March 4, 2007 5:20
The Look of The Moment
Karl Prouse / Catwalking / Getty
After two weeks on the road watching fashion shows night and day, it's easy to lose track of why we're here (we being the editors and buyers who flock to Milan and Paris every six months or so to check out the latest offerings from designers). Critics opine about what looks hot and what is decidedly not hot. Buyers rush from front row to designer showrooms and try to strike a balance between shockingly new and shockingly safe clothing. At the end of the day we're all here to figure out what women are going to wear next season--to decipher and distill "the look" of the moment. At times like these I miss my late friend and colleague Kal Ruttenstein who was the fashion director of Bloomingdale's. Kal was a real pro who knew fashion and had his finger on the pulse. He was what the French would call a bete de la mode. He knew where to sniff out the latest look and he could always sum it up in one sentence. If he were here this season, at a corner table at Stresa, he would tell me that it's all about the short swingy tunic or sweater, a ribbed pair of gray tights and a chunky boot. And for evening? Oh Kal would definitely say short. Short dresses with big poufy sleeves like the gorgeous fuchsia one that opened Alber Elbaz's Lanvin show or else he would single out the short, shaped tuxedo jackets Stefano Pilati showed at Yves Saint Laurent. Kal had that kind of conviction and he had an eye. I miss him a lot.
March 3, 2007 3:59
Why French Women Don't Get Fat, Really
My friend Geraldine, a journalist who is always thinking about the next great story idea, told me I should write about the French because people always want to read about the French. So here goes. I think I've found the real secret to why French women don't get fat: they spend more time thinking about what their dogs are going to eat than what they eat. My friend Carlyne has a Jack Russell terrier named Jack who lives like Louis XIV did. When she's in Paris Carlyne shops for Jack's striped bass and skate at a special fishmonger on the rue du Bac. She gets his veal liver at another location, where the butcher prepares it just so. I can't remember the address, but it's all very specific. Another friend of mine, Lisa, takes her dog, Kashgar (named after the place where she rescued him) to restaurants in her neighborhood. Since she lives in the 7th arrondissement, Joel Robuchon's L'Atelier is a favorite. While Lisa sits at the bar, Kashgar enjoys a little copper bowl full of the chef's famous mashed potatoes on the floor below. At Voltaire, another favorite watering hole for fashionistas, Kashgar gets a hamburger. I asked Carlyne which restaurants Jack prefers and she tsk-tsked the idea. "He only eats the food from my kitchen," she declared. "I do not trust the others." Bien sur.
March 2, 2007 12:13
Russian Dressing
Victor Boyko / L'Officiel
It's not very often that a new face appears in the front row at fashion shows. So when I spotted a perky blond with Miu Miu eyeglasses (not sunglasses, mind you) back in Milan at the Gucci show I took note. I should have known that new markets bring new editors into the fashion fray and the booming luxury goods market in Russia has brought Evelina Khromtchenko to the Paris fashion scene. She's the 35-year-old Editor-In-Chief and Creative Director of the Russian edition of L'Official--a fashion magazine with 100,000 readers who can't get enough of Chanel, Dior, and soon, Ralph Lauren (he will open two boutiques in Moscow in April). "It is the perfect moment for Ralph Lauren," Evelina told me after the Chanel show this morning. "Russia is changing so much now. Ten years ago it was the era of mistresses and now it's the era of wives. Women are looking not only for sex clothes, but also to show themselves as the owners of their world." Evelina told me that the shift can be seen in the newfound taste for more conservative clothing like Chanel and Ralph Lauren. Right on trend, Evelina herself was dressed today in head-toe-black: tuxedo pants, a leather anorak and a patent leather Chanel bag. I was impressed by her style, but even more so by her resume. Born in Siberia, Evelina moved to Moscow as a young girl and graduated from Moscow State University with a degree in journalism. At 17 she became the youngest broadcaster for Channel 1 Radio and Television and went on to write for Russian Cosmopolitan and Elle before forming her own PR company which was responsible for launching brands like Gucci and Valentino to Russia. Because of her TV and radio career she's apparently pretty famous in Russia. But she says that now, in addition to the magazine, she's just a talking head. "If someone wants to know about fashion or beauty, it's me that talks."
March 2, 2007 3:13
Stella In Her Groove
Chris Moore / Catwalking / Getty
(This is the "I Don't Know How She Does It Part II" entry). I was so impressed by Stella McCartney's show yesterday. She's worked really hard to create a brand she believes in and she has succeeded without losing sight of her own values and priorities. Not only did she just have a baby girl, but she has a two-year-old son and a brand new line of organic beauty products. I don't know how she juggles everything, but she presented a pitch-perfect show yesterday. Gucci Group President Robert Polet told me that all the categories are selling well in all markets which is quite a feat for Stella when you think that her accessories aren't even made of leather! Stella has something to say and that's what makes her brand work. So many designers in this business want to put on splashy runway shows and be "fabulous" but they don't have anything to say--or, worse, they don't know who their customer is. Stella knows. She designs for herself and her friends. She also speaks her mind when it comes to her beliefs (in this case animal rights). I realize that sounds like something everyone should practice, but, believe me, in this business people lose track of reality and priorities pretty quickly when they become successful. What I love about Stella, too, is that she has such a positive, humane spirit. Apparently she organizes baby parties in her studio for all of her co-working moms.
