Thursday, June 29, 2017

M Missoni Spring/Summer 2016.

Tues. 09/08/2015.






You can always come to the house of Missoni for colour, and LOTS of it, The M Missoni collection for Spring 2016 was in no way deviating from that well followed path, and perhaps because of that, the collection wasn't much in the way of surprising or satisfying. There were the expected Missoni Swirls and Whorls and Zig and Zags and kaleidoscopic prints all over the collection, but they, ultimately, didn't add up to much. 

The best pieces in this display did offer colour as per usual, but with a more judicious hand instead of one that had gone mad. These pieces, colourful as they were, were treated with a wisely tempered hand. Taking the Big Top as inspiration seem to embolden the design team to go wild, and that was a costly mistake, for while there was wildness in the expression the clothes themselves leaned more towards, unremarkable. The only thing that gave these outfits punch, more oft than not, were the vibrancy of the colourations and prints. When simpler applications prevailed, we got the better clothes from the bunch.

A pretty Parchment colour gown with multicolour stripes was currying much favour, as was it's shorter counterpart in Black. A swirling multicolour print shirtdress with bold White Placket, oversize buttons and collar was also one of the standout pieces because all it's elements worked in tandem with one another. Otherwise... Punchy, Bold pieces were the Mode du Jour, but in the end, it all was just a little less Big Top and more County Fair! 





That's All.





Bye4Now!

Escada Spring/Summer 2016.

Tues. 09/08/2015.





Escada Spring/Summer 2016.

For the Escada customer, the prospect of a Head-to-Toe Floral print pantsuit isn't at all remotely terrifying or more matter-of-fact. terribly unusual. That Daniel Wingate decided to open his Spring-Summer 2016 Escada look book with this piece demonstrates that the Escada clientele is a little more comfortable with an extrovert wardrobe than most. With that in mind, Wingate's core Escada consumer that is, he also felt it was smarter to try to woo the customer on the other side of the fence, and offer her coolly chic wardrobe options that didn't sing so much in the high C Register and sounded more approachable near Middle C.

Take that print and whip it up into a full-length wrapped evening skirt and throw a Lipstick Red T-Sweater on top and you've got an recipe for success with a woman who might not find herself clad from top to bottom in that same print. There was more to find lovable as well in Wingate's Spring offering... An impeccable pale Aqua Caban was paired with Spotlessly clean White trousers and top while a Basketweave Knit T-Sweater was coupled with a sassy Citron (called Limoncello, by Wingate) A-line skirt looked refreshing and if not exactly, youthful, it struck a young-ish note. Everything else managed this balance as well, a particularly striking outfit consisted of a sheer White top with a matching camisole under and voluminous pale Aqua trousers sashed with Black at the waist. It was a modern, relaxed and fresh take on evening for the Escada woman, one that had a foot in the familiar and one in the immediate present.

Wingate seems pressed to push his customer, maybe prod is the better word, into the present while remaining faithful to the roots that have made the house a success all these years. It's a process that is going to be slow in the going, yet, poco a poco, he's getting there, with some highly stylish results!





That's All.





Bye4Now!








Monday, June 26, 2017

Red Valentino Spring/Summer 2016.

Tues. 09/08/2015.






Designers at some point all seem to find themselves to the original fashion plate herself, Marie Antoinette. It's inevitable, like the tides. Every designer worth their salt will in one way or the other, come to the Trianon and find their inspiration there. what they do with it is up to them, but the spirit of the beheaded royal is always seemingly hovering about waiting for a designer to commiserate with her past styles and ways of dressing. Maria Grazia Chiuri and Pierpaolo Piccioli would seem to be two designers who would for certain, not be immune to Maria Therese's charms. the cute and playful Spring 2016 collection that they whipped up for their Red Valentino label was the perfect playground for the designers and the Queen to commune. 

With plenty corset detailing and much in the way of filmy, frothy, flimsy laces and tulles and point d'esprits abounding, the collection came off as very cutesy, almost to the point where it teetered on jejune, these were not "SERIOUS" clothes with a capital S, but Gay and Naïf with a healthy dose of pretty! There perhaps, were too many pieces to keep one interested from beginning to end and a palpable sense of the predictable seeped in and wouldn't disappear towards the end. but the clothes were definitely made for Chiuri and Piccioli's girlish-of-all-ages client base and gave them plenty of delectation for their money. 

