Bianca Saunders RTW Fall 2020

Bianca Saunders re-created dancehall parties for her presentation and focused on movement and contrast for her new collection. The space was sectioned off into curtained partitions where models grooved to dancehall music. “I wanted to create a peep show idea of the dancehall scene, because dance can be quite sexual and when you’re at a club, despite being surrounded by people, you’re very much in your own moment,” she mused.

Despite their tailored construction, the clothes were designed to dance in. Saunders curved seams, twisted fabrics and moved shoulder seams closer to the neck so that it would shift. Long overcoats had double hems that moved easily over long and loose shirts. A bleached and fluid denim ensemble stole the show.

By altering its construction, Saunders breathed new life into these men’s wear staples.

Source: WWD

FASHIONADO

Gucci and Disney Celebrate Chinese New Year With Mickey Mouse Collaboration

Although Gucci‘s already prepping a variety of seasonal releases — including Spring/Summer 2020 and the subsequent Pre-Fall range — the Italian luxury brand is squeezing in one more delivery before the new year. In preparation for Chinese New Year 2020, Gucci is rejoining Disney for a brief array of Mickey Mouse goods.

Of course, this isn’t the first time the two companies have joined forces, but it isn’t without reason. Chinese New Year 2020 is the Year of the Mouse — or Rat, depending on translation — meaning that there’s no better time to celebrate Disney’s iconic mascot.

To commemorate the season in style, Gucci has revamped a trio of timeless menswear staples with thematic designs. A GG Supreme coated canvas coat sports all-over Mickeys, layered atop Gucci’s legendary interlocking logo. Elsewhere, a trim-fitting short-sleeved wool shirt sports an extended collar and warm plaid for a retro touch, underscored by Mickey appliqué on the chest pocket. Finally, a lightweight cotton gauze shirt is summer ready in both shape and style, with colorful Mickey and Minnie prints gracing the entirety of the garment.

Shop Disney and Gucci’s Chinese New Year collaboration on MATCHESFASHION.COM’s website ahead of the festivities on January 25. The GG Supreme coat weighs in at $4,900 USD, the wool shirt is $950 USD and the cotton shirt is a slightly more modest $930 USD.

Source: HypeBeast

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Burberry Holiday Campaign 2019

Burberry has just released a full look at its newest campaign for the 2019 holiday season. This new campaign is effectively Riccardo Tisci’s first festive campaign with the label since being appointed Chief Creative Officer of Burberry.

For this year’s festive campaign, Tisci instills the feeling of togetherness, or in other words, “a campaign for everybody, everywhere at a time for union, love, and family.” Enlisting friends close to the Burberry family, the lookbook features the likes of Carla Bruni, Fran Summers, Zhou Dongyu, Shay, Ikram Abdi Omar, Lea T, Boychild, as well as brand ambassadors Ah In Yoo, Mahmood, and Ruben Loftus-Cheek.

View the entire Burberry Holiday 2019 campaign above, where it will run until the end of December.

Source: HypeBeast

FASHIONADO

Martin Margiela: In His Own Words

“Have you said everything you wanted to say in fashion?”

“No.”

That is the promise dangling at the end of Reiner Holzemer’s new documentary, Martin Margiela: In His Own Words, which premiered at the Doc NYC film festival last week. After 90-ish minutes of exposition from Margiela himself, who remains so elusive only his hands were filmed, Holzemer abruptly asks if fashion’s most celebrated genius is really, truly, undeniably done with it all. No. And then the screen cuts to black.

Any hopes of Margiela’s return to fashion will have to be sidelined for now, however. “He won’t work as a fashion designer anymore in his life—probably,” Holzemer told Vogue during an interview on the day of the film’s world premiere. “But you never know. We all love that the movie ends with this. It gives you a nice smile in the end, which is important.”

Holzemer’s film is not so much about where Martin Margiela is in 2019—the designer speaks of painting and sculpting, though those pursuits are not shown in the documentary—or what he might do in 2020, but about the 20 years from 1989 to 2009 during which Margiela operated his eponymous label. As a portrait of a finite body of work—the two decades of Martin Margiela runway shows—Holzemer’s film operates as a circle: It begins with Margiela’s Spring 2009 20th-anniversary show, his final one, then waltzes through a chronology of his life and career with the help of talking head interviews with Olivier Saillard, Carla Sozzani, Stella Ishii, Pierre Rougier, Cathy Horyn, and more of his models, collaborators, friends, and critics, before finishing back at Margiela’s swan song.

