23/05/2014

Normcore – is the latest trend being trendless?

Finally we have come to a point where it is now possible to be in fashion even without being particularly interested in the subject. An old pair of trainers and a simple T-shirt have never been the central pieces of a stylish wardrobe – but the rules of fashion have now changed. Individuality has for a long time played an important role in fashion, with an endless fascination with personal and unique styles. The definition of fashionable has for a long time been almost the same as being individual, but we might have to redefine that definition.

The growing “normcore” trend was first spotted by the New York based trend-forecasting agency K-Hole, which wrote a report on the catchy concept of sameness. They stated that “normcore” leads to belonging and that the idea of conformity is taking precedence over the aspiration of individuality. The trend has grown fast since then, and it exploded on the fashion weeks this spring, with Céline’s launch of the furry ‘furkenstock‘ and Marc Jacobs’ patagonia fleeces.

The point with of “normcore” is to wear clothes for comfort rather than style, and the latest trend is therefore summed up as being trundles. The British writer and philosopher Alain de Botton defines “normcore” as the search for the perfect ideal, an ideal which does not have to be upgraded constantly. Therefore, “normcore” might be a reaction to the fast moving fashion and it might also be the result of a desire to let other values, rather than the cloths alone, define who you are. The London based designer, Richard Nicoll is of the same opinion and thinks that “normcore” shows the wearer has other talents and is unique in his or her own way, without needing to show it off.

The trend has a lot in common with other subculture-based trends, like the grunge in the 90s, which started as an anti-fashion movement, before it became mainstream following its debut on the catwalks. “Normcore” follows the same pattern. Once it becomes mainstream – everyone will start carefully choosing their clothes with the aim of looking like they do not care, where a simple T-shirt becomes a statement piece, overcoming its original purpose. That is the irony of the anti-fashion: as soon as it spreads it becomes in-fashion. And as every other trend, it will come to an end. But even if it does, “normcore’s” original message offers a case for reflection: giving value to other qualities rather than focussing on who is wearing what.

Hanna Cronsjö 
Share: Facebook,  Twitter  
22/05/2014

The Talented: SUNO

Origins and background story: Max Osterweis created SUNO, a New York based womenswear label, in 2008 after witnessing post-election violence in Kenya. Utilizing the vast collection of Kenyan Kangas that he had been collecting for years, Max joined forces with designer Erin Beatty to launch a high-end collection.

Trademark: SUNO utilizes the local talent of Kenya, India, Peru and New York to create a collection of unique prints, textures and embroideries.

Collections: SUNO was also a 2011 and 2012 finalist in the Vogue/CFDA Fashion Fund, and a 2012 Nominee and 2013 Winner of the CFDA Swarovski Award for Womenswear. Max Osterweis and Erin Beatty mentioned that their F/W 14 collection was inspired by the true story of Roman people who struck gold by selling scrap metal in the late 1990s and early 2000s. The resulting silhouettes were both beautiful and melancholic. The clothes recall the classic silhouettes of SUNO: long hemlines and boxy dresses with a completely muted color palette. Jewel tones dominated, next to dark, but at the same time striking metallic fabrics lit up the runway.

Chiara Tiso 
Share: Facebook,  Twitter  
21/05/2014

Haute Papier – Bea Szenfeld’s Fashionable Paper Trail

Mark Twain once said “Clothes make the man. Naked people have little or no influence on society.” But does it mean that the clothes made of paper make for a flat man? For Swedish fashion designer Bea Szenfeld they certainly don’t. Szenfled’s creations, which were crowned with accolades and awards as well as chosen by pop-icon Lady Gaga for her dramatic looks, are more likely of another dimension.

Creating fashion with paper has been branded Haute Papier and Szenfeld has become one of the most established “Papieriers”. Her Haute Papier collections bring a playfulness and excitement to an otherwise grown-up and serious fashion world. The notion that paper can be turned into fashion, however, is nothing new. The process has been around for centuries and we have all certainly seen paper creations disguised as clothes.

