Yohji Yamamoto - New Exhibition

Next spring the Victoria & Albert Museum in London will open the first UK solo exhibition celebrating the life and work of Yohji Yamamoto, one of the world's most influential and enigmatic fashion designers. This installation-based retrospective, taking place 30 years after his Paris debut, will feature over 80 garments spanning Yamamoto’s career. The exhibition will explore the work of a designer who has challenged, provoked and inspired the fashion world.

Yamamoto’s visionary designs will be exhibited on mannequins amongst the treasures of the V&A. Placed in hidden corners of the Museum, the silhouettes will create a direct dialogue between Yamamoto’s work and the different spaces in which they are displayed.
The exhibition will be designed by Yamamoto's long-time collaborator, scenographer and lighting designer Masao Nihei. The main exhibition space will see over 60 garments from Yamamoto’s womenswear and menswear collections accompanied by a mixed-media timeline showing excerpts from his fashion shows, films and performances, graphic material and select photographs which will contextualise his career. Following Yamamoto’s previous solo exhibitions, this UK retrospective will exhibit items from his menswear collections for the first time.

Yohji Yamamoto was born in Tokyo in 1943 and trained at Keio University then Bunka Fashion College. By 1972 he set up his own company, Y’s Incorporated. From the start of his career Yamamoto’s work was recognised for challenging the conventions of fashion. The asymmetric cuts and seemingly unflattering curves of his early work contradicted the close-fitted styles of the catwalks and he has refused traditional norms of fashion ever since.
Yamamoto’s designs have rewritten notions of beauty in fashion, and the playful androgyny of his work creates new modalities of gender identity. His collections are recognised for subverting gender stereotypes and have featured women wearing garments traditionally associated with menswear. Yamamoto's fabrics are central to his design practise and are a trademark of his work. Supporting craftspeople in and around Kyoto, his textiles are created to specification often employing traditional Japanese dyeing and embroidery techniques such as Shibori and Yu-zen. The selection of works on show will give visitors the opportunity to study examples of Yamamoto’s application of traditional Japanese techniques.

The exhibition will also record the breadth of some of Yamamoto’s key collaborations achieved through his career. Partnerships with fashion photographer Nick Knight, graphic designer Peter Saville, art director Marc Ascoli, choreographer Pina Bausch and filmmakers Takeshi Kitano and Win Wenders amongst many others, will be represented by a mixed-media timeline in the main exhibition space, and will demonstrate an important, creative dialogue which flows through his work.

Warehouse - Loving The Prints

I grew out of Warehouse clothing, (literally - an increasing bust size does that for you), a good few years ago.  But they have consistently produced some interesting garments that are both edgy and yet glamorous.  Using silks and linens in the summer and wools and satins in the winter, they provide glamorous seasonal fabrics to young, co-ordinated women.  This season they have experimented with different collections within their stores.

Walking into Warehouse this week, I was struck by the brilliant prints of their "Wonderland" collection. The Swallow blouse (left) and the floral waterfall shift dress (right) are especially nice.  Very Erdem!  If you're looking for a little bit of vintage style, but not from a charity shop, then I would recommend these. Find them at: http://www.warehouse.co.uk/

Kate Middleton - The Myths Begin

The wait is over.  'Waity Katie' has bagged her prince.  Waity Katie? Is this too harsh?  Not really.  Would you wait for over eight years for your boyfriend to propose? Especially if he had dumped you at some point in the middle?  Well, you might do, if you were going to be made a Princess and in all probability, a Queen.  But it is not this that bothers me about the couples engagement.  It is the media's obsession with headlines, bylines and name tags that astounds me.
Several journalists have started dubbing Kate Middleton as a "fashion icon".  This is blatantly untrue. As is a number of other 'claims' in the media. Let's look at just a few of these...

Claim 1. "Kate is a fashion icon" - No, she's not.  We haven't all gone mad to wear what she has worn over the last 8 years. If she becomes a fashion or any other kind of icon, (a possibility over time), then that will be because we have bought into her style.  This hasn't happened as yet.  I suspect it will though. Business is business.

Claim 2. "Kate is the new People's Princess" - No, she's not.  That position, if it is one, has to be earned. She has done nothing to earn this so called acolade. She is middle class, so not aristocracy like Lady Diana Spencer.  Kate found work through a friend of the family, as did Diana, and now Kate 'works' for her own family firm.  This is nothing like the experience of job hunting for the majority of the 'people' in the UK. Most of whom have had to go through copious amounts of letter and CV/Resume writing and a rigorous interview process, before holding down the said job for years.  And all this without the cushion of a wealthy family behind them. But this is not the reason why Diana was called the People's Princess. It was because of her affinity with the public and her spearheading certain causes that were overlooked by the rest of the Royal Family.
But Kate doesn't champion the needy - purely because she hasn't had to and has never been asked to. Let's see what causes she chooses to support first, before we give her a populist title.
 
Claim 3. "Kate has had the same pressure from the tabloids and paparazzi as Lady Diana Spencer had" - Not quite. Kate has had it for longer. Diana had it for 6 months.  But Kate had help from the Buckingham Palace Press Office and a team of advisers. Not to mention her own personal bodyguard and legal team. Diana had none of this. She had no help or advice from anyone professional or official before she was engaged.

