Fashionado is a fashion and lifestyle brand where readers indulge in a myriad of trending topics from the world of design, art and culinary. Via the FashionadoTV digital platform, Fashionado founder, E. Vincent Martinez, hosts interviews with celebrities, fashion designers, artists and industry professionals.
Farhad Re takes us into a day dream with his latest couture collection. Warrior, avant-garde, both magician and elf, the woman Farhad Re imposes by her assertive character. In a world in upheaval, she drapes herself in her architectural dresses in triple organza silk, with impeccable volumes.
Read MoreThis is the eternal story of an artist who falls in love with his creation ... No one in the real life can match this perfection that he created with his own hands. The work that came out of his imagination meets all his expectations.
Read MoreTamara Ralph spent the lockdown in the South of France, where she triangulated with London and Italy on producing collections. And even without a commute or social commitments, the designer said she’s been busier than ever.
“We’ve had to adapt a lot, but a lot of interesting things also came out of this time in terms of problem-solving,” the designer said by Zoom. Not just in terms of making clothes, but showing them too, which she’s doing with a little help from Hauli, an avatar whose name in Swahili evokes strength and power, and who sprang to life with help from an AI developer in South Korea. “We were working on a bigger digital strategy, but this pushed it into fast-forward,” offered Ralph. “We wanted to do something that had never been done before to that level.”
You have to hand it to her: The result is astonishing. For inspiration, the designer looked to the natural world, travel, art and architecture, producing eight pieces IRL and using AI to develop eight others.
Dressed in couture, Hauli appears amid some of the seven contemporary wonders of the world, among them Petra (in a pale blue silk double satin gown with an embellished cut-out bodice), the Taj Mahal (in a full fringe-and-crystal strapless pink gown), and the Great Wall of China (in a pale pink floral-printed fishtail gown with organza flowers, crystal embellishments, and matching cape). Digitizing florals to develop prints and re-embroidering them is just as laborious in the virtual world, Ralph said. Either way, it seems she’s hit on an essential accessory for sharing her vision.
As the world awaits a return to social proximity, customers also appear excited to push ahead. The designer said people are starting to call in with dates—they still want to get married, after all—and, contrary to expectations, they’re forgoing pared-down, safer looks in favor of fantasy. Which also opens up new paths. Home and hospitality are a space Ralph said she’s been wanting to explore for a while. A collaboration in a new fashion category will land in stores this fall; another for spring 2021 will be revealed in October. Meanwhile, the brand’s sole non-fashion collaboration was supposed to be revealed in Paris today. It’s been pushed back, but already a few customers have lined up to buy it, the designer said. In a neat piece of symmetry, it also involves the initials “RR,” and it’s one of the most expensive models that the storied carmaker has ever produced. Proof, as if more were needed, that once the Ralph & Russo customer steps into this world, she tends to stay put.
Source: Vogue
FASHIONADO
There was no traffic jam on the rue de Varenne, no walk through the Rodin Museum, no scrum of street style photographers waiting in its Garden of Orpheus, and certainly no giant tent behind it. Le confinement made the staging of a Christian Dior haute couture show and the experiencing of its grand rituals impossible. Instead, last Friday, Maria Grazia Chiuri was booked solid with Zoom calls. “It’s our first couture presentation online, so it’s something very unusual,” she said.
Chiuri enlisted her friend Matteo Garrone, the Italian filmmaker who directed last year’s Pinocchio, to create a short surrealist movie titled Le Mythe Dior. With no runway to design for, Chiuri’s concept for the season was Théâtre de la Mode. In 1945, amid the devastation of World War II and with materials in short supply, Paris designers created clothes for doll forms one-third the size of their human female counterparts. Miniature dresses and tailleurs by 60 French couturiers and their mannequins were displayed at the Louvre and the exhibition was such a marvel—the clothes and accessories were made with such exacting care, with functioning buttons and handbags filled with tiny wallets and powder compacts—it went on to tour the world, raising funds for French war survivors in the process.
During the Zoom preview, Chiuri’s creations were displayed in a prodigious trunk on mannequins, which is how Dior couture clients around the globe will engage with them. Like the “Théâtre de la Mode” wonders of 75 years ago, Chiuri’s scaled-down day looks and gowns were painstakingly made. They truly give the term petite mains new meaning, but she reported that the task this season brought her team and the Dior studio workers—all working from home and all connecting via phone call or video conference during the shutdown—a lot of joy. “The project was very positive,” she said. “Seeing the first prototype, there was a strong spirit of community.” Doll-size clothes are fairly irresistible, as Garrone’s fantasia aims to demonstrate—even a statue can’t resist their allure. But the rewards of satisfying work can’t be underestimated and the movie’s scenes of Dior artisans and seamstresses lovingly filmed working behind the scenes are equally compelling. Amidst the crushing unemployment of COVID-19 time, even more so.
Chiuri’s “muses” this season seem chosen with that notion in mind. On the call she name-checked the likes of Lee Miller, Dora Maar, and Jacqueline Lamba—20th-century women who are often remembered by history for their beauty or for their famous lovers and husbands, but in fact did important work of their own as artists. Chiuri’s own work for Dior is unmistakable, even at one-third size: The diaphanous gowns—in embroidered tulle, in pleated chiffon, in meticulously patch-worked pastel lace—are fairy tales come to life.