The novelty of Szenfeld’s creations lies in revealing the structure of the material rather than trying to make it into something it’s not. Often influenced by the written word, Bea Szenfeld’s inspiration process is unique and, in a way, expresses her quirkiness and flair. According to the designer, the texts she reads instigate a feeling which she then tries to mimic through her creations, awakening the mind to see shapes in unorthodox ways, inspiring, in turn, innovative creations and lines. While the inspirational process is somewhat guided by a gut feeling, the actual designing is particularly long and intricate. She keeps a silent dialogue with her material of choice – the paper speaks its own language and guides a process of interpretation and creation.

Working with paper, however, doesn’t come without its challenges as desired shapes and colours are somewhat difficult to obtain. The material generates a structure that cannot be recreated with fabric; it has its own will and expressiveness. For Bea Szenfeld, working with paper is particularly fascinating as it can be moulded through numerous techniques, each of them specific to a precise cultural context and location. Different types of paper and production and folding techniques can, in a sense, be viewed as a cultural and temporal statement, adding a further dimension for the wearer.

Victoria Edman 
Share: Facebook,  Twitter  
20/05/2014

Runways in Full Bloom

There are certain trends that never disappear, and one of those is certainly the floral prints obsession. Even though we have seen plenty of flower gowns, both throughout the history of fashion as well as on the catwalk, the latest runway shows have managed to surprise us with the introduction of 3D floral patterns.

It’s easy to find the link between newest trends and the traditional embellishment techniques, such as embroidery or appliqué, which see their origins long before the Middle Ages. At that time, its purpose was twofold: firstly, it was used as an aesthetic device in order to make clothes look more expensive and precious than they really were, secondly, it was applied to cover the underlying structure. Even though this use is now long forgotten, the lavish effect still provokes a surprising feeling.

Looking deeper into the trends proposed for Spring-Summer 2014 collections, the upcoming Greek fashion designer, Mary Katrantzou, opted for volumes obtained through the use of structured silk decorated with intricate 3D embellishments. Dolce&Gabbana followed the same line of thought, though in a more classical manner. The show’s atmosphere was particularly delicate and the floral detailing contributed in underlining the romantic mood of the runway.

The real revelation this time was Marni. Designer Consuelo Castiglioni, known for her witty and edgy view of fashion, created tridimensional skirts and dresses that appeared almost like actual blooming bushes. Paired with sporty accessories – slippers at the models’ feet and visors on their heads – this romantic look was given a contemporary and unexpected flair.

Francesca Crippa 
Share: Facebook,  Twitter  
19/05/2014

Style Suggestions: Transparency

Transparency is a big trend this spring, but it is definitely not the easiest one to translate from runway to the street. So how should you wear it? It’s all about balance. Sheer panels and cut-outs are a great way to pull off the trend, matched with opaque fabric to keep the look less revealing. Or go all the way and find some great figure hugging undergarments to match.

Clutch: Charlotte Olympia, Blouse: Burberry, Sunglasses: Céline, Shoes: 3.1 Phillip Lim

Styling by Vanessa Cocchiaro 

Share: Facebook,  Twitter  
16/05/2014

Charles James: Beyond Fashion, Behind Clothes

Being a designer means setting up questions, problems, and trying to solve them with creativity and wit (or, better, finding other problems and raising other questions related to the first: which is how we get to progress). Charles James, an individual with a pure designer mentality, decided to commit himself and his life to an object he considered ‘intrinsically wrong’. To improve it, shape it, transform it. The ‘object’ in question was the feminine body.

Charles James, raised in England but living and working in Chicago, his mother’s hometown, decided to become a fashion designer as a prank to his serious father. What was initially seen as a pure act of disrespect is now praised as one of the most notable achievements in the history of american fashion; Charles James is remembered as the greatest American couturier, praised by Christian Dior and Cristobal Balenciaga. His clothes are now seen as symbols of a certain kind of society, well fixed in time and space, surrounded by a nearly forgotten ideal of glamour and luxury. The eye James used to watch the female figure was not that of the estimator, but that of the scientist; at the basis of his creative process stands a clinical analysis of what was wrong in the body, what was inconsistent with proportional parameters and what could be artificially fixed.

