The Couture House: More than the Name

Gentle Reader -

Surely you've not been fooled by equity firms (among others) who have acquired the names of once-great couture houses.

The fashion collections produced by these half-dead houses, while on-trend, is less than stellar - and certainly does not live up to the standards of those same names sewn inside of the clothing.

It would be too easy - and too unkind - to list the many Parisian fashion houses here. However, it is more instructive to give one successful example:

Balenciaga under Monsieur G.


Balenciaga no longer produces haute couture (such as the vintage example above), but remains edgy, at the forefront of fashion. Certainly the clothing is much different than when Cristobal himself presided, but the spirit of the house remains. Why? Here are some thoughts for those fashion executives overseeing the number-crunching:

1. To own a fashion house, you must know fashion. La mode is not the same as producing lacquered pens. Fashion is a part of luxury, but requires spirit. This is powerful - and can be dangerous. Lagerfeld himself has on more than one occasion referred to Mademoiselle's ghost.

2. A designer is more than an employee. Or at least should be. The designer is that person who should give life to a house. I can't say how a designer breathes life to the fashion created, but there is a difference between clothing with life - and mere clothing. A replaceable employee is often loathe to give more than technical ability. Often, ideas are withheld as well, to say nothing of dreams and one's own essence.

3. Trends are not meant to be followed, but played with. In the current era of Big Fashion, everything seems to be reduced to the Numbers. And the Numbers are afraid of not creating profit. And so the Numbers direct the designer-employee to be as on-trend as possible.

Trends exist, but it is a designer's ability to play with trends - emphasizing here, diminishing (or discarding) there - that produces vibrant fashion. Color, proportion, embellishment and fabrication: the designer should be in control.

4. Visit (or create) the archive. Houses with storied-pasts require trips though those pasts. Recreate the story. Reinvent the story. The fashion label was bought for a reason, so use what is already on hand. Clean breaks from a couture house's history were once new and revolutionary, but by now it is a cliche. Use what is on hand.

- AP

Sphinx: New Utterances

From the Palmier Fountain in Paris, new divinations of future style:

F16: Poiret supposedly called Chanel's look 'poverty deluxe.' Now, we must consider 'scavenger chic' for the next six years as a serious possibility. Grim, yes. But still chic.

G24: 60 years from now: lemon lacquer lipstick. To our eyes, this is completely wrong. But it will look so right...

J73: The suit will still be with us. There is such comfort, history and engineering in the quintessence of Western male dress.

Q22: 2053 AD/CE: perhaps the Implant Wars will indeed happen if implants employ rubies, emeralds and diamonds.

Evening Accessories and Accoutrements

Gentle Reader -

A fashionable life once contained more than a gorgeous handbag. Irving Penn's stills of spilled contents opened up this secret world of pillboxes, small minaudières, and gold things.

Accessories and accoutrements can reveal more than a gorgeous dress. Just a thought as the season of gift-giving reaches its climax.

- AP

Revolutionary Fashion - Mrs. Montresor

Gentle Reader -

John Singleton Copley's portrait of Frances Montresor dates from about 1778. Is there an influence of the French court of Versailles? Possibly, since the French court dominated fashion during this period (note the hairstyle).

More importantly, this is very English fashion. Notice that this is a red coat.

The sportiness of the jacket, the military-derived details, the finish of the shirt - even the relaxed composure of Mrs. Montresor herself: this is a shining example of dash, which might be the English equivalent of French chic.

However dash came first.

If one compares the fashion in this portrait to decades of English styles that were to come, there seems to be a lingering inspiration. Not of Mrs. Montresor per se, but of the style she embodies here.

- AP

For Lesage

 

Gentle Reader -

This is a Chinese wallpaper from Blair House in Washington, DC. Perhaps it is potential inspiration for the French embroidery firm Lesage. Can you imagine this as an embroidered jacket, the way Lesage used to do for YSL?

The downside: the hours that would be involved to create it. Another reason why haute couture isn't what it used to be.

