ANDREA JANKE Finest Accessories: Cruise 2013

Thursday, 10 January 2013

Cruise Control by Stella McCartney

Sit back and let Stella take the driver's seat for your resort wear! Newly-crowned "Designer of the Year" by the British Fashion Awards, her cruise collection for 2013 is lovely in bold colors and eye-catching prints.

Stella McCartney’s resort presentation was a sanguine nod to the future. “This is one of my favorite seasons,” she said. “I was excited to bring optimistic color and a wealth of texture into resort.” Day-glo pink jacquard floral suits resembled vintage upholstery fabric cranked up several notches, while holographic pumps and clutches appeared to have descended from a storybook planet. Even though resort stays in stores the longest, there was nothing here that could be called closet filler or, considering the hallucinogenic mix of leopard, mustard, sky blue and fuchsia, merely a basic. That’s not to say there was anything tricky about McCartney’s by-now-trademark oversize coats, streamlined tailoring, or voluminous knee-length frocks. Rather, the daring attitude that threaded throughout this businesswoman-slash-mother’s riotous clothing rendered this a collection for those who “don’t want to play it too safe.”

Beneath the playful exterior of the looks and the customary convivial setting (this season McCartney put on an outdoor carnival with a live brass band, strongman game and ring toss) was some very well-considered garment construction. While McCartney’s Savile Row pedigree always shines through her menswear-inspired suiting, there was also a lot more to the knitwear than initially met the eye. “Toile and calico was a starting point,” she said. “I wanted to deconstruct it and rip it into bias-cut pieces.” Then she wove it back together in chunky, highlighter bright oversize sweaters, which added a certain weightiness to perforated pleated skirts. Calico was also the thought behind the minimal white-on-white, palette-cleansing looks—cotton pea coats and wide-leg pants among them. “It’s a balanced collection,” McCartney concluded, gesturing towards the more delicate lace, fringed evening dresses in effortless T-shirt shapes. A subtle reminder that the designer’s M.O. is, after all, to “create clothes for real women and their wardrobes.”

Take a view on Andrea's Stella McCartney selections at LYST: White Plexi Glass Printed Clutch, White Oversized Motif T-Shirt, Blue Cork Wedges, Floral Print Mini Skirt, Blue Shoulder Bag, White Fringe Shirt, Blue Crocodile Effect Sandal, Multicolor Snake Print Pump, Multicolor Falabella Metallic Python Tote, Blue Falabella Oloeografic Python Clutch, White Sling Back Wedge.

Get in the spirit of our Spring '13 collection and shop your favorite looks

now in stores & online > http://bit.ly/UCc8oC

Selections by ANDREA JANKE Finest Accessories

Photo Credit/Source: © Stella McCartney

Behind The Scenes: Photography by Pamela Berkovic

More Cruise To Love ...

'Resort 2013 Collection | ERDEM'

Wednesday, 11 July 2012

Resort 2013 Collection | Christian Dior

Christian Dior Resort 2013 Collection by Bill Gaytten

In one of those occurrences that only seems to happen in the fashion industry, the future can be the past before it has even happened. This temporal shenanigans is the case at the house of Christian Dior, where in the same week that Raf Simons, Dior’s new creative director, unveiled his debut during the haute couture, the collection designed prior to that, resort, was also being shown. The latter was the responsibility of interim design chief Bill Gaytten, who is still doing the honors at John Galliano. In the meantime, though, back to the resort, which will appear on the racks a matter of months before Simons’s premiere ready to wear starts to show up. (Don’t worry, it will soon all be much clearer.)

Gaytten wisely decided to go back to the house codes for resort; a pause always makes for the ideal moment to retrench. He drew heavily on the Bar jacket, that cinched-waist, peplum-flared icon of Dior’s 1947 New Look for the basis of the collection, working it in scarlet wool (over a ballerina-style net skirt, a wink to the weighty circular skirts that were originally designed to be worn with these molded jackets) or in a dusky, pinky mushroom leather. He worked with the notion that the streamlined “bar” could be the linchpin of a modern wardrobe, variously partnering it with pencil skirts or lean pants, suffusing it with a sportier, more urban attitude.

There was plenty of streamlining here, in fact, a kind of reductive process so that the trademark silhouette, focused on waist and hips, was rendered in graphically patterned banded skirts and short dresses in bold, flat florals. What you won’t see as you click through the images of this collection, however, are some totally charming pieces that weren’t part of that narrative, and are worth seeking out. There was, for instance, a wonderful evening dress with a three-dimensionally embroidered bodice and a narrow silk gazar skirt with a panel cascading down across the hips. And two somewhat 1970s-era pieces were also good: a soft, bloused beige silk dress strewn with printed flowers, the kind of dress whose throw-it-on-and-its-perfect quality means it will stick around in the closet for years, and a geometric silk-scarf-style printed pajama shirt that could give you an easier, less constructed alternative to that iconic jacket.