In Le Mythe Dior, couriers bring a trunk of shrunken clothes to the woods. In this fairy tale, the magic that transforms them into real garments is the couture atelier, and the nymphlike protagonists get to keep the dresses. Reality intrudes, though. The narrowness of the film’s cast illustrates that when it comes to fashion and the inclusiveness of intersectional feminism, there’s work yet to be done.
Source: Vogue
FASHIONADO
Viktor Horsting and Rolf Snoeren titled this collection Fashion Statements. “To what extent can you say something with clothing, literally,” they said backstage. Their studio had imagined 18 outstanding, outsize dresses constructed entirely in brightly hued tulle: some with puffed sleeves, others with tiered skirts, all very colorful and very voluminous. And, well, each creation spoke for itself.
Who were these ingenues with their Rapunzel hair meant to embody? I am my own muse, said the one in solid green. Is fashion overrated? Less is more, replied the extra-wide one in gradient pink and blue. What is your position on climate change? Give a damn, declared the one in white trimmed in white and fluorescent green. Will you watch the Super Bowl? No, exclaimed the one in striped blue.
Naturally, with their characteristic monotone, the designers said they were not imposing any meaning, inviting us to arrive at our own readings. One impression was that such exaggerated volumes, while familiar territory for Horsting and Snoeren, could be a visual metaphor for the noise of likes in the virtual world, where these language memes live (Snoeren seemed pleased with this idea). What’s more, there was no mistaking these creations for actual slogan T-shirts or variations on the infamous Melania Trump jacket. All the assorted typography and graphic design—the text as well as the eagle head, the skull, the candy hearts, and so forth—resulted from layers of additional tulle. Trite sentiments backed up by technical prowess.
Altogether, the collection showcased Viktor & Rolf in the brand’s finest, sweet-meets-sinister form. As a fashion statement, it was ironic in attitude; historically inspired and Pop in presentation; detail obsessed and sophisticated in execution. The perfect formula, in other words, for the Costume Institute’s forthcoming exhibition on camp. Otherwise, several pieces could prove quite impactful on the red carpet, unwieldy shapes notwithstanding. The obvious choice: No photos, please.
Source: AMY VERNER / VogueRunway
FASHIONADO
Iris van Herpen titled her Spring 2018 couture collection "Ludi Nature." van Herpen shares her deep personal feelings about nature with Vogue and says: “I think we as humans don’t even come close to the intelligence within nature. It’s funny how people think that nature is simple and technology is complex—it’s the opposite; technology is simple and nature is complex.”
Fury, fervor, effervescence! For his first couture fashion show in Paris, Rani Zakhem celebrates life and joy in incandescent metaphors. Fire is the essential element of this sumptuous yet relaxed collection, dedicated to a volcanic woman.
As devouring as ethereal, the sacred element comes in pyrotechnic explosions and cascades of gold, drawn by embroideries of arachnoid crystals of lava on the black of a sheath whose draped top splits into a deep "V” neckline. Some creations seem to be sculpted in the light, like the pearl-beige silk dress, where red, orange and gold gems glow with a myriad of sequins that bring precious reflections back to the surface. Here the image of the volcano is spun to the neck, columned and entirely gilded, a recurring element of the collection and keystone of an architecture that favors ease, movement and, one would be tempted to add, the dancing flames that seem to devour the fabric barely touch the floor.
Reminiscent of a party in Vienna where the designer returned bedazzled, Klimt's Kiss, itself cast in a gold powder dust of stars, infuses into the collection a resolutely modernist visual vocabulary, translated into sequins of geometric forms. Geometry that also brings us into the disco spirit of the 1970s with many references to Halston, especially in a loose, single- shouldered fluid dress with a golden Mao collar, in a fanned out degradé rainbow, gold to red through yellow and bright orange. Gold, again, subtle and powdery, sculpts a feuille d'or chiffon dress, knotted in a wrap around bustier dropping into a deep backline, a tribute to Mireille Darc, elegantly quoting Guy Laroche.
Clearly, the theme of fire, sometimes extinguished leaving precious streaks of diamonds on silky nights; sometimes fluid, sizzling cascades of molten metal on a short dress with dripping panels, and sometimes gently iridescent with warm colors, is only a pretext chosen by Rani Zakhem to salute the masters who nourished his vocation.
A scarfed collared, vertiginously split yellow chiffon, plissé soleil dress with mouton sleeves, is a joyful smile addressed to Jean-Louis Scherrer. Another, short black silk satin, real Moujik tunic adorned at the bottom with pleated yellow faille and embellished with a large bow of the same fabric is a nod to Yves Saint Laurent. A third, composed of a densely embroidered golden top with narrow three-quarter sleeves, and a long black pleated skirt is a reverence to Balmain. The heart skips a beat when the liquid gold drape of a silk jersey habillé evening sheath appears, ending with a large bow of black silk satin on the shoulder, a tribute of the designer to Madame Grès.
A black silk satin kaftan, embroidered on the edges with gold sequins and flame patterns at the bottom, recalls Rani Zakhem's native orient and plays on the bond between his multiple cultures.
A delicate apotheosis of this fashion show, shaped in flowing lava and blazing fires, is the wedding dress, long and tight with its delicate whitish lace and precious simplicity , emphasizes the minimalist bias of a collection with budding emotions.
Fashionado is a fashion & lifestyle brand where readers indulge in a myriad of trending topics from the world of fashion, design, art and culinary. Via the FashionadoTV digital platform, Fashionado founder, E. Vincent Martinez, hosts interviews with celebrities, fashion designers, artists and industry professionals.
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