- AP

The Aristocratic Principle in Fashion

Gentle Reader -

Fashion theorists and fashionistas alike are searching for something. Call it exclusivity, luxury or mystique, there is magic in fashion.

Let us call this a search for the 'Aristocratic Principle.' It is a tenet that is opposed to the Big Fashion of today, always in search of new markets.

Nor does it necessarily assume clothes for the wealthy. No, the Aristocratic Principle is quite simple: to be original without being outlandish. The rest somehow - magically - falls into place.

In today's fashion, look to Tokyo, small ateliers in any major Italian city, and (of course) the back streets of Paris and London.

- AP

Alex Streets: Modesty as Fashion?

Cleopatra's city is long gone. Today, the Egyptian city of Alexandria retains memories of its history, but not much else for those in the pursuit of fashion's cutting edge.

The question posed here: can fashion be inherently modest? If you're designing in India or Tunisia, you're wrestling with this question, too.

- AP

Future Fashion: Quantum Couture

Couture at the press of a button: a future with limitless options of dress. This kind of instantaneous fashion may require quantum methods of creation. Are we 700 years in the future? Or will it be tomorrow?

- AP

Future Fashion: Couture Libre

Can you imagine a couture house without a directrice? That indispensable figure: part mother, part doyenne and always a diplomat?

Maybe it's time that the Chambre Syndicale take a strategic look at the role of haute couture and find some relevance not only in today's world, but in the future.

I am not advocating here, but there are indications that perhaps the venerable tradition of made-to-order clothing should undergo a transformation:

- Identify the techniques of haute couture and pass those on to future generations
- Produce limited examples rather than full collections
- Consider restructuring the traditional business model of haute couture

In other words, a "free" couture - without the pressures of selling.

Perhaps we will see the directrice as the real power of a couture libre, hiring couturiers to fit the need of clients.

- AP

The Invisible Hand 2: Philippe Venet

Gentle Reader -

With fashion as Big Business, it is sometimes hard to remember - or imagine - the days of haute couture's heyday. The masses who read the fashion titles know the designer names, but certainly not the names of couturiers (et oui, couturières aussi!).

Philippe Venet. Look him up. Study the images. This is homework.

There is a politeness of silhouette, as if Venet's muse never strayed very far from the exclusive worlds of the aristocratic 7th or grand bourgeois 16th in Paris - particularly after 1968. You might think this could hinder one's talent. In the case of Venet, it allowed for a flowering of a woman in a certain private world.

To put it another way, Venet could be called the Master of Discretion.

Venet's talent has never been underestimated, merely overlooked. This is both a danger and an advantage for those who pursue fashion with an Invisible Hand.

- AP

TPC Trendwatch - November 09

Gentle Reader -

When working with trends, you must not show a bias. Rather, simply record the impression, and look to see if there are corroborations. Some notes from this weekend:

Tea gaining ground over coffee? Coffee may keep us awake, but tea seems to make us aware.

Allergens and perfume? Chanel No. 5 may be billed as the first synthetic perfume, but are we heading toward completely artificial compositions? Aren't we already there?

Probiotic cocktails? Live cultures in one's martini glass? Kombucha and vodka - stirred?

A return to the grand fabrics: the names are almost forgotten - Abraham, Bucol, Rubelli - that once used to appear in the haute couture issues of fashion magazines. These are the names of the suppliers of great fabric (not a complete list). Is a short jacket in emerald silk faille instead of black, ballistic nylon no longer possible?

Mosaics and pietre dure in jewellery: as cuff bracelets?

Cyprus: there are so many reasons why this island should be watched. Location alone makes it an ideal place to launch Eastern Mediterranean couture.

Renaissance Street Fashion

Gentle Reader -

If one is going to paint an ideal city, shouldn't the fashion match as well?

Italian fashion has a long legacy of dressing to complement both oneself and the surroundings.

The street as fashion inspiration goes way before YSL and Mary Quant.

But which streets to choose from? Tokyo or London? A global stylist will take from all the major cities and then sift for key themes.

In the above painting, it's all about harmony and balance.