That format allows for deep dives into the designer’s key collections and career points. It helps that the documentary was made alongside the preparation and installation of the Palais Galliera’s 2018 exhibit, Margiela / Galliera, 1989-2009. For 42 days, Holzemer, sometimes alone, sometimes with a skeleton crew, would visit the museum or Margiela’s studio and get the designer talking. “Which garments are important, which do you think we have to include in the movie?” Holzemer says he asked Margiela as they began filming. There were 110 items in the exhibit, and he made a list of 90 for the film.

Ultimately, they settled on around 70 crucial pieces, which are presented with voiceovers by the designer. These range from his cork necklaces—which we see Margiela making with his own hands as the film starts—through his doll collection of 1994 and his stockman collection of 1997. “I’m very grateful that he opened up and he trusted me so much. It was not always easy for him,” Holzemer says. The hits are all here: The Spring 1990 show staged in a playground (“The most magical show of my career”), his time as creative director of Hermès (“For me, luxury is the perfect balance between quality and comfort and if I could go farther I would add timelessness”), the Spring 2007 show that worked to establish new Margiela codes (“I wanted to be different, new, without rejecting my fans…. It felt like a new beginning.”)

As the movie seeks to illustrate, Margiela did almost everything that is on trend in contemporary fashion first: He had street cast shows, he popularized the long, lean lines of the ’90s, he made a reissue collection for his 10th show, he pushed and pushed and pushed the creative bounds of what a fashion show was and what a fashion brand could look be. “I hope that, first of all, his name and the work stays alive, that people discover how influential he was, how much of what we see today on the catwalks is sometimes copied one-to-one—I don’t need to mention the names, I’m not an expert of that,” Holzemer says. “I think if the world knows where the Margiela influence comes from, that would make me very happy.”

Of course, what Margiela also did first was what he did last: Leave fashion for good. “I was not made to cope with that system as well as Jean Paul Gaultier,” says Margiela, who was Gaultier’s assistant before launching his own label. “Jean Paul always said, ‘Martin you’re too serious,’ and it’s true […] I am probably too serious for that world.” Margiela’s departure is a story that has become familiar within fashion’s creative industries: the struggle to translate a personal passion into a corporate consumer product. It’s here that the film touches a nerve, but instead of prodding it, it lets the audience read between the lines. The sale of Maison Martin Margiela to Renzo Rosso’s Only the Brave group, the departure of Margiela’s partner Jenny Meirens, and Margiela’s own absence are covered without too much emotionality, although fashion insiders will be able to interpret Margiela’s careful language about the reason for his departure: “At the end, I became, in a certain way, an artistic director in my company and that bothered me because I am a designer […] I am not a creative director who directs his assistants.”

The irony of Holzemer’s delicate portrait of an artist in absence is that it was Margiela’s replacement who inspired the director to take an interest in fashion as a subject. (Holzemer worked on films about photographers before taking up fashion with the documentary Dries about Dries Van Noten in 2017.) “Why I wanted to make a fashion movie was the Galliano story,” Holzemer says, referencing the public meltdown that got John Galliano fired from his position at Christian Dior. After entering rehab, Galliano was named the artistic director of Maison Margiela in 2015. “I read a big article about the pressure fashion designers are under. I was really touched by that article. It was a bad thing that Galliano did, but in that article it explained that some of the designers take drugs to survive. Alexander McQueen killed himself. That was the thing that caused my sensitivity for the profession, for the world, for the industry. […] How do I say it? I work hard too, but the fashion designers work so hard under such pressure wherever that pressure comes from, sometimes it’s big companies, sometimes it’s yourself. That it’s really a challenge to remain in that business for so long and to survive in that business in a healthy way.”

