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FIRST LOOK: Carolina Herrera Fall 2012
by Emily Holt
Photographed by Elizabeth Lippman
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“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 the 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 sounds 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.”
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.” -
FIRST LOOK: Prabal Gurung Fall 2012
by Esther Adams
Photographed by Victoria Will
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There has always been an emotional thread running through the bold, feminine prints emblazoned onto luxurious fabrics and structural silhouettes in Prabal Gurung’s collections, but if Thursday’s preview was anything to go by, 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 cathartic experience; a lot of love and soul is in there,” he says.
Whatever unfolds 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. -
FIRST LOOK: Valentino Spring 2012 Couture
by Sarah Mower
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“We want to do something which is about fragility and beauty,” said Maria Grazia Chiuri, “something light—a reaction to the time we’re in.” She and Pier Paolo Piccioliwere working in the Valentino showroom on final fittings for their couture show on Wednesday. A girl stood before them in a long, full-skirted dress with delicate wrist-length sleeves and a high neck in yards of blurred, faded blue-and-yellow rose print. “I feel like a princess,” she breathed, catching sight of herself in a mirror.
All the signs are that something extraordinary—even emotional—will take place between models and the audience when this collection hits the runway. It’s based on the designers’ research into eighteenth-century portraiture, the court of Marie Antoinette, the romance of Barry Lyndon and the outcome is exquisite in every detail of the multiple refinements of lace, tulle, and minute embroideries summoned by the Valentino couture ateliers in Rome. We are set to see lace slippers, cream embroidered tuxedos, high-necked ruffle-collared blouses, and any number of enchanting dresses in the kind of handwork rarely witnessed in the twenty-first century. Still, there is nothing Old World about the feeling of the clothes. Ornate as they sound, there’s an overriding freshness and vitality in them which feels genuine to a young girl like that model. On rare occasions, fashion shows can be intensely moving, and this may well be one of them. Note to audience: Pack tissues, just in case. -
FIRST LOOK: Giambattista Valli Spring 2012 Couture
by Hamish Bowles
With 24 hours to go before his spring haute couture show that he will present in the ravishing Louis Seize salons of the Hôtel de Crillon, Giambattista Valli (working in the ravishing eighteenth-century rooms of his own fashion headquarters a stone’s throw from the Rue du Faubourg Saint Honoré) is sporting his war wounds—fingers wrapped in plasters from the stabbing pins with which he has been tweaking the 40-something ensembles that he is fitting in his characteristically hands-on way.
The starting point for the collection is Valli’s desire to “support the work of all the couture ateliers—the embroidery one, the flower one, the fabric one, the lace—and going to the memories of what couture is for me, but in a light, modern way.”
Valli always begins work on a classic Stockman mannequin—and that means that this season everything originates with a waist, with emphatic peplums blooming out below the hourglass torso (shaped with Valli corsets), and elaborate draped scarf collars blossoming above.
Valli’s subtle couture touches include lace flowers that are cut out and re-appliquéd to look like flights of butterflies trembling on a sprig of spring blossom, puffy organza blooms garlanding necklines, and sprays of hydrangeas that will frame his model’s faces. Solid sequin gowns in black or plum are embroidered to graduate from tiny paillettes at the neckline to disc sequins at the hem, turning them into exquisite waterfalls of reflected light as the wearer moves.
Valli’s longtime collaborator Luigi Scialanga, meanwhile, has sourced a storied bronze foundry in Rome to create the handmade silvered bronze-flower necklaces and belts that will cinch the designer’s exquisite, drifting chiffon frocks. “I love the idea of wearability,” says Valli, and his second foray into haute couture bids fair to increase his already enviable roster of clients that include, beyond his own celebrated pantheon of best-dressed European beauties, young and well-heeled gals in China, Russia, the Middle East, and North and South America. -
FIRST LOOK: Versace Spring 2012 Couture
by Sarah Mower
Photographed by Kevin Tachman
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Donatella is back, you might have noticed. Riding high on the off-the-scale reaction to her H&M collaboration in November, she’s now chosen the moment to return Atelier Versace to public visibility during Paris couture week. “I felt so liberated by it,” she said of the H&M collaboration, which sold out globally within two days. “It’s given me confidence.” She could’ve added Angelina Jolie making it on almost all of the Golden Globes best-dressed lists last week in an ivory and red satin Atelier Versace dress to her list of positive auguries, too. For the fact is that Versace’s couture operation has been carrying on uninterrupted all along; it’s just that Donatella has kept it off the runway (not even allowing press to report on private views) since 2004. Now she’s stepping back, consolidating the high-low arc of the Versace empire with a series of presentations at the École des Beaux-Arts on Monday morning.
