ANDREA JANKE Finest Accessories: Mary Jane Pumps

Wednesday, 31 October 2012

Flutter after Flutter of Lace | Nina Ricci Spring/Summer 2013

E L James has got a lot to answer for “Fifty Shades of Grey,” said Nina Ricci’s Peter Copping, laughing, after his highly eroticized and highly engaging spring show, which created a palpable frisson out of colliding his typical ladylike elegance with the provocative accoutrements of punk, fetishdom, and the contents of the local adults-only emporium. “It’s the other side of the Ricci woman,” Copping went on to say. “She has toughened up.” Well, in some ways, yes, but in others, she’s still the same gorgeous, womanly creature rejoicing in her femininity as she has always done; this is where all those rippling lingerie fabrics (flutter after flutter of lace, satin, chiffon, and mousseline) and boudoir colors (shell pink and oyster and pearl gray) and a decorously restrained mien come in. Yet elsewhere. . .

Enjoy my suggestions on LYST for your 'Nina Ricci Christmas Wish-List' at the end of this post. LoL, Andrea

Consider Copping’s opening look, for instance. A black suit that featured a jacket with a trio of chains at the small of the back, straining to close over a top of fishnet and suspender straps, worn with an überlean black pencil skirt. From then on, Copping turned his attention to the likes of tiiiiggght black pants, the reverse side faced with leather, gauzy, layered, glistening, and gleaming dresses, while others, more dense and opaque, had sheer peekaboo panels sliced in to allow for the flash of a garter belt from beneath, and draped skirts edged with zipper teeth, the better to add a little sexualized bite to the proceedings. And that’s before we get to the slipper satin skirts bound at the hips with metal studs, or draped with a sense of tautness and constraint, before unleashing the satin to let it sway back and forth. Or, for that matter, the harness made out of grosgrain ribbons that provided an arresting alternative to a necklace. Yet there were explorations too of the (nonsexual) subcultures, with hot-pink hippie-ish dresses, swishing with scarf fringing, and Prince of Wales tailoring, all strict and shapely, infused with punkdom, but not so much that it couldn’t go to the office.

Of course, Copping, a sensitive and nuanced designer, with a finely attuned antenna for how women want to look and dress, is simply responding to the fact that if you are a designer engaged in making clothes that draw (albeit often ironically or playfully) on traditional tropes of womanhood, you can’t examine femininity without also dealing with sexuality. It sounds obvious, but no woman alive and kicking today wants to surrender her sense of self to clothes that disempower her. Copping’s newly found penchant for the perverse never stooped to objectification, but kept women firmly in on the (chic) fun. And in turn, it showed how much confidence he now possesses in being able to delightfully twist and subvert the codes of Nina Ricci.

Selections by ANDREA JANKE Finest Accessories

Photo Credit/Source: © VOGUE

Photography by © Monica Feudi/feudiguaineri.com/GoRunway

Andrea's LYST for Nina Ricci

Nina Ricci's Black Pouchette

Nina Ricci's Sleeveless Flared Black Silk Dress

Nina Ricci's Black Beaded Liane Satchel

Nina Ricci's Bouclé-Embroidered Voile Jacket

Nina Ricci's Flowerlace Embellished Top (Oh, I love!!)

Nina Ricci's Small Quilted Smile Bag

And, for me indispensable accessories ...

Nina Ricci's Leather with Mesh Short Gloves

Nina Ricci's Long Layered Cuff Gloves

Nina Ricci's Spectator Platform Mary Jane

SEE ALSO ...

Wonderful Tie-Dye Minks by 'Miu Miu Spring/Summer 2013'

Collection, Fashion Show and Review

Sunday, 14 October 2012

Sinuous Long Dresses by Bottega Veneta

“We took a very direct approach to the body this season,” says Bottega Veneta's Creative Director Tomas Maier. “The look is covered up and the materials are virtually impenetrable, yet the effect is powerfully physical.”

For Fall/Winter 2012/13 Tomas Maier to send out women dressed in dark, perfectly tailored coats and suits, walking easily in flat riding boots, with gloves, pearl earrings, and a slash of burgundy lipstick to finish. And the viewers were feeling what? A kind of awed sensation of identification with that woman someone adult, chic, and subtly powerful, emanating a deep sense of self. It was like the opening frames of a very good movie, where you’re so magnetized by a personality on screen that a kind of transference takes place: You’re wanting to be her, have her aplomb, wear her clothes, walk in her shoes.

Click on Andrea's LYST to find our featured Bottega Veneta items for fall 2012.

LoL, Andrea

Must-Have: Patentleather (Calf) Mary Jane Pumps by Bottega Veneta

The women kept coming, from both directions, in a fast-paced sequence crackling with energy. A peacoat, a molded-shoulder tunic and sweater were styled with big rock-crystal brooches and cropped pants in a top-to-toe look brilliantly balanced between decorativeness and pragmatic daywear. Numerous dresses went past: some in scumbled, arty prints, with sequins speckling textured embroidery in the neckline; one in beige crepe, seamed clean to the body and sliced down to a silver-bead brooch; one in velvet with a fitted bodice and a skirt of feathery layered chiffon. Still others had an air of forties Hollywood about them one in a purplish pink with paillettes scattered at the shoulder and waist, the other in a flocked velvet leaf pattern, growing up and over nude tulle. And that’s before we expend more words describing the sinuous long dresses. One adjective will do for them: superb.

But Maier’s achievement here is the way he’s defined a glamour that isn’t entirely the stuff of unattainable fantasy. Of course, Bottega Veneta’s clothes, jewelry, and accessories are at the top of the luxury tree, and justifiably so, considering the way they’re made. But, crucially, his way of doing expensive is not offensive. That’s because his vision of a woman has a reality and relevance anyone will recognize, whether we can buy it or not. Maier isn’t interested in tottering bourgeoisies living in a hermetic world of privilege. His view goes beyond clothes to reach a truth about women today. And that’s what touched the heart.