Holzemer indicates that he knows there is a lot of pain here for Martin Margiela—but he won’t say anything about it, nor does much of that tension make it to the screen. “You don’t see that in the movie. Often I was looking at his face, the camera was on the wall, it was only listening, and I thought, It would be so strong if I could show your face now. I still have it in my memory. It was often very touching. The story was always surprising because you could not read it. He told it for the first time: How he felt after the first show, how he felt after 10 years, and how he felt in the end. Nobody knew that before.”

Even with these small, tender moments of Margiela’s vulnerability that reveal the glimmer of a sensitive, caring, gentle man, this documentary doesn't go beyond affirming many of the myths already made about Martin Margiela. Yes, there are incredible glimpses into his childhood in Genk, Belgium, and his sketchbooks—with every year of the designer’s life saved by his mother, Léa Bouchet—but the final film still works behind layers of abstraction. It is mostly about the exhibit, it is without its star’s visage, and even the voice over of Margiela’s lyrical Franco-Belgian intonation is slightly engineered to cloak the reality of what Martin Margiela actually sounds like. In Dries, one of the most compelling moments is one that seems almost incidental: Van Noten and his partner, Patrick Vangheluwe, silently snipping flowers from their garden and arranging them throughout their house, not a word spoken, not a nod exchanged. “You can talk a lot about perfectionism or obsession but there you see it, you feel it, and it says it all,” Holzemer says of that scene.

Martin Margiela: In His Own Words never gets to that show-don’t-tell moment because so much of the story has to be told in voiceover or in interview segments. To adequately show the brilliance of Martin in the year 2019—30 years after his seismic start and a decade after that anniversary show that proved to be his last—something really unexpected would have to happen in the film. For the most part, it doesn’t. But maybe it’s best that the curtain stays drawn a little longer. By protecting Margiela from the cold gaze of a camera, Holzemer allows us superfans to keep our fashion-world hero alive, no flaws, no tensions, no negativity; only these memories and the knowledge that the heart behind the Margiela universe is still beating. Toward the end of the film, Holzemer shows the opening of the Galliera exhibit, long lines shivering in Paris’s March cold. Inside, Vogue editors gasp at the installation, Raf Simons gestures at a mannequin, Rick Owens contemplates in admiration. The legend of Martin Margiela lives on. And then there’s always the promise of his return….

Source: Vogue

FASHIONADO

No. 21 SPRING 2020 READY-TO-WEAR

If invitations give some hints to a collection’s mood, the one sent by Alessandro Dell’Acqua for his No. 21 Spring show left room for interpretation. A pair of men’s briefs in see-through nude net tulle arrived encased in a clear PVC envelope. Slightly puzzled by the message, I asked the designer backstage to expand on the subject. “It’s just a provocation,” he said. “But it can come across as a not-too politically correct statement. The briefs are masculine but can also be worn by a woman. So what? There’s too much bigotry and moralism around these days. There’s zero tolerance for too many things. I think it’s time to say basta!”

Dell’Acqua rounded the message by referencing the famous collection du scandale, designed by Yves Saint Laurent in 1971—at the time it made waves with its overt erotic tones, while launching the couturier into the fashion stratosphere. “It’s one of my favorite collections of all time,” said Dell’Acqua. Its spirit of sophisticated transgression appealed to the designer, resonating with his penchant for insouciant eroticism.

The coed Spring collection, a first for Dell’Acqua, had un undone, provocative feel, with a certain disheveled polish thrown in for good measure. Flowing dresses in microfloral-printed, washed, sweet-hued chiffon—primrose, candy pink, pea green—looked deceptively demure, but their billowy sleeves were slit to reveal the arms with apparent nonchalance. Pleated skirts were buttoned-unbuttoned askew on one side, exposing the legs. Floral shirtdresses were worn as if they were one-shouldered; diagonal slits on bodices revealed a lingerie top underneath. Even tailored blazers got their dose of unraveling, with sleeves mercilessly cut open. The look felt pretty sensual, confident, and alluringly elegant, without crossing the line into being too obviously, boringly seductive.

Lately Dell’Acqua has introduced an atelier-like feel in his No. 21 collections, working on more substantial volumes with rich, luxurious fabrics like cady, gazar, silk cloqué, and duchesse, yet he has kept the attitude modern, feminine, and unfussy. Here he continued the play on short balloon shapes and abbreviated hourglass silhouettes embroidered with crystal ribbons, nicely contrasting the fluidity of drapings and asymmetries or the playful strictness of tailoring. It made for a convincing exercise in style dynamics.

