MAD FOR PLAID – CATHERINE HOLSTEIN

One of my favorite presentations this past NY fashion week was by Catherine Holstein. Now, I must admit that I am and always have been mad for plaid, but Ms. Holstein executed it in such a too cool for school way. The collection had a loose and easy quality. The oversized shapes of the coat and the boyfriend shirt/dresses were surprisingly sexy. So I am glad I braved the freezing winds of Chinatown, the long line and dark creaky stairwell up to the raggedy loft to see this presentation. As we NYers know, the most questionable looking places are often the coolest.

EMERGING DESIGNER – JULIAN LOUIE

On February 19 during NY fashion week, I attended the presentation of an emerging designer named Julian Louie at Milk Studio on W 15th Street. Flamenco music playing in the background hinted at the Spanish torero inspiration for the collection. Currently, Mr. Louie is only sold in one store which is Ron Herman in L.A. Meeting the designer you could sense that kind of mysterious quality of one guarding something very precious, wanting what they have created to be admired but not wanting the unworthy to have their hands on it. Although at the designer of price point of $2000 to $6000, these clothes will be reserved for the few who can afford it. Mr. Louie is what is to be considered a forward designer, especially by American terms. But what I found most interesting about the clothes was that these women somehow reminded me of Connecticut housewives, albeit housewives of the highest order who dress for lunch. Somehow the shapes were so tailored and clean that in a different setting one could wear the jackets with a sensible skirt or pants, carry a camel Hermes kelly bag and look perfectly acceptable having lunch at the club. There is a neatness to this designer’s work, a precision and balance. Not surprising since he studied architecture at Parsons. The styling of the models also reminded me of modernized Alfred Hitchcock’s heroines, so perfectly dressed that it almost seems subversively perfect. I also found the color palette refreshing. Classic camel, white and black were uplifted by pale turquoise with a dash of copper. I think this is a designer to watch.

Edward Angelo Enrique

How to wear a vest – one button at a time

Here pictured are style arbiters Thom Browne and Jim Nelson, GQ editor at GQ’s party during Milan fashion week. Obviously, vests are in, but vests with the top button undone are even more. Details, darlings, details…

image courtesy of wwd.com

Edward Angelo Enrique

The Mad Men of Revolutionary(?) Thom Browne

Thom Browne, Pitti Uomo 2008

Revolutionary Road

Mad Men

This year at Pitti Uomo in Florence, U.S. menswear designer Thom Browne staged a show with 40 identically dressed models in an identical office setting set in a Fascist building citing the event as the “day in the life of an office drone, circa 1955.” Yesterday, I saw the movie Revolutionary Road set in the mid-1950’s about a couple’s disintegration at the hands of their inability to cope with the hopelessness of the mediocre and typical suburban life that they have somehow become entrenched in, the husband played by Leonardo Caprio himself an “office drone” trapped in a meaningless well-paying job. Mad Men, a drama series on AMC cable channel, is set in the 1960’s and follows the ruthlessly competitive lives of the men and women who work at a Madison Avenue advertising firm. I call to question the fascination of Thom Browne with a period of American history both romanticized and condemned for its exactitude and homogenization of how people dressed and lived. I call to question our own American fascination with this period. Thom Browne is now one the most acclaimed menswear designers in the U.S., winning the CFDA mens designer of the year award in 2006, and carried by some of the best stores in the world. Revolutionary Road is an “Oscar” nominated film with Kate Winslet already winning the Golden Globe. Mad Men is now one of the most critically acclaimed tv series winning both Emmy and Golden Globe awards for best tv drama series.  We know from history that the surface perfection and look of  the 50’s was underscored by an overwhelming repression of individuality. No wonder that alcoholism, smoking and infidelity (duly represented in both Revolutionary Road and Mad Men) help to take the edge off from trying to be the perfect Jones, the acceptable Smith. Yet as a person of fashion and an appreciator of organization, it is hard not to admire the precise dressing of Thom Browne, the tailored uniform of everyday professionalism – the suit. After almost a decade of Juicy Couture, Abercrombie and Fitch, and L.A. denim where looking fit and unkempt at the same time was the look, it is perhaps refreshing to be re-“pressed” in the tailored lines of suit. And, as many fashion critics cite, Thom Browne’s retro ascetic aesthetic is actually subversive, a return to personal order amidst a chaotic, unsure and frightening new world.

by Edward Angelo Enrique

Rachel Roy Pre-fall 09 – I like

I figure that I should really write about American designers, seeing that is the territory I cover for work. Simply, I like this collection by Rachel Roy. Normally, I have been a bit suspect of this designer, wife of Damon Dash, celebrity socialite, rich gal turned designer. I always felt the collection was overdone, somewhat contrived, trying too hard. Then I received a lookbook for Pre-fall in the mail and was surprised by how much I liked it. I liked the styling, the model, the angular yet musted-up bob, and the clothes. Funnily enough on style.com, it says that the designer’s philosophy for this collection is “Buy now, wear now”.  And, for me, what has emerged is a collection that looks naturally stylish, unfussy and just more modern. There is a dash of personality from Mrs. Dash with the striped cowl top, a snippet of edge in the straight edge collar of this great LBD but edited to a very wearable and succinct point. And the point is these clothes look good, buy it and wear it now.

images courtesy of style.com

by Edward Angelo Enrique

Lanvin Pre-fall 2009 – Pure glam

Now one of the other giants of French fashion, Alber Elbaz, has decided to go the opposite route of Balenciaga by continuing with French glam for his pre-fall collection for Lanvin. These are not clothes to walk down the street, for the meeting room, or to meet the parents. These are outfits which require a car to pick you up and drop you on the red carpet doorstep of a fabulous place only known to the fabulous people inside. This is recession be damned. So who is to say which designer is right in these troubled times, Ghesquiere with more “real” clothes for Balenciaga or Elbaz maintaining French glam for Lanvin? Either way, I still admire that the French, arbiters of style that they are, have taken a firm stance whether it be glam or “real” with panache as evidenced by the one thing that the Balenciaga girl and the Lanvin lady have in common…gloves.