- AP

The Future of Artiface

 

The face that stares out in the photo is from the 18th Century. Yet there is something in the eyes that suggests the future of fashion. Artifice always has a front row seat in fashion. What are commonly seen as 'fake' or 'false' (as in hair and eyelashes, respectively) are really transformational aids.

The 18th Century, particularly in Paris and Venice, took artifice to an extreme we now find ridiculous.

However, the future will have a renewed use for artifice that will be:

- practical (embedded applications in clothing or skin - but not implants)
- dramatic (always a favored purpose for artifice)
- chic and nomadic (wear only the sleek things you need to survive)

Some things to consider as the ultimate transformational day approaches, Halloween.

- AP

Alex Light: Fashion Themes to Ponder

Gentle Reader -


We return once again to the serene light of Alex to ponder the following:

1. Jean-Louis Scherrer: in his heyday (when he ran the house), Scherrer was code for that elusive mix of bourgeois, sensual and chic. That mix doesn't work in every time period or place, but in the 70s to mid-80s, it was right. Vintagers, that's a hint.

2. The overuse of coral: both as material and color, coral fascinates. However, it is time to give both a rest - before it factors into another trendbook...again. Can carnelian and lapis lazuli make a return?

3. Moiré: it is amazing how impressive or tragic the iridescent ripples of moiré can seem - depending on the season. Use moiré with velvet for the best effects in winter; with white in spring.

Is it just this writer, or does moiré look completely wrong in summer and autumn?

Have a great weekend.

- AP

Rio Male Beauty Secrets

This just in -

The simplest dictum for the streets of Rio de Janeiro's Zona Sul:

- be easy and take care of yourself

Nothing is as hard to accomplish as effortlessness.

- AP

Orientation and Alignment

Gentle Reader -

How do you know when it is time for a change?
I am referring to the internal compass which, from time to time, indicates that some shift in direction must be made. It could be as simple as changing one's fragrance or shade of lipstick.

But there are other moments, much rarer in occasion, when a complete upturning, a revolution, is in order. In these cases, it's not just a matter of an internal compass, but a true shift of fashion's poles of attraction.

Examples from Western Civilization's Past:

The shift from robes to pants
The abolition of the corset
Pants as part of female attire
The abolition of ornamental male daywear

I am predicting that by the 2030's we should really see the transition to the future of fashion. This is really sooner than you think.

- AP

Weekend Assignment: Fashion 2016

Gentle Reader -

While togas are so yesterday, glimpses of the future can be had right now.

The weekend assignment: fashion in 2016. What does it look like? Why? How did certain trends emerge? How much does fashion diverge from right now?

In other words, become an armchair trend forecaster over the next few days. The results may surprise you!

- AP

Roman Toga: Material Wealth

Gentle Reader -

After several weeks of fashion collections in the now, a quick trip into the ancient past felt right. The lines of the toga speak of a time when wealth was in part indicated not only by the quality of material, but the length.

A marked contrast from current fashion, to be sure.

As for future fashion, who knows?

- AP

A Quick Word to Maison Ungaro

To those readers at Ungaro:

Strongly consider returning to the couture with a small collection from your new design duo.

You have created the publicity, now use it.

- AP

Paris Fashion Decoder

The messages of the recent collections in Paris?

Answer #1: knowledge of manual technique can push what is possible in industrial production.

Answer #2: more effort is really needed to keep haute couture not just alive, but viable.

Answer #3: this was a season - and not just in Paris - where there was a real search for what was both directional and wearable. Not easy at all.

Not Ready to Wear Yet

Gentle Reader -

Should we be calling ready-to-wear by this term? In the past few weeks, various sites have posted photos - and reviews - from the collections for Spring-Summer 2010. Excitement has been built, but orders have to be placed and clothes made. And so we wait. Not very ready, is it?

Here is the observation, once again: the more the images of collections are published and click-on around the world, the more those images reflect the now, and not the intended season. It does the fashion system no good to have rounds of image hype that gets digested faster than, well, you get the idea.

One has to be very inventive to keep the momentum going until deliveries are finally made.

