to the rise of extrem fashion, sought out by a twenty-first century global generation of internationally wealthy young people who want their luxury full-on, colorful, and playful. Fendi's crazy-colored yellow goat hair and multicolored patch-work coats speak directly to them. And oddly enough, those coats resonate with the glam-rock monster-face fake-fur coats made by London's East End designers and Meadham Kirchhoff only a couple of days ago. The price-points couldn't be more wildly disparate, but weirdly, the motivation is on the same page. Wether it's made from a dyed fox or Dynel nylon, the fun fur is back.

Technology's influence on Fendi also comes courtesy of noted digitalist Karl Lagerfeld, who was saying that there's no need to refer back to the past where the online world is awash with late-breaking info. Nevertheless, there was a curious and charming retro edge in the Fendi collection, evident in details - a puff sleeve, a fichu, a bustle - that could almost pass as folkloric where it not for the fact that they were delivered in such an incongrouos way. That bustle for instance, bunched from navy blue croc or antelope hide. Incongruity may, in fact, be even more a Fendi signature than the hybrid. It guarantees that this label's collection will always defeat expectations, in the best possible way.

Selections by ANDREA JANKE Finest Accessories

Photo Credit/Source: VOGUE

Photography by Marcio Madeira/firstVIEW

Enjoy my previous Milan Fashion Week post -

'Milan Fashion Week | Poetric Opulence by GUCCI'

Fall/Winter 2012/13 Collection

Milan Fashion Week | Poetic Opulence by GUCCI

2012-02-23T14:21:00.009+01:00

GUCCI Fall/Winter 2012/13 by Frida Giannini

If there is one thing Gucci stands for as a brand, it is decadence, but this fall Frida Giannini placed its aesthetic into a very different historical context than the familiar, hard-edged sexiness of the ninteies or the brittle, shiny geometry of last season's Deco-flapper collection. Instead, she'd found her inspiration in the Pre-Raphaelite period, recasting Edward Burne Jone's consumptive heroines as a modern girls with plum-stained lips, bleached eyebrows, with their hair drawn away from their pale faces and twisted into flowing tendrils. The clothes they wore evoked a darkly poetic opulence, at times nymphlike, but with the fragility counterbalanced by references to a briskly dandy-ish masculinity with a dash of swaggering World War I militaria. It made for an extensive and varied flow of sophisticated clothes, softer and richer in tone, in a show which also encompassed the emerging ideas in fall's fashion narrative. It made for Giannini's best collection yet.

A girl in glasses opened the show, wearing a lond, narrow black velvet skirt with an oversize military jacket slung over her shoulders. As you turned to watch her walking away, she showed a flash of black-stockinged leg from a deep slit in the back of the skirt. Thus, the Gucci girl preserves her reputation as a femme fatale, but carries it off in a haughtily deatched, "not-trying-too-hard" effort to be sexy. From then on, Giannini worked with flocked velvet in floral patterns reminiscent of William Morris, tapestry-inspired jacquards, and printed silks, turning out the fitted sheath-dresses (another trend, done) and pajama-style pantsuits and smoking jackets, all emphasizing texture in a palette running from black to burgundy and deep bottle-green. She's always liked a jodphur-style pant and a flat boot - part of Gucci's equestrian heritage, too, of course - and when she threw a huge pekan fur military overcoat on one of those looks, it was amazing.

As for evening? The grand sweep of Gucci's options, from an off-the-shoulder emerald-green silk-and-velvet gown with poetically ballooning sleeves and a ribbon-tie sash, to a wrapped chiffon burgundy dress, sliding off one shoulder and trailing ruffles, to the six extraordinarily semi-nude, black tulle dresses embroidered with flowers, will have Oscar-going actresses' stylists frantic to book options.

Anna Dello Russo before GUCCI, in GUCCI!

Selections by ANDREA JANKE Finest Accessories

Photo Credit/Source: VOGUE

Photography by Monica Feudi

Enjoy my previous Gucci-post -

'A Gold-shared Statement by Gucci & Roberto Cavalli'

Spring/Summer 2012 collections, fashion shows and insights of the Museo Gucci -

Enjoy! LoL, Andrea

London Fashion Week | Town and Field by Burberry

2012-02-22T15:20:00.000+01:00

Burberry Prorsum Fall/Winter 2012/13 by Christopher Bailey

For Christopher Bailey, the title of his latest Burberry show, Town and Field, signified two worlds whose codes didn't match. And he wanted to try and make them. It was a kind of metaphor for Bailey's big challenge of the moment - merging Burberry's physical and digital aspects which sounds like a much more daunting task than sticking herringbone bellows pockets on a tweed pencil skirt, one of the ways field met town in today's show. Another striking match was the brown corduroy jacket belted over a burgundy lace skirt with a substantial peplum.

