Distilled: Paris Fashion Week A/W '11

This is the last in the series.  Paris, following on from New York, London and Milan, is probably the most-hyped fashion week, with a record number of high-profile designers showing collections (and a lot of monotonous flicking through photographs on style.com for me).

Here are some Parisian picks, arranged by trend - I use the word 'trend' in the loosest possible terms, because I've just made most of them up.



all photos style.com



Row 1 - Anne Demeulemeester, Cacharel, Haider Ackerman

Row 2 - Chanel, Maison, Martin Margiela, Alexander McQueen

Row 3 - Jean Paul Gaultier, Miu Miu, Tsumori Chisato

Row 4 - Loewe, Louise Vuitton, Valentino

Row 5 - Carven, Jean-Charles de Castelbajac, Sonia Rykiel

Row 6 - Chloe, Christian Dior, Lanvin

YAY TRENDS

• Row 1 - Absolutes - Make outfit statements in one colour (or two) - emphasis is on texture and silhouette.
• Row 2 - Come together, fall apart - Deconstructed, zipped and ripped apart outfits.  I shouldn't love this because these are oriented towards the willowy of body, but I do anyway.
• Rpw 3 - Little old ladies - Pour talcum powder in your 'do, amp up the boxy silhouette and invest in a furry shopping trolley, as seen at Gaultier.
• Row 4 - Night porter - Leather trenches with very little little on underneath for the dominatrix vibe.  Christian Dior jokes optional.
• Row 5 - Plaid - pensive plaid at Carven, Playful plaid at Castelbajac and Sonia Rykiel - it's all good.
• Row 6 - Textures with pattern - wooly snakeskin at Chloe and flower print gazar fabric at Lanvin. 

NAY TRENDS

• None - though when it comes to Paris, I have rose-tinted specs.  Perhaps there was an overabundance of fur, but that seems to have been an overarching trend covering all four weeks.

What are your PFW picks?

I'm a bad widdle blogger...

I've been known to repost the odd blog post.  I'm extremely gratified that views for this blog have increased and so I like to show new readers a few bits that they might have missed.  But this is different.  This is a repost of a repost. I have gone that far.  Revoke my blogging license, for I have broken all the golden rules!

This originally surfaced on my first blog, which was terrible.  I reposted it on The Licentiate in March and I'm reposting it now, because, frankly, who doesn't like to watch how miserable Karl Lagerfeld is on Blue Monday?  Enjoy...

To quote the big K himself:

“I hate birthdays, ... It's more like a new starting point in New York. For me, it's an evolution. I don't celebrate the past. I like the present and tomorrow.”

Here are links for the curious mid 90's doc "Karl Lagerfeld Is Never Happy Anyway", which must have the worst soundtrack of all time. The audio for the last part is disabled, ostensibly because of copyright, but we all know that it's really disabled because the world would be a much crueler place if it was not. Plus there are subtitles for those short on brain and/or German language skills. We all know what happens in the end anyway; he loses a pile of weight, becomes the voice of Fabu in the new Totally Spies film and also becomes the subject of the fantastic 'Lagerfeld Confidential'.

Happy Evolution Sir Lagerfeld.

EDIT:  The  person who uploaded these videos have made them private for some reason.  Here are a few screenshots from a VICE Style article.  Read the article.  It will tell you everything you need to know about this documentary.  And I'm sorry about not noticing earlier.  This is what comes out of being a lazy bum.

Archetypes vs. Stereotypes

Archetype - original model: something that serves as the model or pattern for other things of the same type


Stereotype - oversimplified conception: an oversimplified standardized image of a person or group


There's something about the tactile quality or paper and the sheeny gloss that makes looking at a picture in a magazine much more satisfying than staring at a screen.  I love Stern's Fotografie series, which focuses on a different photographer each issue, and is mercifully spare with words, because my grasp of German is pretty dismal.

The next issue, out on June 7th, focuses on Karl Lagerfeld and Claudia Schiffer's collaborations over the past 20 years and will include never seen before self portraits, polaroids and reminiscences that will probably have me breaking out my secondary school German-English dictionary and wondering what the hell der Dudelsack is.

There will be six different covers of Claudia, shot by Lagerfeld in a series of costumes (see them at the ASVOFF site here).  The price is pretty steep, but I'm looking forward to getting mine in the post.

But wait, what's this?



Is it just me or is controversy over blackface in fashion editorials the new, er, black?

Hmm, something's not quite right here but I can't put my finger on it...

Granted, someone probably thought that the only fitting way to accessorise classic 80's power shoulders was with an electrocuted expression and a convoluted Diana Ross tribute.

Maybe someone thought that this was delightfully satirical (though off the top of my head can't think of a satirical connection between blackface, 80's Chanel, Lagerfeld or Schiffer).

Maybe this is supposed to be incredibly post-modern and the intention is to somehow reappropriate blackface as a non-racist form of expression (though that's virtually impossible due to the deeply entrenched racist vein of blackface and no such declaration of reappropriation has been made).

The other covers that I've seen are broad archetypes; Claudia the businesswoman, Claudia the 18th century aristo, Claudia the Muscle Mary.  In this case Claudia is the person and the clothing is the archetypal template she fits into.  However, by disguising the things that signify Claudia Schiffer (like her blonde hair or the colour of her skin) she stops being a person in costume and starts to portray a stereotype.  Which isn't necessarily a good thing.

Photo - Stern Fotografie

Another bad boy pulled from the ranks

This is another of my favourite old posts culled from the old blog (to be deleted very very soon) published on Karl Lagerfeld's birthday last year.  Thats 09/09/09.  Spooky...

Happy Birthday Karl Lagerfeld, er, Lagerfeldt

To quote the big K himself:

“I hate birthdays, ... It's more like a new starting point in New York. For me, it's an evolution. I don't celebrate the past. I like the present and tomorrow.”

Above are links for the curious mid 90's doc "Karl Lagerfeld Is Never Happy Anyway", which must have the worst soundtrack of all time. The audio for the last part is disabled, ostensibly because of copyright, but we all know that it's really disabled because the world would be a much crueler place if it was not. Plus there are subtitles for those short on brain and/or German language skills. We all know what happens in the end anyway; he loses a pile of weight, becomes the voice of Fabu in the new Totally Spies film and also becomes the subject of the fantastic 'Lagerfeld Confidential'.

Happy Evolution Sir Lagerfeld.