Last week in Versace’s studios in Milan, the seamstresses were hard at it, pinning and embroidering fourteen looks on dress-dummies made up to the size of the models who will wear them. Exactly what looks will transpire from the combinations of lace and slivers of aluminum remains to be seen, but let it be known: the foundations, boned corselettes, and lace body-suits that were in the midst of being prepared for the show are inimitably done. By the time they’re swishing lithely around tomorrow, they’ll be undectectable to the naked eye, but these elements are the eternal house secrets which make Atelier Versace work so well on the red carpet. -
FIRST LOOK: Inside the Costume Institute Gala
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FIRST LOOK: Inside the Costume Institute Gala During Set-Up
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First Look: Maison Martin Margiela Fall 2011
by Emily Holt
Photographed by Kevin Tachman
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Several designers have experimented with trompe l’oeil this season, not so much in the “Is that embroidery, no it’s a print” manner but in a more “Is that a separate blouse and pants, no it’s a jumpsuit” vein. So, layering.
Team Margiela, which is perhaps more well-versed with sleight of hand and tricks of the eye than anyone else, is out to school them all with its fall collection. Dresses were the starting point at this house of high concept, which led to a silk crepe coat that from behind looks like an unzipped dress. Turn it to the front and a recognizable zipper closure and snap detailing become apparent. There is a dress underneath, as a matter of fact, and it’s a lingerie-inspired pale blue leather slip that—surprise again—looks quite wearable. -
First Look: Rick Owens Fall 2011
by Emily Holt
Photographed by Evan Sung
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Rick Owens would like to keep things simple this fall. “It’s about not overthinking it, deliberately not overthinking it, deliberately kind of pulling back from overthinking,” he said late one night in his studio. Then, catching his contradiction, “Almost making a tremendous effort not to overthink it,” he said with a smile.
Happy because almost a full 48 hours before showtime, Owens is in pretty good shape. (“We’ve been working with the same factory for ten years. If we haven’t learned something by now, we’d be real idiots.”) He’s also confident that he’s realized his goal: a collection filled with simple, straightforward shapes in easy-to-understand, easy-to-wear fabrics.
Silhouettes are big and boxy, but soft in cashmere and fur. Nothing tricky. His main outerwear statement will likely be capes (or cashmere sacks, as he called them) that encompass the body like a pod and reach the floor. As he sees it, “I think there’s something sexy about rejecting body-conscious clothes.” -
First Look: Salvatore Ferragamo Fall 2011
by Emily Holt
Photographed by Evan Sung
In focusing on the pump, an iconic Salvatore Ferragamo silhouette, the house ended up creating a fall collection that heralds the return of the alpha female. The pointed heel begat a knee-length pencil skirt, which worked well with a fitted jacket, which was strong in a menswear pinstripe, then pull the hair back in a slick updo and voila, Sharon Stone in Basic Instinct, Melanie Griffith circa Bonfire of the Vanities, or any other Brian De Palma heroine—all of which were references for creative director Massimiliano Giornetti. “The eighties really was the moment when the woman was like superwoman,” he said two nights before the show. “It’s about that kind of woman who was rich but at the same time chic and never vulgar.”
However, Giornetti’s rendition isn’t quote so literal. He’s included contemporary proportions like the cropped trouser and not-quite-so-serious accessories such as a python-and-houndstooth-printed clutch.