Enjoy Burberry Prorsum Fall/Winter 2012/13 Fashion Show at the end of this post!

LoL, Andrea

The peplum and nipped waist were vintage details Bailey carried over from pre-fall, with its echoes of the thirties and forties, but where that collection tended more to the austerity of the war years, this one had a little more flounce. Another key piece was a pencil skirt with a big diagonal ruffle. It had some shimmy to counterbalance the peplum's occasional clunk. And it said "Town" whatever piece of cropped outerwear it was paired with. So did floral-print faille and the tiers of fringes on Jourdan Dunn's cocktail dress, "Field" was represented by a herringbone jacket lined shearling, a waxed cotton parka, and country critters like sparrows, owls, and doggies naively embroidered on shirts, and printed or appliquéd on oversize striped tees. A capacious bottle green cardigan was comfy enough for country life, but its stylish swing back gave it some urban smarts.

Such an item suggested that, Bailey's reservations aside, the division between city and country was really somewhat artificial in a collection that wove a story out of Burberry's outerwear expertise and Bailey's ongoing fascination with casually gilded youth. There's something almost melancholy about such an idea. Gilded youth with inevitably tarnish. Maybe thar's why rain is a recurrent motif in Burberry-world.

Christopher Bailey, however, mixed upstairs and downstairs with a contemporary spirit of democracy from his model's tweedy urchin caps to their dainty lace-up ankle boots. There was an emphasis on the hips, with giant bellows pockets flanking the front of jackets and skirts, or a broad peplum flounce that all added volume below the waist. This created a silhouette that suggested the hourglass figure of the Victorians, or a brisk contemporary reworking of Christian Dior's nip-waisted New Look silhouette. Ruched velvet ribbon belts, flourished with a bow, cinched those waistlines tighter still.

There was more "street couture" in the thick woolen lace, and in flounce that ruffled down the front of skirts, but a golden zipper used to edge them brought them smack into the twenty-first century. There was Victoriana too in the shrunken jackets in courduroy or velvet, the leg-of-mutton-sleeved white cotton shirts, the darkly swirling floral Arts and Crafts prints, and in the strips of velvet that edged a peplum ruffle. as well as accessories such as the doctor's bags that fastened with pale gold owl-, dog-, or goose-head clasps, and the whimsical umbrella handles carved with similar animal motifs.

But the shapely down quilted puffer coats; the sweaters and tees with sweetly childish intarsia or embroidery of sparrows and owls; and the metallic glitter-fringe fabric used for pencil skirts and lean dresses added a thoroughly modern edge.

Selections by ANDREA JANKE Finest Accessories

Photo Credit /Source: VOGUE

Photography by Marcio Madeira/firstView

Enjoy my previous Burberry Prorsum post -

'London Fashion Week | Burberry Prorsum, Mary Katrantzou

& Roksanda Ilincic'

Spring/Summer 2012 Collections

London Fashion Week | Floral Print & Lace by Erdem

2012-02-21T16:34:00.001+01:00

Erdem Fall/Winter 2012/13

As a reaction to the prettiness of his spring collection, Erdem Moralioglu started work on his fall clothes by "looking at the codes of what it is that makes a lady - and turning them on their head!" And although the designer stayed true to the ladylike DNA of his brand with elegant silhouettes evocative of mid-century haute couture clients - svelte cocktail dresses, wide-cut evening coats, a short swing jacket with standaway collar, and the season's strong sweater and (pleated) skirt combinations - he tweaked the looks in subtle ways that began with the fabrics and gave his work and exciting edge.

Enjoy the Erdem Fall/Winter 2012/13 Fashion Show at the end of this post!

