Why I Love John Galliano...

Reason #1: This photo, which proves his endless desire to thrill with theatricality.

Reason #5,368 through #5,370: These gorgeously embellished sheer dresses that make even a modest girl like myself want to bare it all.

Reason #Umpteen: The beauty he creates with his makeup and hair teams. Mmmmmm. Pretty.

You make me happy John; you make me happy.

Photos from Style.com.

It's A Pretty Fierce Way To Go.

What does one wear to witness the end of the world as we know it? Alexander McQueen says grab a soda can, some Saran Wrap, a tube of red lipstick, and an effing phenomenal gown and look glam while waiting for the darkness to come.

I mean it is obvious that there is something ending, right? We are in flux, in change so utterly impending that we can't do much of anything other than take stock of what we have and hope for the best. I think Alexander McQueen's genius bit of fashion theater in Paris this week was less an ode to the obvious recycling of the old, than it was a hint that you better brush off the stuff you've got and make it new. With shopping slowing it may be a long time before we each see new again. Not buying? Well, you know those pants you loved last season? Undo a seam and flip them 'round for a new dress. The gown your Grams rocked in the Dior days? Tar and feather it, make it different and more or less what you've always wanted. Start using what you have. If you're McQueen that means the invaluable, innate overabundant creativity you were blessed with. His skills are deity-like. His craft never takes a backseat to his ideas, it is always, always the other way around. And, when your ideas are as loaded and layered and brilliant as McQueen's are, craft that speaks louder than it all is something to behold. It is risky of McQueen to show a collection celebrating the re-hash. Or rather it could be risky, but McQueen holds the cards. He's got the skill to make an undone/redone dress look spectacular. This isn't the crafty recycling you can DIY.

The inflatable doll-like lips, confining corsetry, and constricting ensembles in the collection had some of the show's audience crying misogyny. I say put down the inflammatory responses, people. Women are tied and bound and shoved and pushed into even the easiest looking fashions. We are tucked, sucked, tweezed, plucked, shaved, and done-up regularly without comment. It happens all the time. Tale as old as time. McQueen is not the aggressor here, he's the re-hasher, the commentator. Don't you see his reuse of the old? He's quoting. He's making a point of it. He doesn't really want to torture you. He wants to make you his brand of pretty. It might hurt a little, but what doesn't? At least you'll be well dressed for the end of the world party he's throwing. When the lights go out, you won't feel a thing anyway. Fin de siecle. End of story. If anyone can die a pretty death, it's McQueen. And he'll figure out how to rise again out of the ashes of his past. Prettily.

Photos from Style.com.

Wade Through It.

I think the reason that my interest in the endless parade of catwalk shows spanning the globe faded early this season is because in the face of the world-at-large's too little, it's just too much. Not only is the endless coverage too much information period, but the obvious '80's re-hash that is coming again and again down the runways is just too much to look at. Huge shoulders, big hair, shine, tight, bigger, bigger, more, more. It all makes my head want to explode, and the state of current affairs (more and more layoffs, food lines, homeless moving into my A train) is enough mind/anxiety spark and ignition to keep the explosions coming without being reminded that there is more stuff being made than anyone will buy or need for more money than anyone will have. It makes me nervous. It makes me a little nauseated, kind of like when I go to Costco in the 'burbs and everyone and everything is huge. Too much stuff. Overload. Like a levee-broken-overflowing-flooded-river of too much. Enter Miuccia Prada and her waders to get you through to the other side.

Miuccia is the smart girl's guide to fashion. She puts ideas into her clothes and they barely matter unless you want them to, and then they matter more than you realize at the time. Her last season's collection, with its rumpled, post-tryst aesthetic, was a romantic ode to passionate sex in a hurry. This season's wares are a lot more put together. Earth comes to town amongst the intergalactic shows that have been catwalking all around Miuccia this season. Her colors are earthy: understated mud/olive/turmeric/rusted ruby/horse brown. I can almost smell their mineral makeup. The fabrics are stiff and strong, but touchable: felted wool, felt, wool, leather, or soft--like fur, velvet, and knits. Not pleather, not spandex, not lame. The shapes of things make sense for a woman's body. There are great curving collars finally drawn in at the waist (flattering), deep plunges at the neckline (feminine), and knee length hem lines (flirty). Prada's mature sexuality is always a high point, never cheap, never remotely tramped-up, it sneaks in through practical elements. Bright slashes of red peek from behind gray flannel dresses, the same scarlet becomes a smart coatdress, the deep plushness of the velvet and fur pieces beg to be pet. Prada makes you want to look there, she makes you want to touch. The feminine sparkle of the evening clothes, smartly embellished leather and gray felt, brilliantly adds a little ethereal to the solidness of the collection.

Then there are those waders. Mmmmm. Higher than thigh high leather fisherman's gear. A protective element. Masculine, but so alluring. Some are less high, but comfortably layered over thick socks and held up by straps. A clear imperative for the Prada woman to lift herself up by her bootstraps. Something about them is so visually appealing. I love when an article of clothing has the potential to separate the girls from the women. It will take something to pull those things up and also pull them off. Prada is smart fashion. It is sexy but meaningful, well only if you want to look for meaning. Otherwise, it's just gorgeous. End of story.

Photos from The New York Times and WWD.com. Click images for more information.

Raf Makes Me Dream of Real Life.

Raf Simons is a designer who's work makes fashion artistically relevant. (Yeah, he's one of those.) Yet, he denies being an artist. According to him he's simply a fashion designer, that's it. But of course with his mind and skill, his role as a fashion designer elevates the title to top artistic potential. It's a back and forth. His clothes tend to be the same way. One step forward into the area of fashion as conceptual, wearable art, and one foot firmly on the solid ground of real-life, working women. That makes his collections a win-win with something for everyone. Some of the dresses and pieces in his latest Fall RTW collection for Jil Sander were gorgeous, molded, peaked, color-flashing garments, and some were clear palate cleanser ensembles with smooth lines, easy shades, and lots of wearability. It was deft. It made sense and created newness. Watch Suzy Menkes make an excellent assessment of the collection while talking to the camera-shy Simons AND rocking her signature hair puff.