- AP

Sphinx: Collect Alexander McQueen Now

- Alexander McQueen's recent collection is instant vintage: directional, important and well-made. Arguably the best collection of the season. There are implications in those dresses. Also, were those shoes, or futurized chopines?

- Fragrance is so much better when it is refrigerated.

- A note to fashion editors everywhere: your subscribers need you to guide them through deconstruction.

- Vintage-vintage: late 60s Hanae Mori, 1970s Cardin, 1980s Mary McFadden.

Spring-Summer 2010: Hyperfashion

Gentle Reader -

After the barrage of looks for next season - and we won't mention the show at Ungaro - it is clear that we are solidly in the age of hyperfashion.

While fashion editors have either solidly made up their minds, or need a week in St. Barts to sort it all out, fashion has now become a bit arbitrary - with a hint of a point-of-view. But why do I say 'hyperfashion'?

Call it a fashion theory of non-relativity (sorry, Albert E.): clothes that don't relate to women; aesthetic mixes that are cultural pastiches; the over-detailed with not-enough-detail.

There are probably enough people who, with thoughts of YSL in their heads, are lamenting this current state of fashion, "Bring back the standards of elegance and beauty!" - you can almost hear them...if only because that voice we too hear.

This is not a time to be dour-faced on current fashion. Far from it. Hyperfashion allows for freedom, experimentation and creative voice. The passion for clothing design is still there in the hearts of those who bow on the catwalk after the show, hoping that their presentations will make a mark and hopefully sell well.

But is this the end of Big Fashion?

- AP

Summer in the City: Chicago (2016) and Paris (Now)

I couldn't think of a better picture to say "The Summer Olympic Games".
This is the Chagall Mosaic in Chicago.

A quick note regarding the Paris P-E ("Spring/Summer") 2010: are we still waiting? Safety in fashion is something Paris has never done well.

- AP

iPhone Fashion

Gentle Reader -

We're reaching a point where fashion designers really must include a phone slot into clothes. Cell phones and smartphones alike should be held stylishly in place, yet easy to retrieve when necessary.

With the above sketch (done with Autodesk SketchBook Mobile for the iPhone), the question is, where would the phone slot be?

Just a light, breezy question during the rounds of fashion shows still underway. Spring may be in the air, but there is a seriousness in the undercurrent.

We are waiting for Paris.


- AP

The Space Age: Courrèges

Gentle Reader -

There was once upon a time an era when fashion looked to the future. André Courrèges is arguably the father of Space Age couture. In many ways, Courrèges took the clean, geometric lines favored by Balenciaga and pushed further - to the extreme limits.

Once the moon landings were televised, the Space Age - at least for earth fashion - was over.

While vintage collectors tend to favor this 1960's period of Courrèges, the master still produced clothing along these same lines. Courrèges pushed his aesthetic further, creating by the mid 1980's clothing that was also classical.

Later Courrèges is better Courrèges. A note for those who are still searching for the perfect A-line dress for a cocktail party on the Moon.

- AP

Original Style

 

Sometimes, style is everything. Chanel knew this all too well.

- AP

Sphinx: New Utterances (Hors Serie)

From the Palmier Fountain in Paris...

Utterance of the Day: Ungaro! Where are you?

Utterance of the Week: in fashion, one must learn the nuances between right and left as well as right and wrong. Knowledge of the differences can spell success or disaster in a collection.

Utterance of the Century: A dress does not need nanotechnology to live. Nanotechnology is needed to look like Jane Jetson.

What is Luxury?

Gentle Reader -

Just as fashion has been freed of the strict code of social ordering (OK, 90% free), it has also almost free notions of luxury.

For those old enough to remember, luxury had nothing to do with brands and logos. However clouded by romantic notions of authenticity (one of the more fraudulent concepts ever conjured), luxury is now simply the best of the moment.

There are those for whom luxury is represented by Hermès.
And there are those for whom, inspired by Imperial China, luxury is the sound of crickets at night.

Allow yourself to determine what is luxury in your own world.