LoL, Andrea

"Mixing plastics in with lace felt new and uncomfortable for me," he said, and so, inspired by latex pieces he discovered in a fetish store, he worked with textile mills in Como, Italy to lacquer his refined fabrics (silky tweeds and those enchanting laces) with a glossy, high-sheen veneer - a sophisticated effect far removed from the original. Erdem was also thinking of "this woman who eats art and fashion!" - embodied by Peggy Guggenheim, the formidable mid-twentieth-century art collector, dealer, and patron, who held court in her palazzo on the Grand Canal in Venice, an inspirytion for the rich Venetian tones and dappled, Impressionistic prints in the show. With art on his mind, it was appropriate that Erdem set his collection in the distinguished White Cube Bermondsey gallery (currently showing Anselm Kiefer's epic sculptures); a clean backdrop against which to admire the intricate detailing of his clothes - including graphic use of black lace, to veil jacquard prints or re-appliquéd into bold, abstract patterns (on hot pinks, puce, or inky lagoon blues); or a scattering of bright jewels on a coat printed with a shimmer coat collars and "jewel" necklines).

He also created trompe'l'oeil effects that suggested various garments were being worn together - a strapless cocktail dress that seemed to be layered over a turtleneck, or a corset worn over a simple sleeveless top. And despite the elaboration of technique and decoration, the collection remained as light as air - down to those miraculous shoes created for Erdem by Nicholas Kirkwood that appeared to float above their solid black heels, thanks to the strip of clear Lucite separating the upper sole from the heel itself.

Selections by ANDREA JANKE Finest Accessories

Photo Credit/Source: VOGUE

Photography by Marcio Madeira/firstView

Enjoy Erdem, Christopher Kane & Antonio Berardi's Spring/Summer 2012 collections

'Powder-blue Silk by Erdem, Christopher Kane
& Antonio Berardi'

NYFW | Ralph Lauren Fall/Winter 2012/13

2012-02-20T12:14:00.000+01:00

Ralph Lauren Fall/Winter 2012/13

At Ralph Lauren, the curtain was raised on the show, so to speak, by the strains of the theme music to Downtown Abbey. Lauren's achingly romantic and lovingly nuanced idea of grand English country living has had a cinematic sweep that could give Downtown and Gosford a run for their pounds, shilling, and pence. Thet era and locale has been one of the mainstays of Lauren's career, turning the shooting parties and the candlelit dinners under the family Gainsboroughs into tweeds and Fair Isles, jodhpurs and hacking jackets, bias-cut slips and ravishing beaded flapper dresses of yore into clothes that manage to speak to the past yet also live and breathe in the here and now - and all around the globe, at that.

Enjoy Ralph Lauren Fall/Winter 2012/13 Fashion Show at the end of this post!

LoL, Andrea

All of these elements were in Ralph Lauren's show. From the opening looks that married snappy masculine tailoring in herringbone and boundstooth wools and Fair Isle sweaters in wonderful and original color combinations with lean pants; the roomier, relaxed, yet masculine line of the outer layer worn with something lean underneath taps into one of the key ideas about shape and form we've been seeing this week. What gave this an unexpected twist was the use of ocelot-print shearling in the mix, either for a casual, shrug-it-on-coat, or as a scarf tucked into the neck of the sweater; a cool and easy and highly covetable styling trick that really caught the eye.

As the show progressed, events took a turn - by turms dark and dramatic and golden-hued and glamorous. Lauren made the use of black leather - another recurrent theme these past few days - for a pleated skirt sliced with sheer panels that were revealed when it moved, pairing it with a black sweater threaded with gold beads. But it was with some of the closing, long evening looks that he reached a crescendo - columnar black velvet beaded at the neck, an exquisite undulation of gold-lamé pleats that could take you somewhere just as magical as any episode of a cult British TV show playing on a Sunday night.

The Roaring Twenties wee an obvious influence on a beaded flapper number and black column dresses picked out in gold and platinum Art Deco embroideries. Nonetheless, the evening looks as a whole felt modern.

Selections by ANDREA JANKE Finest Accessories

Photo Credit/Source: VOGUE

Photography by Marcio Madeira/firstView

Enjoy my previous Ralph Lauren post -

'NYFW | Long Island's North Shore by Ralph Lauren'
Spring/Summer 2012 Collection

LFW | Florals and Furs by Temperley London

2012-02-19T13:56:00.000+01:00

Temperley London Fall/Winter 2012/13 - London Fashion Week

Amazing Fur-Hats by Temperly London! A folk-y Slavic thing seems to be a micro-trend. Alice Temperley sleered her particular bohemian leanings in an opulent direction for a look she called "polished folk". The first look out nicely illuminated that description. It had a bright floral embroidery in neat panels with ivory dotted tulle, and its long and lean shape - with sheer long sleeves that somehow still evoke the royal wedding - gave way to a bit of fluid swish at the hem. With fur hats on nearly every look, it made you think of a parade of young czarines. There was also a touch of Cossack warrior in a lean double-breasted officer's coat and another high-shouldered one in navy satin with proud gold buttons. Lose thes hat, however, and a lace-paneled blouse and bronze jacquard skirt cinched with a jeweled ribbon belt were pure modern-day oligarch-ette.