Claim 4. "Kate is just like Diana and is her natural successor" - Blatantly untrue. It is pointless to claim this and it's quite damaging to Kate.  There will never be another Diana. There were, however, some similarities  between them, that I spotted during the engagement interview.  Her choice of words for example, such as "daunting", were ones used by Diana on her engagement.  But this is to be expected perhaps. It IS daunting!

Clearly there will be more myths to dispel as the weeks and months go on. But from what I saw yesterday, a few questions were answered. Here was a woman who knew her own mind, who was not going to bow down for her prince, who was not happy that they split up a few years ago (THAT tells its own story), and had wondered if marriage had actually been in William's mind at all.  Consequently, with all the easy rhetoric used by the media, there is only one tag that does seem to be extraordinarily accurate.  Waity Katie indeed.

Carven - Architecturally Sound

Carmen de Tommaso was a French couturier who founded the house of Carven in 1945 at the age of 36.  Petite, at just over 5 feet tall, she continued to design until she was 84.  Last year, she celebrated her 100th birthday with a party, the invitation list reading as a 'who's who' of the fashion elite.

Dressing European royalty, Hollywood actresses and the chic inhabitants of Paris, her business grew steadily over the decades.  She excelled at making the diminutive look tall and elegant and brought an innovative thread to the French fashion scene. 

Her designs featured architectural prints, including some using trompe l'oeil, the art of making an image appear three dimensionally.  No doubt, these ideas came from Madame Carven's background of study in interior design and architecture. 

But it is this inventive streak and other Carven signatures, that have been recreated by the House's current creative director, Guillaume Henry.  Spring Summer 2011 is shaping up to be as statuesque as Madame Carven herself.

Will the longer length last?



Carolina Herrera

Good grief, I hope so. Just as we're getting used to the new proportions, it would be cruel to throw us into mini's again, no matter how good our legs are.
For some, of course, the longer length never completely went away. So, if you don't like your legs, but if you do like a bit of drama, and if you think you'd be sartorially happier living in Jane Austen's time or if you just feel the cold, then longer skirts are clearly for you.

And, luckily, they're not going anywhere for the time being either, because designers have been quick to continue the longer trend into next spring and summer. 

Marc Jacobs

Why? Well, it enables them to delve into various era's that are 'long centric'. The 1920's is one such era. Cue a whole load of flapper dresses in frosty colours with heavy beading? Not quite, but with this style, this naturally means that the waist is going to drop (more of this later), and we'll all be slicking our hair down, Gloria Swanson style.
I blame Miuccia Prada. She started this whole length craze and until she says otherwise, lengths are staying firmly under the knee. Take a look at her spring/summer collection for next year if you want a few pointers on the hairstyle; otherwise, think long and flowing for next year.

There's also going to be a 70's influence next year. That, potentially, will be a bigger trend than any flapper influence. It's not going to be quite as psychedellic as some 70's revivals - but you are going to see some lurid colours, floral prints and whimsical silhouettes; all with a slower, more relaxed demeanour. Think Hawaii 5.0. on Valium.

Chado Ralph Rucci - The best in America

Who is he and why should you know about him?  Put simply, he's one of the best couturiers in America.

I don't use the term 'couturier' lightly. Ever.  But Rucci has such an attention to detail, naturally paramount in all couturiers, and uses such high quality fabrics, that he is instantly raised to the workmanship level of Oscar de la Renta and Carolina Herrera, by those who examine his work. 
Of course, he is currently championed by that flamboyant maverick, Andre Leon Talley, and this alone should give you an idea of just how well regarded he is by industry greats. But it is his clothes that, thankfully, speak for themselves.  I myself discovered him by watching Fashion TV one summer. 
Watching the Spring/Summer 2010 catwalk show from my holiday hotel room, a beautiful white jacket with circular cutaway detail caught my eye (left).  It was this incredible piece that prompted me to have a closer look at this understated but prolific designer.  I have been a fan of his ever since. You should be too. See his work at: http://www.style.com/fashionshows/complete/S2011RTW-CHADO

Marc Cain - Image is Everything

The new Marc Cain collection for Spring Summer 2011 has an interesting feel to it; full of flattering separates and edgy silhouettes.  But before I tell you about that, can we just talk about the Marc Cain advertisment campaigns for a moment?




For some time now, I have been drawn to this German based fashion brand, simply because of these ad campaigns.  Showcasing their recent collections on one, two or three models with platinum, vertiginous hair on stark, angular backgrounds, (train carriages, windows), they achieved what I call an 'Arresting Image'.  Meaning, an image that stops you in your tracks as you glance through the magazine.  It's not often that you see one.  Let's face it, we're bombarded with images all the time, so anything that is a little out of the norm is very welcome.  How boring, and frankly condescending, are the usual shots of a girl, half dressed, legs splayed and pouting provocatively; often photographs doing away with the very product they are selling.

The Marc Cain images, in comparison, are glamorous and eye catching. They set the clothes in an interesting environment, with an intriguing lifestyle attached. They hold your attention. These 2008/2009 photographs were brilliantly executed (by Seregel) and the latest Marc Cain campaign is no different. I call it 'on the rocks'. Head to their website for a good look: http://www.marc-cain.com/.

Whilst their new campaign for spring summer 2011 does not have quite the same impact as the 2008 shots, it matters not.  The is one fashion house that benefits from and capitalises on its German managment team. Gut gemacht!