- AP

The Invisible Hand: Mainbocher

Fashion tends to remember those who make a splash or create drama through clothes. However, there are those "quiet" designers whose influence still carries on decades later. Such is the case with Mainbocher (1890-1976).

Mainbocher was a transatlantic designer, a rarity in his day, and best known for Wallis Simpson's wedding dress (when she married Edward, Duke of Windsor). Yet he also created a slim suit for his often lady-like clientele. This suit still works today, if only because it is in contrast to today's trends.

There is genius in the invisible hand a designer can use. Mainbocher's talent was to use this talent of invisibility so that only the wearer makes the impression, not the dress.

It is one of the most difficult feats to produce, particularly in today's world of fashion.

- AP

Fashion Ease

Can fashion be uncomplicated and stylish? A thought while contemplating the Mediterranean at Alexandria.

- AP

Alta Moda/The Red Master: Valentino

Gentle Reader -

What ever happened to haute couture from Rome? Indeed, it is as if alta moda never happened. Today, most people (rightly so) associate Italian fashion with Milan.

For those with access to the archives of fashion past, a quick look through the pages of Italian Vogue are enough to inspire both frustration and admiration. The oft-times lack of originality gives rise to the former; the display of technical skill, the latter.

Valentino [Garavani] used to be associated with the alta moda of the 60s-80s, but the Red Master is in a category all to himself. There is throughout his work - from suits to elaborate gowns - not only a sensuousness, but more to the point, a sinewy finesse that is the marriage of silhouette and skill. Thus, his work places him conceptually closer to Paris.

For those firmly in the alta moda camp:

Roberto Capucci
Renato Balestra
Fausto Sarli
Mila Schön
Irene Galitzine
Furstenburg (Egon, not Diane)

The alta moda, however, is not dead, just in need of new life, new creators, new visions of what high fashion can be.

- AP

Thinking Pink, Again

It seems that trends in fashion seem to last less and repeat more often. The key "color of the season" may go down this path as well. Why do you suddenly want incorporate eggplant purple into your wardrobe? Or conversely, why is that lime/avocado item suddenly the one to put into storage?

Which colors are you - no matter what the fashion editors tell you?

For fall, creamy gray with Belgian chocolate brown seems to feel just right.

- AP

Sphinx: Masters to Collect

A sampling of areas of focus for this Tuesday:

Claude Montana for Lanvin
Karl Lagerfeld for Chloé
Mid-1980s Ferre Couture
First collections: Donna Karan, Prada
Last collections: YSL
Givenchy: 1970's Nouvelle Boutique

For some, these are pieces to collect. For others, these are designers to study further.

- AP

Coastal Fashion/Pre-Resort 2010

 

While France has already experienced la rentrée, those in the United States are soon to experience Labor Day - or better known as the End of Summer.


Instead of the usual fantastic voyages by yacht that seem to inspire resort collections, how about a collection that reminds wearers about the sand, sun and the ocean - without the boat?

Think khaki, not gold or silver metallics.


A thought for the next time you see a fashion layout that screams "Resort" but uses same fashion elements of the past 10 years.

- AP

DIY Vintage/Paris Originals - Nina Ricci

Gentle Reader -

There was a time when fashion came from Paris; everything else was a copy from Paris. That time is long past, but there is nothing to stop one from recreating those Paris Originals.

Here is a Vogue Pattern from Nina Ricci. The lines of the dress still work today: simple and chic.

- AP

La Rentrée - Anew

Gentle reader -


Are Spring/Summer and Fall/Winter the only kinds of major collections fashion can have? For instance, why hasn't French RTW come up with a small collection just for la rentrée - that time of year when the summer vacations have ended and the nation seems to 'get back to work.' Of course it isn't quite that simple. The law in France is a very powerful thing.

Perhaps the more cynical reader would prefer a collection timed just for strikes in the French capital...



In any case, it's time once again for a new season at the Paris Copy - including a new look.

Enjoy!

- AP

Paris Couture: Why Lacroix? More on Dior!

Christian Lacroix, in this writer's view, had the best collection of the recent shows. Why?