Enjoy Temperley London Fall 2012/13 Fashion Show at the end of this post & 'Exclusive Fur-Chapkas by ANDREA JANKE'! LoL, Andrea

But even that girl's viewpoint has changed considerably in the past decade, which made some of Temperley's intended decadence (crystal beading, lace, velvet, loads of costume jewelry) feel weigthly. There was a drag to looks like a long shearling jacket and matching pencil skirt, or a navy satin gown with chunky jeweled straps crisscrossing its open back. Perhaps the problem wasn't the excess itseld, but the fact that it was a vision less than exquisitely drawn.

Enjoy wonderful Fur-Chapkas by ANDREA JANKE

'Femme Feline ... Just Fur!'

Selections by ANDREA JANKE Finest Accessories

Photo Credit/Source: Style.com

Photography by Yannis Vlamos/GoRunway

NYFW | The Truly Glamorous by Marchesa

2012-02-16T11:41:00.003+01:00

Marchesa Fall/Winter 2012/13 by Georgina Chapman & Keren Craig

As a choir of angels echoed through the Palm Court of the Plaza hotel yesterday afternoon, Marchesa's Georgina Chapman and Keren Craig sent out a chorus of frothy, gilded frocks of the highest order. Their otherworldliness was inspired by William-Adolphe Bougereau's dramatic nineteenth-century painting A Soul Brought to Heaven, and the effect of their shimmering embroidered silhouettes ending in sweeping and swishing tulle made it seems as if the models were walking through clouds in an area of heaven reserved only for the truly glamorous.

Wings were sewn into elaborate tapestries that were the cut into a cocoon coat and short cocktail dresses, and many of the more formal looks were covered with white feathers either sprouting from the dress itself or sewn onto the bodice in wing formations. Bur for all the divine inspiration at play, the pieces that stood out were the ones that originated from a darker place, Chapman and Craig had also been looking at images of skeletons - albeit ones decorated in gemstones and precious metals, are you surprised? - and deftly took what could be potentially a macabre element and made it light. One romantic, almost Spanish-feeling black-and-gold lace dress was draped over a mesh bodysuit embroidered with a fine golden skeleton. And a short blood-red number had lace stretched in shapes mimicking the muscles of the body and one strip down the spine. Rather than look gruesome, they were quite beautiful. With less than two weeks until the Academy Awards, one couldn't help but imagine how dreamy they'd be on one of Hollywood's young mortals.

Amazing Accessories by Marchesa ... What do you think?

Selections by ANDREA JANKE Finest Accessories

Photo Credit/Source: VOGUE

Photography by Marcio Madeira/firstView

Enjoy my previous MARCHESA post -

'NYFW | Marchesa Spring/Summer 2012'

... another wonderful New York Fashion Week collection -

'NYFW | Carolina Herrera Fall/Winter 2012/13'

NYFW | STAR STYLE by Mercedes Benz + Naeem Khan

2012-02-15T16:50:00.008+01:00

Naeem Khan Fall/Whinter 2012/13

Naeem Khan looked to his native India for a glittering lineup of pieces with paisley, swirls and Tilakas (a form of Indian body art) that took an army of craftspeople three months to embroider. Belted coats in silk faille or silk and wool tweed were embellished with metallic paisley embroidery and looked light enough to double as evening dresses. A handful of short frocks - one with tulle sleeves and mirror crystals, another with swirl beading and a fringed hem - were standouts. Khan delivered his greatest hits: plunging necklines, caftans, jacket-and-full-skirt combos, single-shoulder gowns and head-to-toe beaded evening columns.