Menswear was infused with a feminine, nonconformist vibe; suits were cut sharp but softened by micro-floral allover prints and worn with baggy, slouchy Bermudas or overstretched, open-cut-sleeve knits. As for the invitation briefs, they’ve apparently proved a success. “They’re in great demand! People are asking for them,” said Dell’Acqua. “I’ll probably have to start a production.”

Source: VogueRunway

FASHIONADO

Assembly New York SPRING 2020 READY-TO WEAR

Making the old feel new again is Greg Armas’s specialty; since he founded Assembly New York, his eye for vintage has largely informed his designs for men and women. Spring 2020 found him thinking about early rave culture, which thrived on reworking 9-to-5 style for after-hours with wild accessories. He interpreted the concept quite literally by mixing his signature suits and shirting with chunky boots and shield sunglasses. There was a new, graphic energy in the zebra stripes and tie-dyed jeans, too, but if you took everything apart, each piece was still inherently wearable. That’s another Armas specialty: clothes that are easy to wear in “real life,” but still feel interesting.

On that note, an oversize, single-sleeved white button-down would pair just as well over a tank and trousers (as shown here) as with jeans. Less intuitive was the abstract bandeau-and-skirt set, but Assembly customers who enjoy layering will get a kick out of Armas’s suggestion to layer a clashing blouse underneath. The designer said he felt he took the biggest risk with color: “I like to challenge myself every season,” he explained. “Aqua and lavender are tones that I’ve never really played with.”

On the men’s side, Armas pointed out a classic blazer embroidered with real keys, a nod to “latchkey kids” who wore house keys around their necks when their parents worked late. He even included one of his own keys, which opens a longtime friend’s house in Los Angeles. “If you were a kid, you may have only had one, but if you’re a bit older, you might have five or six different keys, which are all represented on this special tuxedo jacket,” he said. The concept was mirrored on a pair of jeans as well. Those keys weren’t the central story of Spring, but they added a nice personal touch.

Armas’s love of vintage extends beyond those retro concepts and silhouettes: This season, he reported that 90 percent of the fabrics were upcycled or repurposed. It’s a New Age trend rooted in the past, and it’s gaining popularity this season as fashion attempts to address its massive impact on the environment.

Source: VogueRunway

FASHIONADO

CAAFD Emerging Designers Outshine During NYFW S/S20 Collective Showcase

The Council of Aspiring American Fashion Designers yet again unveiled various emerging brands during New York Fashion Week.  CAAFD welcomed six thoroughly screened, approved and selected brands from around the globe representing their country of residence or origin. Among the newly selected and returning brands were:  Moon Chang, A Humming Way, Farida Temraz’s Temraza, María Sonia, Yufash and Phoenix Ba. Collectively the brands showcased their spring/summer 20 collections after each other. Individually, the brands exquisitely showcased their unique work of art and passion, exhibiting mix of bright colors, elegance, flare, couture,  and some edgy. With a fully packed, standing room only, six designers showcased at one sitting. Fashion professionals and celebrities among the audience waited patiently as each brand took their turn to grace the runway.   

Egyptian designer Farida Temraz opens the show,  presented her couture brand 'Temraza' with flare and elegance. Though the designer has made quite a name for herself in the red carpet circuit in the previous two-three years, this was Farida Temraz's first being listed on the official fashion week schedule as part of CAAFD newly selected Designer and she did not disappoint. With a total of 24 pieces, the collection consisted of evening gowns, cocktail dresses, and bridal couture. The color palette picked by the designer was mostly pastel with the occasional electric blue and white seen in a couple of pieces. Temraza's common thread was the floral element which Farida Temraz used in almost all her pieces, giving them a refined and elegant touch. She presented with two bridal options - a trumpet gown with a halter illusion neckline with off-shoulder sleeves and a ball gown with ruffled sleeves completed with a veil. The gowns provided with a wonderful contrast between the modern and the traditional.