The only drawback, the outfits came off, one too many times in fact, as frankly, childish. Too baby-doll precious and too devoid of real substance, that a great deal of women would find them more appropriate to their toddler than themselves. But, still and all, some women make their lives on dressing half their age, and styled in a different way, the pieces can refresh and brighten a wardrobe. When it was all said and done, the main takeaway was this... Had Marie been alive today, she would definitely be sporting Red Valentino's wares unabashedly and boldly as she took selfies and caroused with the It Girls of the moment. And yes, Cake would be eaten all... Gluten Free, Vegan Cake, of course! 





That's All.





Bye4Now!

Friday, June 16, 2017

Protagonist Spring/Summer 2016.

Tues. 09/08/2015.






While one of the creators of the Protagonist label said her farewells before this Spring 2016 season, the design team left behind fulfilled the task of living up to the principles and ethos of the house. Building a collection on Rock Solid luxury basics can be, at times, dangerous waters to wade into, the clothes can often come off as bland and lifeless and reek of what women already have in their overfull wardrobes. When handled properly, however, it can be a revelation of nigh biblical magnitude and can inspire a woman to see the banal as the radiant apotheosis of chic! That's hat has been achieved here.

Sleek is a word well used and often overused, but there was a stripped down, pared back purity and unfussiness that could only be called that. Sleek! Lithe. These clothes were meant for function, not lollygagging around just looking impossibly poised and nonchalant (although they fit that bill also, immaculately) There was motivation and movement in these clothes, despite their sparseness of detail and aesthetic sobriety. This would lead one to think, boring, and that would be foolish, for the clothes excited on a very base and immediate level of chicness. A perfectly proportioned and balanced Black pants ensemble with a long belted wrap coat/jacket, devoid of any extraneous detail, a elongating White jumpsuit shed any of it's retro connotations and seemed as pure as the dawn light.

This collection, from top to bottom, excelled in it's achievement of creating the perfect, modern wardrobe for a woman that has more confidence in herself than in her clothes. No one can hide behind the startlingly reductionist silhouettes provided here, but then again, the Protagonist customer has nothing she is in care of hiding anyway! The Protagonist woman is a woman who speaks for herself, her clothes are simply an amplifier for that voice!





That's All.





Bye4Now!


Wednesday, June 7, 2017

ATM Anthony Thomas Melillo Spring/Summer 2016.

Tues. 09/08/2015.






Anthony Thomas Melillo's Spring 2016 collection was a pure and minimal offering of sumptuousness cloaked in austerity. Melillo's brief treatise encompassed sleek and slickly tailored pieces with easier, relaxed offerings given as beautiful counterpoint. Which shouldn't be much of a surprise, owing that Melillo's guiding motivations have been to create the ideally perfect T-shirt for his woman, and there was ample evidence of those on show as well as superbly cut blazers and slender pants. Nothing here was super attenuated, but all was created to elongate and winnow a woman's silhouette without squeezing her like a sausage in a casing. 

The collection had a legginess to it that was in no way owed to abbreviated hems, in fact, there was a since of modest sexuality that was more evocative of sensual than outright vampy. Slim pants gave the illusion of mile-long legs, and all were cropped, either above the ankle or just below the knee. Body limning dresses played with length more casually and freely, playfully going to mid-calf and others creeping up much higher on the legs. 

With the collection being so restrained with colour and shape, Melillo designed pieces that were still impactive and eye-catching... A Putty coloured coat dress that opened the looks was a practice in Utilitarian chic that was mouth-wateringly covetous, while a simple Barley coloured shift dress read as austere, but was certainly an attention getter! The scene-stealer though, had to be the Pale Moonlight Silver ensemble of a slim coat and pants with one of Melillo's signature drape-y T-shirts underneath, an outfit that could travel from any boardroom to any party zone this side of the Atlantic! Melillo's sureness in what he does and what he wants to create, gives his collections incredible gravitas and depth, even with simplicity and an ascetic approach being his calling card. To be sure, Rarely has so little had so much Oomph! 





That's All.





Bye4Now!