The answer isn't simple one. Surely the feeling that this might be "the end" of the House of Lacroix surely left moments of both joy and sadness. You may recall that the house recently filed for the French equivalent of bankruptcy protection.

Paul Poiret, the great couturier of the early 20th century, was in a similar predicament in the 1920's. Certainly the headscarves at the Lacroix show were eerily similar to those worn by Denise Poiret, the wife and muse of Paul Poiret during his heyday.

Really, the show was a moment: as if the grand ladies of Arles (as envisioned by Lacroix), with all of the regional splendor found in prior collections over the years, had become, surprisingly, Parisian in their dress.

In many ways, the show recalled those days when Lacroix was at Jean Patou in the 1980s. In sum, it was a bittersweet collection that showed promise for the future for the house, no matter how slim the actual chances for continuing may be.

--

Much has been made of the Dior collection, which, with its transparency and revealing of hosiery, felt a bit burlesque. That is, at first glance.

A closer study shows that it could be interpreted as a collection of separates. Given that today's woman does not dress in ensembles (one of couture's many holdovers from its glory years in the 1950s), it made complete sense to show the exquisite jackets and voluminous ball skirts as options to completed by the wearer - or by über-stylist Rachel Zoe.

- AP

Brazilian Prep

Gentle Reader -

The costumes of Carnivale are the easy icons of Rio de Janeiro. The sunga - the square cut men's swimsuit - is almost as well known. But what about Brazilian Prep looks?

Consider the American Prep look, like the late American poet, Elizabeth Bishop, going south:

- Colors: hot pinks mixed with jade green; light blues crossed with yellows
- Combinations: seersucker and feathers, linen and glitter

However, consider these for evening only. Brazilian Prep is a possible direction for cruise (aka, resort) collections for winter 2010.

- AP

Paris Couture: Fall-Winter 2009/10

If it is July, then there must be a week of haute couture. But for how long?
Consider that couture no longer pushes fashion forward. Consider that the names seem to dwindle down each season. And exactly how many couture clients are left in this era of the Great Recession?

There are those who would say that the time for very expensive dresses is completely over.

That might be the case. However, the look and feel of a dress that is made by hand, that moves with the knowledge of wearer's movement sewn into it requires years to make technique look magical. To create this kind of poetry through fabric is one of the sacred arts of the world.

Because in this world that prefers keystrokes to craft, human artistry is indeed one of those mysteries that we should preserve.

A special thanks to those couture suppliers who helped to make the Lacroix show such a beautiful gift.

- AP

The Fashionable Scarf

Gentle Reader -

For some time now, the accessory has become the fashion statement - not the actual clothes. For many women, shoes and bags speak for themselves. But there are other places, like Cairo, where headscarves tell the story.

- AP

Sphinx: New Tribalism

First, two Utterances for the century. If you are new to the Paris Copy, then think of these "utterances" from the Palmier fountain in Paris as an oracle:


V80: The future was once fashionable. Now, it is simply technological. To regain the future, style must go ancient.

V81: Lesage is the only firm that can translate the wonder of Australian dreamings into fabulous capes. This should not take 20 years, just one client.

While the Utterances are normally cryptic, V80 and V81 are suggesting that we are in the beginning patterns of New Tribalism.

New Tribalism is not a collection sent down the catwalk in Paris or Milan, informed by trend reports and funded by a percentage of last season's sales. However, elements of any collection might find their way into the overall mix, the presentation, as it were.

New Tribalism is to be found in native totems, the plumage of exceptional birds, and the joy of semi-precious stones. The themes of design connect the urban dweller to the stars.

- AP

Court Fashion: The Dukes of Burgundy

Gentle Reader -

There was a time when the court of the dukes of Burgundy wielded power, style and flair. This time in history is just a launch point...

Velvets, damasks and linens - boldly dyed and richly embroidered, the late Middle Ages was a time of experimental fashion. And a time of transition as well.

The cloth dominated fashion up to this time:

- what kind, what color, how much decoration, and who could wear what.

In other words, fashion wasn't quite free way back then.

Now, in fashion history classes, it's easy to get bored with doublets and hennins - whether or not you know the actual names for these archaic pieces of Western dress, you've seen them before.