image courtesy of style.com

by Edward Angelo Enrique

Balenciaga Pre-Fall 2009 – Real clothes

I don’t know about you, but fashion seems a bit daunting in these economically dismal times. What does it mean? What is it worth? I do think that fashion should be a reflection of some sort of reality, whether that be our internal fantasy world or the external hard pavement world we walk in. As big retailers go Chapter 11 and big brands downsize, how does fashion redress and readdress its purpose, its reason for being. That’s why I was fascinated to see Nicholas Ghesquiere’s collection for Pre-fall. For a designer whose collections are oft described in words like “glamazon”, “futuristic”, even “extraterrestrial”, I find this collection decidedly “real”. Mind you, I know that runway collections are not necessarily the clothes that end up on the rack. They are the fantasy that lures you in. I also know that Pre-fall is undoubtedly a more realistic collection with a longer floor life with a goal to sell. But since Ghesquiere took the helm of Balenciaga, he was a new guard prince of fashion fantasy. Yet, I sense a shift in sensibility in this collection. It is chic, undoubtedly. Fashionable, but of course. But these are clothes, outfits, ready to walk down the street, into the office, to meet someone’s mother. These are “sensible” clothes that a “not so average” average woman can wear. Monsieur Ghesquiere, I applaud you. I worshiped your Glamazons, fashion superheroines they were, but your ladies of pre-fall 2009  have come to down to earth just as gracefully.

images courtesy of style.com

by Edward Angelo Enrique

SONIA RYKIEL – PREGNANCY LEADS TO DESIGN CAREER

Want to know how to get started as a designer. JFDI! (Just F*****G Do It). Or in Sonia Rykiel’s case, get pregnant. Sonia Rykiel, a fixture of Paris fashion for 40 years now, is known for him arty left bank fashion full of bold color and graphics. Following are some interesting tidbits from her interview with fashion trade mag, WWD:

“WWD: How did you start in fashion?
Sonia Rykiel: I didn’t have a metier. I was supposed to be a mother, like my mother, who didn’t work. I had two children-Nathalie and Jean-Philippe. My husband had a boutique called Laura. I wanted a maternity dress and I couldn’t find anything I liked. Everything was abominable. So I made one. Then I made a pullover. Elle put it on the cover. Then WWD elected me the queen of knitwear.

WWD: How did you work at first?
S.R.: I made clothes spontaneously. When it rained, for example, I designed a trenchcoat. When it was cold, I did a coat. I followed my instincts. It was fantastic for someone who knew absolutely nothing about fashion.”

Just goes to show you that succeeding in fashion is not necessarily about being trained in fashion. It is about “being” fashion.  And obviously by looking at Sonia’s pic above, this is not a woman who styles herself according to the dictates of what other people say. She is rather like a fierce bird, glorious in plumage yet with eyes like a hawk.

Image courtesy of daylife.com

by Edward Angelo Enrique

BALMAIN – DEFINING STREET CHIC

Christophe Decarnin, the designer of Balmain, is surely the coolest new kid on the designer block. His high voltage rocker chic a la Paris is effortless and powerful. Take this lookfrom his most recent SS09 fashion show. Yes, 80’s themes abound. The Michael Jacksonesque military jacket – done here in washed blue denim, the contriviality fades away. The deconstructed jean – in the U.S. the baggy destructed boyfriend jean (Current/Elliot) as spotted on Katie Holmes reigns, but Monsieur Decarnin streamlines the silhouette to practically a white “legging” with one tear at the knee and slight bunching around the ankle. Activewear influence – slightly oversized perforated fabric top (could that be leather?!). Finish it off with a sexy strappy studded stiletto (say that ten times, can I have a bracelet like that too?) and rumpled bob. This is high fashion with street sensibilities. And this new shoulder shape, a more delicate power shoulder than the quarterback pads of the Dallas show days. Genius!

by Edward Angelo Enrique

*Image courtesy of style.com

EAT PRAY LOVE …. AND DRESS UP?

I am reading the book “eat pray love” by Elizabeth Gilbert about a woman’s quest for pleasure and enlightenment. I thought the quote below was most interesting and particularly speaks to fashion folk.

“…you need to learn how to select your thoughts the same way you select what clothes you’re gonna wear. This is a power you can cultivate. If you want to control things in your life so bad, work on the mind…Because if you can’t learn to master your thinking, you’re in deep trouble forever…”

It is a powerful and easy way to approach battling the demons of the mind. Just the same way you would throw out a ratty old sweater that does not fit well, you throw out thoughts that don’t improve your internal fabulousness. But the same rigor one should use to edit the walk-in closet of one’s mind, one should also apply to their outer wardrobe. What we choose to bedeck ourselves in can mean so much more than going to work or going to the grocery store. Dressing oneself can be a powerful assertion of strength, self-respect as well as creativity and self-expression.

I myself think that dressing the same every day is boring and so limiting. As children, we played make believe, dressing up in costumes and taking everyday objects and transforming them into things of another world. I still in my edited adult way approach dressing with a sense of play. Somedays, I call upon the inner preppiness of my youth and throw in a dash of the more European chic of my recent travels. Another day, I might feel a bit goth and wear black and lots of silver jewelry (although my inner prepster will throw some plaid just to lighten it up.) Accessories can also be mini portals of transcension…my ancient buddha necklace to the far east, multiple bangles to Diane Vreeland, oversized man bag to jet setting travels.

Who cares if noone else notices? It’s your own outer/inner journey!