Love it.

Pretty, Pretty Chaos.

Here's the full-on backstage experience at the Louise Goldin show in London.

You like a pretty circus, don't you? I like no-trim bangs and video footage shot in black and white.

Strong, Short, and Sharp.

Scutt has a clear vision. Kanye has a late '80s mullet. Suzy Menkes has it all.

All The Cool Kids Live In London.

Mary Katrantzou is a Greek-born designer who studied textiles at Rhode Island School of Design (that's RISD to you!) before transferring to London's genius lab Central Saint Martins (that's Wonderland University to you!) to finish out her degree. She knocked some British socks off with her graduation show at the storied London school by sending tromp l'oeil, over sized jewelry painted on jersey dresses out into the fashion universe. People liked it. She's on the up and up. She just did her show at London Fashion Week and Dazed Digital has excellent backstage photos of her unique looks. You take a look:

Photos by Kasia Bobula for Dazed Digital.

Look Back.

This gorgeous L'Wren Scott dress gives great back views.

Photo: NYTimes.com.

Julian Louie Loves Sparkly Bullfighters.

Interesting impact of the economy on the fashion industry #2,367: There were so many more "clothing presentations" this season. This means that the usual media suspects were invited to events where the collections were shown up close and in person, without the same stomping-paced, thumping-music-required, giant, maximum catwalk that everyone has come to expect as standard. Instead, models were asked to stand around in various configurations for various lengths of time while people observed them and their wears in minute detail. This is an of-the-moment necessitated throwback, actually. That's how it used to be done, before the industry blew up into the media spectacle it is. The select viewers--media representatives, buyers, tastemakers, and the like--were invited to see collections in salon style settings. There they could watch the garments function like clothes, not purely as hyped spectacle.

Yesterday's Julian Louie show was a presentation where the audience came and went at their leisure while the models walked again and again.

Julian Louie followed this old school path down presentation road for his collection viewing yesterday. Held at Drive In Studios in Chelsea, the show was a two hour long repeating parade of models in the New York Magazine-declared It-Designer's Swarovski crystalled, Spanishy flared pieces. In the blank, white studio space, the models walked out across a skylit backdrop, stepping just a few paces and then pausing for view and proceeding to the next pause point. It was kind of like a really slow, walked-in trip around the bases. Then they reset and repeated-- for two hours. It was like witnessing endurance modeling. I wonder if the castings included last man standing competitions like on Survivor. While I felt for the models on repeat, this was a great way to actually see the clothing.

Lucky for everyone involved, the clothing was very interesting. With hints of Prada and touches of Ghesquiere, Louie's pieced together, multi-colored and textured garments were futuristic with a focus on skilled fabrication. You could see the construction of the garments; visible seams, rivets holding piece to piece, shaped curves. The dresses and jackets were obviously built by a pro. They also looked like Spanish Bullfighter costumes from a new New World. The pants were tight and cropped. The jackets were too. But they were accented with sparkling sections of fabric (which looked like those magical blocks of glittering NYC asphalt) and bejeweled with crystalled flaps like sparkly circuit boards. If the models were actually fighting bulls, the bulls would be giant Judith Leiber clutches come to shiny, light diffracting life. Watch the sparkle in action in this vid I shot:

Pretty, shiny things. It was a great collection to see up close. Louie's one to watch, and watch, and repeat, and watch again.

Photos taken by me, see the below post for proof!

Meta.

Hey fashionies, I'm going to fill you in on the whole deal in a little while, but just had to share this meta moment with you:

I've been photoed taking a photo at the Julian Louie show and I'm going to post about the other site's post here just so the universe can have one more wrinkle in time. The story is on super NYC shopping/fashion site Racked.com. I've always wanted to be featured on a site called Racked.

That's me in the foreground and a few of my friends in the back. Click the photo above for the whole story. Ah, it's the little things that make me happy.

Ha.

Meow.

The dresses at Zero + Maria Cornejo come on little cat feet.

Photos from Style.com.

Quick Turnaround

Ok, so yesterday I was so annoyed at Marc Jacobs for putting on a show with obvious, heavy-handed, '80s rehashing. But today, upon viewing his Marc by Marc Jacobs presentation, I'm delightfully...confused. I love the feeling I get when I look at something that has not been shown to me in quite that way before. My brain wants to reject it, say it doesn't work (and sometimes it doesn't) but I have a sneaking suspicion that somehow I am just witnessing newness. The mash-up that Marc by Marc presented was full of familiar shapes but in diferent combinations and really walked quite far away from the predominant look of strong, sex-ed up, stompiness that is streaming out of other shows, and this is supposed to be his younger line.

The layers upon layers, and cozy materials with the forgiving, roomy shapes are a real girl's friend. I don't think the show is entirely attractive, and it kind of seems like an ode to daffy, wilderness-loving, old aunts everywhere, but there's something about the pops of color and pattern combos that keeps it fresh and wearable. I'm a sucker for the layers done that way too. It makes things look cozy and andro, but interesting. I want to have conversations and unsweetned cinamon hot chocolate with these girls. I wouldn't expect to like it, but I do. It's heavy and agey, but fresh in a weird way. I also like some of the men's looks. They are approachable but hip enough.

That's what the collection is: comfortable and approachable, yet hip enough. Nice rebound, Mr. Fan-of-Kilts.

Photos: Marcio Madeira for Style.com