Spring 2010

There were a number of shows I had a lot to say about but I didn't really post about shows the day they went up until like...the last 2 days of Paris. So I hope you have no homework or are really bored at work because this is probz one of the longest posts ever (and once it's over you will feel SO inspired you'll run out of your workplace and do a jig in the street. That's right, a JIG.)

Proenza Schouler

Ok, I use the word "cool" a lot to describe things I just think are fun or funny or rad or whatever..but the other definition of "cool" is, y'know, chill~ and hip~ (is that what kids say these days?) and that I've never really cared to be such. But Jack! Lazaro! BUDDIES..Proenza this season was pretty much the definition of cool and I so want to go there. Built-in sleeves tied around the waist, what were undoubtedly some of the best prints of the season, faded hair dye (so rad, must try?) And I love that this is a collection that is so undeniably Spring/Summer WITHOUT USING MIAMI ca. 1997 PRINTS! Bravo!!
Really Santa Cruz in the 90's (since I totes know what that was like) and summer camp, too, with the bungee cords and backpack buckles on the waist and tye dye (I'm sure they could've made even Teva sandals look cool.)
PS, look farthest on the right in picture #2 will DEFINITELY be in about EVERY editorial EVER for the next half year, just sayin'.

Celine

Take one look in my closet or room (except that would be creepy) and you'll know I'm a maximalist. I love layers and keeping EVERYTHING and wearing too much jewelry.
But God was this collection perfect. Clean cut lines, which I want you to say out loud with emphasis on the c's and t's to get what I mean. The PERFECT shades of nude and brown (and in leather form! gee wiz) and a teal-blue-the color I made today in art class-leather skirt that may find its way into my dreams tonight. I just really can't find anything wrong with any of the looks...so clean and simple and one of those collections that once I remember it during school I can't let it escape my mind and I run home just to look at the pictures (nerd alert.) I shall welcome you back with warm, nude-leather clad arms, Phoebe Philo. Love 4evz.

Christopher Kane

Not many people have been flipping out over Christopher Kane this season but I really do think I like it more than any of his past collections. The inspiration was the film version of Lolita and I am so happy he didn't do any of the Japanese Lolita clothes or any kitschy yellow-and-red-lollipop stuff and instead created a collection that was about the innocencce of youth but was also sort of eerie and disturbing. I like how the fabrics distort the gingham and that the makeup was clean in a very vulnerable way. The colors are also really great and the cuts feel slightly (but perfectly) "off." I haven't been this excited about seeing what a young designer does next in a long time but I am itching for Fall '10 already and declare this the beginning of my Christopher Kane obsession! Meh meh heh meh heh heh.

Hussein Chalayan

I wasn't really feeling the first part of this collection. It felt a bit too.. uh.. "summer! beach!" but my favorite parts were the floppy sunhats with flip-down shades! Now that is pretty awesome. Lady Gaga, you should wear them. Oh wait you already ripped of Chalayan so YOU ARE NOT WORTHY.
Then these navy mermaid sculptural dresses came, then the nun hairnets (the show was in a church) and HANDS! I really love the hands on and in the clothes. I think it's interesting how they seem sort of urgent and creepy and the idea is very much like the motion-stopped-in-time obsession Hussein Chalayan seems to have.

Luella

What is happening! Ever since the Ghost World collection Luella has just gotten better and better, then last season was really random and this season is a bit too cohesive and just sort of boring. Cute, whatever..the looks aren't ugly or unnatractive but a heart-cut out at the collarbone and polka dots and bows all in easter egg colors...so kitschy and cutesy and kind of blah. These looks don't represent that very well (these are my favorites, the florals and cotton candy and Luella deVille poof dress) but the rest is kind of disappointing. Major sadface :((((( I have to go cuddle my jacket from SS09 now so I don't feel guilty or lose faith...

Nina Ricci
Wait, lemme get this straight. This company fired Olivier Theyskens, responsible for THIS:

and THESE:

So they could get a more wearable designer, aka THIS:

And THESE:

...Okay. The only part I really liked about the new collection was the styling, and that isn't even the designer's doing. This is definitely more wearable than Olivier's Nina Ricci, but it's wearable you could get at Forever21 for way cheaper and what will look like the same quality (seriously, these materials do not look very nice.) And not "you-could-get-at-Forever21" in a "they will easily knock this off ASAP," but meaning the majority of these designs are things their team could or already have come up with even without any runway pictures to copy off of. You can't justify a hundreds and thousands dollar pricetag with mid-calf leggings and frilly cardigans and some pieces that look like they could have been done by Hannah MacGibbon (if she even made Chloe frilly and girly as we all know it to be and will buy it as.) The shoes are blah (what is so great about a hole in a wedge when most designers were on that incomplete-shoe thing a few seasons ago?) and it's all just so bland. SUCH a bummer. Miss you, Olivier <3 style="font-weight: bold;">

John Galliano

HOLY HELL, GALLIANO. Dior may have been :( but my GOD, you sure know how to give a gal a hernia.
So fun and dramatic and nuts. I want to go here every day and I want the whole collection right now. You need to look at every single detail and look picture from this collection and take it all in..