Examples include:

- Agnes Sorel: any representation will do, but notice the bodice first and the hairline second.

- Venice: before 1453, Venetian style is bit more opulent than Florentine style.

- Jean Sans Peur: because his name just sounds better than 'John the Fearless'.

Remember, those archaic pieces are the foundation for modern fashion, and mark a period (a very long period) when the Rule of Who Could Wear What (the Rule of Cloth) transitions to the Rule of What One Can Get Away With (the Rule of Form).

- AP

For Young Designers

Gentle Reader -

The fashion game as it has been played is, like so many things in this Age of Transition, over.

If you are a young designer (read: just starting out, no matter what your age), consider the following:

- regular podcasts rather than advertising in magazines
- show fewer, but better designed, clothes and accessories
- focus on being a cult brand with loyal followers (read: people who buy) rather than store buyers
- "tweet" your inspirations

Fashion images have become the fast-food of style: consumed at a rate that does not help actual clothes being shown at stores. Sure, it is nice to think of becoming the next Yves, Ralph, or Galliano.

But the way it was done may not be the way to do it now.

- AP

Lacroix

Gentle Reader -

As you may have read elsewhere, Maison Christian Lacroix has filed for bankruptcy protection.

This is but one more sign that the 19th century model of the couture house - as envisioned by Charles Frederick Worth - is over.

However, this is not the end of Lacroix, or the end of creation.

Creation in fashion, la mode, must withstand the pressures of the marketplace. Otherwise, we are doomed to clothing that is without vision.

- AP

June: Instant Fashion

 

It is sometimes perplexing to see how industry cycles are often at complete odds with the seasons of the year. This isn't a critique, but a question of "why not?"

For the beginning of June and in the spirit of "why not?":

- Fashion collections held much closer to the season in which they are actually worn. Who wants to wait for clothing six months later when the images are already current. By the time the clothes hits stores, those images are already old.

- Better yet, when traveling, don't pack. Instead, work with your hotel's concierge to provide a wardrobe that is ready for you when you arrive. Who doesn't want to feel the sense of wonder of a room filled with presents?

- AP

Poiret

Gentle Reader -

Paul Poiret was one of those few individuals in fashion who happened to be a visionary, but not a great craftsman. What does this mean, exactly?

If you take a look at his clothing when compared to Callot Soeurs, Lanvin, or even Redfern (who remembers that name nowadays?), there is striking detail, but little technical mastership of what makes a dress, well, a dress.

However, no other person was as responsible for defining the look of the years before the Great War (World War I, for those in North America).

Poiret orientalized Parisian couture. This may not be Poiret's most significant contribution, but it is one of the more revolutionary moments in haute couture, setting the stage for YSL's references many decades later.

The best place to see Poiret's work is not up close. Rather, the illustrations of Paul Iribe define Poiret's moment when he was the Pasha of Paris.


- AP

Sphinx: Utterances C23-C27 (The Next Wave)

Yes, it's that time again when the waters that come from the Palmier Fountain in Paris portend of possible things to come...


C23: Eco-shamanauts: earth-aware travellers of the 26th Century who mix tribal with space age in a sustainable way. Think white, ochre, and grass with gold.

C24: Smart ceramics in everyday life are not far way, but need to be invited into the present. Smart ceramics have manners.

C25: A shift from jewellery to adornments will emphasize the healing potential of rocks.

C26: The cravat (necktie) in traditional Japanese fabrications for Spring/Summer 2013.

C27: Lanvin, Balenciaga, Alaïa: Paris has regained the lead. But who would bet on Venice?

Court Fashion: First French Emprie

Gentle Reader -

One of the great mysteries of fashion is the Empire style and its frequent appearances throughout modern designer collections.

How is this style, which essentially is a Greek Revival shift, able to come back again and again? Poiret, Balenciaga, YSL, Lagerfeld for Chanel...the list goes on of desginers/couturiers/stylists who have visited the exaggerated proportions (high bustline/waistline) that are the Empire-style hallmark.