PolyVore, Mercedes-Benz and Naeem Khan launched the contest -

'STARSTYLE presented by Mercedes-Benz + Naeem Khan'

WIN AN Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week EXPERIENCE -

join the contest at the end of this post! Good Luck & Enjoy! LoL, Andrea

Enter the conest here >>>>

STARTSTYLE presented by Mercedes-Benz + Naeem Khan

My sets for STAR STYLE presented by Mercedes Benz + Naeem Khan

STAR STYLE presented by Mercedes-Benz + Naeem Khan contest on Polyvore.com

Selections by ANDREA JANKE Finest Accessories

Photo Credit/ Source: Naeem Khan via WWD.com

Enjoy my previous NYFW post -

'NYFW | Carolina Herrera Fall/Winter 2012/13'

NYFW | Carolina Herrera Fall/Winter 2012/13

2012-02-15T13:43:00.002+01:00

Carolina Herrera Fall/Winter 2012/13

"Do you know how many shows there are this week?" Carolina Herrera asks. "Three hundred and fifty. That's why they have to be short and to the point." Right on as she may be, the inimitably elegant Herrera intends to pack a lot of drama into few minutes it will take to show her 40 looks on Monday. Her fall collection was inspired by the idea of an artist's studio, seen in the graphic brushstrokes that she's swept across organza, but in discussing it, the designer sound more like a maestro than a painter. "This", she says, hands swooping through the air as she points to a photo on the run of show board of a model dressed in red, breaking up the navy, blacks, and purples that came before her, "is the crescendo."

Enjoy Carolina Herrera Fall/Winter 2012/13 Fashion Show at the end of this post!

LoL, Andrea

There are full skirts theatrically billowing from underneath cropped jackets and feathered sleeves shaking up a short lavender sweater. Its color is similar to that of a Ladurée macaron box tacked to Herrera's mood board, which also features clippings from interior magazines and phrases like "The art and the fashion" and "Variations on chic." A few of the prints on the dresses, like a black-and-white striped one accented with red, came straight from these collages. "This is the fun part," Herrera says, standing in her office and smiling, "when everything is being created."

The sheath dress is back. At Carolina Herrera, that's the news. You might think that they never went away chez Herrera, who has always been a champion of dresses that look elegant and refined and appropriate, but you'd be wrong. For the last few seasons, she's been experimenting with all sort of interesting volumes for skirts. Yet in the blink of an eye, in the way that these things can happen out of the blue, when the previously shunned gets a radical revise and is able to be seen in a whole new light, the lean, long sheath is what Herrera reckons will work for fall. Hers came in a palette of deep navy, mulberry, indigo, lilac, and what she calls haute (as in hot) pink and are variously cut from tweed, grosgrain, double-face wool from tweed or jacquard silk. That's not to say that this is the sheath dress straight up and unadorned. One might have a trompe l'oeil effect, with a trop that sat over the dress itself, looking like two pieces when, in actual fact, they're one.

Others had artisanal beading, or panels of organza that fluttered above the hips. Many were cinched at the waist with knotted and tied belts. In fact, all of these adjustments and adornments drew the attention to the waist, emphasizing the shapeliness of the look. She's not alone, it has to be said. All sorts of designers, including some of New York's newer guard, have been experimenting with a line that cuts close and thight to the body, and that leads straight to a dress that's fitted, sleeved, and finished somewhere below the knee. Could it also be leading to a revival of uptown bourgeois chic? It's tempting to say that, but what does that uptown/downtown division even mean these days? Not a whole lot. More accurately, Herrera is, in her way, responding to an emerging sense of strictness, keeping the silhouette under control, and for the taste of more "done" looks; there has barely been a runway that hasn't been busy adding a hat or a piece of statement jewelry or a touch of fur. And for all the rigor she brings to bear on her collection, it's never uptight. Those sheaths often came layered up with cozy, comfortable cardigans or coats that were as enveloping as a bathrobe.

Selections by ANDREA JANKE Finest Accessories

Photo Credit/Source: VOGUE

Photography by Marcio Madeira/firstView

Enjoy my previous Carolina Herrera post -

'Bauhaus by Carolina Herrera Spring/Summer 2012'

NYFW | Jason Wu Fall/Winter 2012/13

2012-02-14T13:18:00.004+01:00

Jason Wu Fall/Winter 2012/13

"The big question is, 'What is China?'" No kidding. It feels like everyone in fashion is talking about China or investing in China or trying to figure out what women in China want to wear. For Jason Wu, who was born in Taiwan but has spent mots of his life living elsewhere, the question is a little more personal. Because although he's an Asina-American designer, he's yet to consciously reference the country in his collection. "I guess it's just so obvious to me because I grew up with it," he said a few days before his fall show. But when he returned to Taiwan recently, for the first time in five years, he started thinking about it in relation to his work. Or as he puts it, "How would a Chinese designer do Chinese?" The complete answer won't be revealed until tomorrow, but here are Wu's three starting points: Chinese military (so think rigid lines and army green), the Qing Dynasty (elaborate brocades and ornamentation), and movies like 1932's Shanghai Express, which Wu acknowledges wasn't very Chinese at all, but he's interested in how the culture was reflected (or refracted) through Hollywood's lens.