Phoenix Ba Spring/Summer 20 Floral Motifs Collection Exhibited Majesty. The Toronto based designer presented 15 pieces in her collection and showed surface textile techniques in her collection. Her opening piece was a double-breasted dress with floral motifs on warm tones. The collection consisted of evening wear with A-line and sheath gowns. There were also a couple of skirts, a pair of pants with a tube frill top along with a floral jumpsuit. She incorporated the floral theme throughout the collection as each piece had intricate floral work in it. A lot of different materials were used like mesh and tassels in a couple of pieces. Phoenix Ba's love for hair accessories was also on display as each model walked with floral hair bands or other floral hair accessories matching their outfits. Her finale piece saw a model in a peplum top and pleated skirt walking down the runway. 

Paraguayan Fashion Designer Maria Sonia Shines Bright with Colorful Silhouettes  - Her Spring/Summer 20 brings ‘hope’ to the mood and climate of the world. Think of Spring and every bright color that comes with it. And that is exactly what you will find on the runway for the Maria Sonia Showcasing at the NYFW. The CAAFD approved designer presented a collection of 15 pieces. The colorful collection has been inspired by the designer's roots and the scenario was quite different from what you generally expect at a fashion show's runway. The models walked boldly, freely on the runway, lifting their trains and showing them to the audience. It was a rhythmic dance as the model twirled around to fully show their outfits. Maria Sonia wanted to focus on the evolution and empowerment of women and on the runway, she did just that. Her collection was bright and playful. It consisted mostly of gowns and cocktail dresses. Though the silhouettes were mostly structured, there was a sense of free flow in Maria Sonia's pieces. It was topped off with the floral head fans which could be spotted on all the models. Overall, it was fun and vibrant. Looked like spring had finally arrived! 

Yufash Spring/Summer 20 showcased unisex collection. The designer exhibited a mix of casual, dressy and evening wears with simplicity in mind.  We saw men with t-shirts with bold shining prints and the ladies with glowing evening wears with technology influenced prints. The kind that when the light goes off you become the attention of the room as though you weren’t already noticed. Using various colors from dull to the brightest you can find on the color spectrum, Yufash brand executed elegance with minimalism. The long blue dress and the orange finale dress were few of our favorites.  The designer, Kadri Klampe is an Estonian-born, founder and designer who created Yufash as a unique and forward-thinking brand made for the confident and powerful women of the world, with all garments fabricated exclusively in England. Founded in 2015, Klampe and Yufash have since experience skyrocketing popularity, including having designs featured on the hit television series Scream Queens. Yufash is one of the few designers chosen as part of the CAAFD’s incubate/nurturing program, returning for her second seasonal showcase after her previous career-defining CAAFD showcases. 

A Humming Way Spring/Summer 20 Collection Met with Warmth and Excitement During CAAFD NYFW.  An Indian brand inspired by the old world regalia of the state of Rajasthan in India. With the support of CAAFD, this was the first time that the designer brand was showcasing their collection at the New York Fashion Week. The collection was titled "Matsutake," and represented the mushroom's characteristics of adaptability with utmost brilliance. Matsutake is also known to spread a feeling of hope and that is what Sweta Agarwal tried to emit through her showcasing. The collection had 14 pieces in total. It had a mix of cocktail dresses, gowns and jumpsuits all in a palette of soft pink, browns, gray and white. The collection had a lot of mirrors work to trace the roots from which the designer label began. A humming Way's entire collection was soothing and quite welcoming. 

Moon Chang, the brand to close the show, presented their Spring/Summer 20 Collection leaving audiences in Awe. Her Collection was titled, "Hybrid Beauty." It showed Moon Chang's personal journey during the time she was going through PTSD. The mood was set with the haunting yet musical music being played in the background. The models make-up was done in a way to make their eyes look swollen. She presents a collection of 11 pieces with the focus color being black. Moon Chang described how she survived the death situation with the words "Being Cute." In her collection, she incorporates cuteness with the use of ribbons, ruffles, and flowers. The cute elements with her oversized dresses created a contrast of cuteness in ugly places which is what the designer wanted to show through her collection. Moon Chang, as one of CAAFD favorite brands never disappointed. Her presentation were met me one word sentence, “WOW”.

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