A few reasons to offer:

1. The women who wore them: Josephine Beauharnais (later, Bonaparte), Madame Recamier
2. The painters who immortalized them: David, Ingres
3. Simplicity of silhouette

Later interpretations are often in heavier or embroidered fabrics, but we must remember that the original versions were really quite revealing. Many of the fabrics used were sheer and suggestive of the form that was wearing them.

The Empire style's true success is that it is one of the few garment styles to have successfully made the transition from Ancient Greece(conceptually, at least) to the modern fashion canon. This is a style of clothing that did not require women to wear a corset, making it the most modern (and ancient) thing for an independent woman to wear.


- AP

Sporting Club Style - Cairo

 

In the great cities and former imperial capitals of the world, fashion is something that nowadays is found on the street or on red carpets of the annual spectacles which are televised the world over.

Still to be found, however, are these enclaves of style, where fashion takes a back seat to codes of class and social status. Notice that I have made a distinction between style and fashion, for they are really two different things. Just ask Ralph Lauren.

If you're in Cairo, you know that SCS (aka, sporting club style) is perhaps even more reassuring than American Prep.

And what does the photo have to do with all this? I happened to be near the entrance of one of the more exclusive clubs in Cairo, so this photograph is a clue.

- AP

Fashion: The Tone of the 2010's

Can the future inform the present? Can the far-future inform the near future? This might prove to be the case in this Age of Aquarius. Whether or not you believe in astrology, there are certain facts about effects of the earth's axis over time, and this would be one of them. We are entering a new time period. To give the gentle reader some perspective, the bust above is from the latter part of the Age of Aries.

We are in the first stages of a conscious push-pull between what is

natural, sustainable, organic, traditional, authentic, etc.

and

technological, mechanical, metallic, wired, "nano"-anything

This will be far deeper than just fashion, though Mr. C. (as in Chalayan; not to be confused with Monsieur G. at Balenciaga) and Euoko skincare have already tested the waters of the future.

Again, a push-pull should be evident, whether or not men still wear suits and skins. Evident whether or not we live in cities and in communes (again).

Evident whether or not we create a utopia or a nightmare.

Of course, the present will choose its own future. But what lies ahead is already here.

- AP

The Feeling: 1940's

Gentle Reader -

Are the 1940's back? For those who are bored with the ever-quickening cycles of "past re-hash", this time it's a bit different.

Of course, it really isn't about the 1940's. But the current mood, "the feeling", as it were, is about resistance.

Resistance has its positives and negatives. However the shoulders, the print dresses, seem to suggest that period when Paris was occupied.

And we all know the last time that happened.

Remember, the current mood isn't exactly the tone for the next decade. That's a topic for next week.

- AP

Sphinx: Hints of Style

C21: For autumn/winter collections: evening jackets of satin duchesse and lacquer. The effect: the Art Déco vases of Jean Dunand.

C22: Venetian glassware still inspires. Look to the 1560's - 1630's for examples.

C23: Black pearl cuff links.

Future Fashion: Designer Auras

Gentle Reader -

Health and wellness products and fashion are not a new phenom. However a quick trip into either the past of the future suggests the following:

- Tea that can change human auras to desired shapes and colors around the body. Perhaps an oolong blend that gives a health-inspiring red-gold tone. A kind of 'suntan' for the spirit.

Of course, what if tea already does this? Perhaps Kusmi and Mariage Frères would be the best suited to take advantage of this trend - before it occurs.

- AP

The Attitude of Color

There are those who wonder how pictures of everyday Cairo can equal "fashion". I suppose that one has to be open to the social reading of clothing in order to understand what might be considered fashion.

However, today is about the attitude of color - which colors evoke certain feelings?
Power Red, anyone? In the photo above, we have green and blue - two of the more tranquil colors.

For those who believe in THE COLOR of the fashion season, any quick flip through archives of major magazines will soon show that those key colors in fabric soon become out of date.

Remember, colors aren't just colors. If your spirits are lifted with yellow accents, by all means see how much yellow you can get away with and not look like a canary.


- AP