Enjoy Jason Wu Fall 2012/13 Fashion Show at the end of this post! LoL, Andrea

China: land of fashion opportunity. At 29, it has taken Jason Wu a while to turn the East and fully embrace this part of his identity, which so far has only been implicit in his name. "I went back to Taiwan, where I was born, a year and a half ago." he said. "I realized I was ready to take on one of the biggest subjects I grew up with, how does a Chinese designer do 'China'? I've lived in America, Canada, and Japan, but to come back to this means so much to me." In his most dramatic show to date, Wu's focus shifted from last season's pretty young girls in cocktail dresses and micro-shorts, to unleashing an army of Chinese power women. They marched from a pair of palatial wooden doors installed at the end of the runway, wearing his take on the legacies of Chinese history: interpretations of militaristic communist army-green uniforms, the rich brocades and embroideries of the Qing Dynasty, and the glamor of the thirties, as filtered through Marlene Dietrich's movie, Shanghai Express.

With its tendency to strict silhouettes - neat, belted jackets and coats bristling with fox fur collars, quilting and epaulets; rigorously skinny pants; and body-conscious knee-length pencil skirts and fitted sheath-dresses - the collection seemed to play to a far more grown-up constituency than Wu's reached before. Still, with the exit of the ingenue, the luxury quotient was even more amped-up, most successfully in the outerwear: lace-appliquéd capes, a spencer with extravagant for sleeves, a cinched puffer veat with a deep fur peplum - all looks easy to imagine being flaunted on freezing New York afternoons around next winter's shows. For evening, 3-D velvet and gold-beaded embroidery, strategiaclly placed on dresses that paid glancing homage to cheongsams gave away to full red-carpet gowns in clashes of cyclamen and imperial red satin, slashed to show plenty of leg. As a finale, Wu sent his girls out, three abreast, almost like a military parade in Tiananmen Square. It was a strikingly ambitious statement, and one which will undoubtedly resonate with the global audience opening up before him.

Selections by ANDREA JANKE Finest Accessories

Photo Credit/Source: VOGUE

Photography by Marcio Madeira/firstView

Enjoy my previous New York Fashion Week post -

'NYFW | Red-Carpet Dramatics by Prabal Gurung'

Fall/Winter 2012/13 Collection

NYFW | Red-Carpet Dramatics by Prabal Gurung

2012-02-13T12:06:00.002+01:00

Prabal Gurung Fall/Winter 2012/13

There was always been an emotional thread running through the bold, feminine prints emblazoned onto luxurious fabrics and structural silhouettes in Prabal Gurung's collections and, that was never more true than this fall. Three seemingly unassociated but equally romantic works - Jan van Eyck's haunting, religious oil paintings, Georgia O'Keeffe's famed image of an ethereal, decaying cow skull, and a genetically engineered blue rose (successfully invented for the first time back in 2004 and which, in Gurung's mind, reverses the previously overexposed connotations of the natural rouge flower) - were pulled together by the designer into one achingly amorous theme. "I was inspired by the process of creating something new. Part of it was the uncursing of the rose and part of it was spiritual," explains Gurung, who grew up in a Hindu and Buddhist environment back in Nepal before attending Catholic school. "I tend to look at design as a catheartic experience; a lot of love and soul is in there," he says.

Enjoy Prabal Gurung Fall 2012/13 Fashion Show at the end of this post! LoL, Andrea

Whatever unfolded on Saturday's runway as the result of Gurung's profoundly honest and gentle soul searching is yet to be seen. But perhaps a virginal ivory knee-length dress, cut elegantly from silk wool with buoyant, organza ruffles serves as a hopeful glimmer.

A moment here to take stock of the current position of New York Fashion Week, and the transformation it's undergone in the space of a decade. In the frantic rush to critic who's doing what season by season, it's easy to forget how, ten years back, just after 9/11, there was virtually no young designer scene in New York. Proenza Schouler was just starting out, and that was it. Those who were struggling to find a place amongst the senior establishment giants were in no position to even dream of connecting with an international audience, which would be actively seeking their clothes and listening to their point of view. Now, in spite of the recession, there are dreams in New York - dreams which are hitting critical mass for a whole new generation of talent set on a course of daring and expansion.