The makeup! The nutjob headpieces! To do: pin dead flowers and newspaper to my head.

The shoes! Magic. Why have these not been getting much love? They're right up there as my favorite shoes of the season with McQueen and Rodarte.

So DIY and fun, yknow? Tags on your jacket and what looks like saran wrap flowers and the newspaper on your head. I have not one complaint about this collection besides the fact that it is not all sitting in my closet right now. LOVEEEEEE.

Missoni

90's rave girls with polygamist woman hair and makeup!! I love that this is an extension off of the Fall 09 collection as opposed to something entirely new..I'm not ready to say goodbye to the amazing print mixing and layers quite yet. And the sleeves tied around the waist show up again! Super great.

Balenciaga

Balenciaga was very Nicholas Ghesquiere-for-Balenciaga-y since it was so futuristic and geometric and such. But nothing was really mindblowing which makes me sad because since Spring 09 things have gotten less WOW over there. I don't know, not much BAD, just not much GGGGGGREAT. But Tony the Tiger isn't the one buying Balenciaga, so I don't know. A lot of the dresses will look great in editorials, though. Herm..

Nicole Miller

The COOLEST prints. It's like when you have lots of different blues and greens on your paintbrush and you look really closelys at it and can see all the different little swirls. And it's like a whirlpool inside a nebula that's, like, skating on Saturn's rings...so basically I can't talk about this collection without sounding stoned? Yeah k got it, moving right along then...

Peter Pilotto

Peter Pilotto and Christopher De Vos do the BEST prints. They weren't as great this season as they were last Spring or Fall 09 but I like how the patterns interacted with the shapes of the dresses a bit more (first dress on the left is INSANE) and that the top and skirt on the far right seem to mold into each other.

Prada

How was Miu Miu SO good and Prada so..meh? The concept was apparently hallways and corridors but the crustal ponchos and weird peplum and palm tree prints do not translate that at all. I don't know dudes, it was just sort of blah. And I don't know what was with the shoes that Francisco Costa did at Calvin Klein last season only way better or fake toenails.
I loved, however, the prints of people on the beach, just definitely not the prints OF the beach, which looked like they came out of a resort collection. The weird vintage-ish coloring of the people-on-the-beach print is really great, and I LOVE how in white it looks sort of creepy and almost like snow. The other print here is cool too though I can't tell what it is.

But other than these and the sunglasses, the collection did not feel even like Prada and I have lost a great deal of sleep worrying about this. At least Miu Miu was fantastic but..blerg. Herm. Hee. Haw.

threeASFOUR

I love that it's in collaboration with Yoko Ono, that the dresses were inspired by her Cut Piece, that the models cut the dress of the chick holding the scissors above, and I'm SO bummed I was back at home when this show happened in NY. The swirly shapes, ethereal fabrics and black vines twisting around the legs are made of dreams, btdubs.

Viktor & Rolf

"Cutting back...literally!" Oh, ahaha! That's clever!
Viktor, Rolf, I love you guys, and I love your wackiness, and I feel like the biggest Scrooge in the world...and even though I know it's fun and magical it still just feels really tacky. I think the hole in the dress and slit through the blue tulle (sidenote: the blue tulle dress totally has to be photographed against a black wall at some point in its life, SO ORIGINAL I KNOW) are cool but when it comes to the more wearable pieces of the show,
the concept doesn't really translate (besides this one sweater that had holes in it) and it's kind of Hannah MacGibbony (geez I keep picking on her! But seriously..) if she used more color and ruffles. I don't know, I know the first pieces will look great in editorials but otherwise it's just sort of kitschy and gimmicky and blergh.

Vivienne Westwood Red Label

I love the kooky garden party, the shades of pink and nude and gray-ish green, the cane and hat and model on the right in that last picture. The styling is really inspiring too. The article about V.Dubs in the last issue of T was also AMAZING and must be read by everyone ever and the world will become a better place.

Phew! That took forever. More reviews are on my Pop blog, as well. And this should sit here at the top of the page until I have already taken and can stop worrying about the upcoming Constitution test on Friday. Apparently if you fail you get deported and can't get into college and Satan will smite you. Or so I've heard.