The exhibition now on stage at the Metropolitan Museum of New York tries to give a reading of James’ creations beyond than the essence of a gown, proposing two levels of interpretation: the wonderfully made clothes, which speak for themselves, and their construction, their ‘secrets’, revealed by preliminary sketches, materials and 3D video animations. Charles James: Beyond Fashion gathers more than sixty of the designer’s most iconic creations, produced between the 40s and the 50s, giving great importance at the nearly scientific process that brought those pieces to life. By definition, going beyond implies crossing the limits, be it of a physical space or a discipline, passing through the boundaries of something else. Mathematics applied to fashion design, science paired with the ephemeral, interwoven in the seams of ball gowns, apparently made to become ‘mere’ poetry (as Monsieur Dior defined James’ work).

The decision to put the design process on stage permits to retrace a portrait of James as a designer and technician, purged by various reports of his disposition and manners (bad, very bad, indeed). The will of the curatorial team, with Harold Koda and Jan Glier Reeder at its head, to present James as an engineer more than a couturier pays respect to his personal story and also to his nature and ideas: the body as a perfectible structure, the cloth as a medium. It also permits to reread his work inscribing it into new categories, inspected and experienced by some of today’s most interesting curatorial practices, able to build a conversation and a discourse between superficially opposite objects.

Charles James: Beyond Fashion will run until August 10th 2014 at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.

Marta Franceschini 
Share: Facebook,  Twitter  
15/05/2014

The Talented – Rejina Pyo

When summed up in fairly few number of words, the story of fashion designer Rejina Pyo might appear nearly identical as any other young and talented designer’s biography. Born abroad (Korea) and currently living in London, after graduation at Central Saint Martins, Pyo worked alongside Roksanda Ilincic before establishing her own brand. Nevertheless, in only three years after her graduation, Pyo collaborated with H&M-owned high-fashion store Weekday to sell pieces from her graduate collection, participated in the “ARRRGH! Monsters in Fashion” exhibition curated by Vassilis Zidianakis, won the prestigious Han Nefkens Fashion Award and created an installation for the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen in Rotterdam.

In the meantime, Rejina Pyo has also managed to develop several collections under her name, characterized by clean lines, geometrical detailing and a particularly sophisticated allure. It shouldn’t come as a surprise then, that the structural element in Pyo’s work derives from her obsession with abstract art – paintings by Ellsworth Kelly or Isamu Noguchi’s sculptures – with its simple, primitive aesthetics and blocks of colour. Pyo’s work somewhat explores the blurred lines between art and fashion, creating pieces that are often sculptural and bold, an approach that was particularly evident in her installation in Rotterdam, where Pyo created pieces resembling traditional garments, though none of them were wearable.

Her latest AW 2014 collection further explores this approach. By taking inspiration from Ellisworth Kelly’s words – “I think that if you can turn off the mind and look only with the eyes, ultimately everything becomes abstract” – Pyo has developed a collection where “each garment is used almost as a canvas for an abstract painting, streamlined and minimal in places, and then brought to life with a flash of strong colour in the form of diagonal square panels that act as a unifying theme, reappearing in various sizes throughout the collection. From the belt in an elegantly oversized coat, that cleverly weaves its way around the garment, to the panel of faux fur used in a dark blue evening sweater and the stunning hand painted shard of colour on the shoulder of a white shirt.”

Rujana Rebernjak 
Share: Facebook,  Twitter  
14/05/2014

Carla Fernandez: The Barefoot Designer

In our fast paced society, which strives to deliver new trends quickly, the craftsmanship and heritage underlining the production of many garments are slowly falling into oblivion. Nevertheless, whatever pace our society runs at, we somehow manage to find enough time to admire beauty: a beauty that leads us to understand meaning inherent in any type of production, that guides passions and ideas; a beauty that can also be seen as a quest for identity by its creator. This is the case of Carla Fernandez, a contemporary Mexican designer whose work aims to preserve her country’s rich textile heritage by merging traditional techniques with unique contemporary creations.