This season, that quantum leap is really hitting home: designers like Joseph Altuzarra, Alexander Wang, Jason Wu, and Prabal Gurung, who have stepped over te threshold into a global era where they're stretching themselves with an American ambition not seen since Donna, Calvin, and Ralph were new. The scale of Prabal Gurung's show is a perfect illustration of that generation jump in confidence. As a runner-up in the CFDA/VOGUE Fashion Fund who's being mentored by Carolina Herrera, he added pre-collection to his business in 2011, has been appointed chief designer at ICB, and doubled the number of stores he's selling to, from 30 to 60. Just as an indication: Lane Crawford's Sarah Rutson told Vogue.com that her Chinese customers e-mailed her clamoring for looks hours after his spring show. What he now knows: "Chinese customers love beautiful, well-made, intricate stuff."

So Gurung upped the ante for fall, showing an extensive collection which ranged from sharp tailoring in black, sliced with black patent leather and elaborately worked fur, through printed and embellished dresses in blues, and on into beaded gowns and red-carpet dramatics. From the point of view of range, it demonstrated his ability to cover bases, and his skills in cutting - narrow, etiolated neoprene pants, great coats, slashed sleeves, and stiff, gored skirts. He is also increasingly masterful at constructing a modern beaded dress - a sheers dress, embroidered with jet, worn by Joan Smalls, was stunning. Yet for any young designer making his or her way in the world, there's also the question of coherence of vision to be attended to. At this stage of the game, with the world's knowing eyes upon him, anything which shows the influence of other designers should hit the cutting room floor (an indebtedness to Riccardo Tsici was inescapable this season). Sometimes, the fact is that is displays even greater confidence to show less and condense more. As he steps up to the next level, this sensitive and skilled talent needs to speak wit his own purely original voice. From what we here see, it's clear he has the potential.

Selections by ANDREA JANKE Finest Accessories

Photo Credit/Source: VOGUE

Photography by Marcio Madeira/firstView

Enjoy my previous Prabal Gurung post -

'NYFW | Pop-Art goes Uptown - Prabal Gurung'

Spring/Summer 2012 Collection

Haute Couture | The Orchid by Georges Hobeika

2012-02-10T11:48:00.000+01:00

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Georges Hobeika Haute Couture Spring/Summer 2012

Delicate blossom - the orchid is the most coveted flower on Earth and is the inspiration for George Hobeika's Spring/Summer 2012 Couture collection - the Georges Hobeika woman will seduce in slender silhouettes of vine-like curve and romance in circle skirts with petal-arched hips. Strength of structure harmonizes with the flow and flutter of luxurious chiffon, georgette, crepe and organza to become what She is. Exquisite embroidery beckons refreshing rains and glistening morning dew perfects the collection, accentuating a sensual color palette intensified with tarragon, snapdragon and aqua.

Embroidering is one of the Lebanese designer's many talents making his pieces outshine, the laser cut florets, sequin and pearl work looks almost three dimensional, the designers inspiration for his Spring/Summer 2012 couture collection was the orchid. Innovative pleat details, accordion-like, triangular folds and fan patterns in different variations was the hallmark of this collection along embroidery. Softness being a key factor in the way Georges Hobeika crafts and shapes his signature feminine and graceful silhouettes, slender with a vine-like curve, it was also felt in the soft pastel shades lke buttercup yellow and peach made intense with tarragon, snapdragon, aqua and icy hues with ombre effects on the bottom hals of some of the dresses. In the treatment of the delicate lace fabric and sheers like chiffon, georgette, crepe and organza with embroidery, the use o ruching and the padded shoulders defined to a strong but soft point. Some of the dresses were belted with a petal flower button in the center, that was used as closures on necklines. Cape-like trains, mermaid and fishtails on the back, needless to say these cocktail dresses, circle skirts with petal arched hips and eveing gowns are going to be hit on the red carpet, and with Arabian princesses, it may also catch the eye of rising debutantes and women planing to attend a ball, important soirée or the opera.

Selections by ANDREA JANKE Finest Accessories

Photo Credit/Source: Georges Hobeika

Enjoy my previous Paris Haute Couture post -

'Haute Couture | Natural Skins by ARMANI Privé'

Couture Spring/Summer 2012