Traditional Mexican patterning is an intricate system of pleats and seams that creates an almost endless range of garments by using simple squares and rectangles. Carla Fernandez and her Taller Flora depart from this, as of yet largely unexplored, use of traditional techniques to create innovative styles and develop new types of production in line with the contemporary fashion world. Fernandez’s workshop, Taller Flora, a traveling fashion laboratory, collaborates with local Mexican artisans with the idea of preserving and disseminating native knowledge and talent that would otherwise risk of being forgotten.

The innovation of Carla Fernandez’s work lies not only in her anthropological or historical interest in traditional crafts, but within her capability of developing a successful enterprise where fashion industry and handmade crafts coexist. Born after 10 years of research spent cataloguing hundreds of garment designs, including ancient Mayan and Aztec as well as pre-Hispanic ones, Taller Flora collaborates with different communities throughout Mexico – mostly cooperatives of women – to deliver two different lines of clothing: couture to accommodate the slower techniques, and a prêt-a-porter line of mass-produced items using these designs and motifs.

Fernandez’s work strives to bring back the attention to the single creator in order to understand what is being created, highlighting the beauty of individual pieces and the joy in producing them, while, at the same time, articulating a production model where traditional crafts can actually compete with the modern technical world.

After showing her pieces in London, San Francisco, Japan, Colombia, and Mexico, Carla Fernandez’s work is currently the subject of the first fashion exhibition at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston. Titled “Carla Fernandez: The Barefoot Designer”, the show includes apparel, textiles and drawings, as well as performances, workshops and photographs, vividly delivering the intricate design process behind Fernandez’s work. The exhibition will be on show until September 1st 2014.

Victoria Edman 
Share: Facebook,  Twitter  
13/05/2014

The Evolution of the Bra

Have you ever asked yourself about the very first bra? The underwear garment that was the cause of feminist fights for decades, saw its first appearance back in 1913. It was initially designed by Mary Phelps Jacob, enjoying, only a year after its creation, quite a lot of success.

In a more recent fashion history, the relationship between underwear and design cannot be understood without mentioning Vivienne Westwood. The mother of punk movement in fashion was the one who coined, back in the 80s, the statement “underwear over outerwear” as a sign of rebellious attitude and ferocious female protests, first seen in her Buffalo Girls collection. Westwood’s attitude and design could easily be linked with a more recent collection my Miuccia Prada. For her SS 2014 runway, “the intellectual fashion designer”, as Prada is often reffered to, created a decorated bra styled over coats, T-shirts and dresses.

Nevertheless, during the last fashion shows, many designers have sent their models down the catwalk wearing bras, with apparently no particular underlying meaning, other then their aesthetic appeal. We are not talking simply about crop-tops, but actual bras, which has become a symbol of femininity – meant to be shown rather than hidden. Michael Kors chose a vintage look – a strapless top paired with a longuette skirt – where the printed motif underlines a certain kind of elegance while the high waist silhouette emphasizes the body’s shapes.

Dolce&Gabbana took a different kind of approach: linked to the past of Magna Grecia, for the SS 2014 collection the Italian brand showcased a particular kind of lingerie matched with pointed pumps and big gold earrings. On the other hand, Ports 1961 and Alexander McQueen, have imagined a different kind of woman: an evident sports vibe for the first one, with tight straps and coco leather cup; an optical pattern and constricted shapes for the other.

However, a bra as an actual piece of clothing is not something anyone can wear: if you aren’t aiming for a particularly bold feminist statement, styling a bra might prove to be a though challenge.

Francesca Crippa 
Share: Facebook,  Twitter  
12/05/2014

Style Suggestions: Spring Jackets

Spring is that wonderful time of year when you can finally shed your heavy coat in favor of a lightweight jacket. But which one should you choose? Whether you prefer basic blazers, rugged denim versions or a leather biker jacket, there are a ton of options on the market right now and here are some ideas to get you through the next couple of months.

Jacket: J.Crew, Boots: Alexander Wang, Bag: Anya Hindmarch, Earrings: Alexis Bittar, Cuff: Eddie Borgo

Styling by Vanessa Cocchiaro 

Share: Facebook,  Twitter  
Next Page » « Previous Page