March 1, 2007 6:39
Coke Can Chic
Chesnot / Sipa (left), Java / Abacapress (right)
The big story this season has been funky new fabrics. It started in Milan with Miuccia Prada's wacky show of boiled mohair laminated with I don't know what and fuzzy mohair coats that looked like fur--or bath mats, depending on how you were looking at them. As usual, things got a little slicker once we got to Paris where suddenly everything is shiny. Patent leather is very popular, especially for shoes and belts. But I'm loving this distresed shiny look, what I call the Coke can look. (I overheard someone after the Dolce & Gabbana show saying that their bustier dresses looked like crushed Coke cans). At Akris the designer Albert Kreimler made a coat out of aluminum encased in silk georgette (inspired by Herzog & de Meuron's Walker Art Museum). This shiny stuff has a very urban, gritty look. At Christian Lacroix's show I clocked it again on these weird boots. They had a squashed down look and they were studded with brass tacks.
March 1, 2007 9:12
iFashion
Alfred / Sipa
Forward-looking designers are desperately trying to find a way to fuse technology with fashion. It makes sense when you think about how much the younger generation--Y or Z or whatever they're called--obsess over computers, phones, and iPods. Finding a way to incorporate all of those mobile communication devices into ready-to-wear is not such a bad idea. Handbags and small leathergoods are already accomodating the various techno extensions with extra pockets and cases. One Italian accessory designer I know recently confided that he had made a special trip up to Cupertino, California to meet with Apple designer Jonathan Ive. Zegna has come up with a jacket that you can hook your iPod up to, hiding it in the sleeve (not good for 13-year-old boys who don't like to do their homework, apparently). And Japanese designer Jun Takahashi showed similar jackets in his Undercover show earlier in the week. Last night Hussein Chalayan showed dresses with music-generated LED lights inside them. He even figured out a way to make a dress unfold all by itself on the runway. Chalayan is exploring the idea of using air and airwaves to generate movement in clothing. In some designers' hands the future can look hokey or pastiche, but the ones who are really experimenting will find the way forward.
March 1, 2007 3:44
Say Hello And Wave Goodbye
Picture the global fashion business as a relay race. If you captured the race on film right now--the runners being the designers of course--the frame would freeze on the split-second of angst that grips you when one runner passes the baton to the next. It's a distinct feeling of adrenaline instigated by the fear that the tired sprinter might not place the baton correctly in the relay's hand or that the relay runner might drop it in transit. Ultimately, the adrenaline of any race is about the finish line, but with relays those transitions are the nail-biters.
In fashion a new generation is getting ready to catch the baton. For us spectators, there's great anxiety in this particular transition--not just in saying goodbye to the previous group of fashion sprinters (actually more like long distance runners) but also in routing for the relief sprinters, praying they will catch the baton and run like hell.
Ok, enough throat clearing.
Yesterday at Valentino's show there was a distinct buzz of adrenaline in the air and it wasn't about the celebs in the front row this time. At the end of the show Valentino walked the runway--as he has at the end of every show--one hand thrust deep in his pocket, the other waving regally. Something in the way he lingered on the runway and the way his "family" of longtime employees and friends leapt to their feet made it feel very final. I don't know if he is going to retire, but Valentino, like many of his peers, is retirement age. Nobody wants to say goodbye to him just yet. To many he represents the last of the true couturiers in the sense that he lives the glamorous life for which he designs. He not only creates, but he really lives the dream of fashion--or what fashion once represented. Personally I've always been awed by his exactitude--not only in his designs, but also in his life. I remember once filming a documentary for television at his apartment in New York. We arrived a bit early and so we encountered a butler in a white coat carefully spritzing fragrance into the air in the living room. In Valentino's world even the air is beautiful.
February 28, 2007 11:36
Is Nudity Still a Form of Protest?
At the Valentino show this morning, and also later at the Christian Lacroix show, two naked women with peace signs painted on their backsides jumped up onto the runway (or tried to, anyway) to protest the use of fur. I missed the whole Valentino debacle because I was transfixed by the way Valentino's business partner Giancarlo Giammetti bolted out of his seat and marched over to the protestors, lips pursed, eyes like bullets, to make sure they were hauled out of the place, chop chop. I wouldn't mess with Giancarlo Giammetti, especially if I were buck naked with a peace sign on my back. He is scary and smart in that Italian scary kind of way. Anyway, later at Lacroix my friend Josh and I were trying to figure out if it was the same two protestors at it again. Josh knowingly explained that it had to be, and that they always protest in pairs. Why? "To support each other," he said. So French. Some of my colleagues in the front row have been rehashing the whole scene and discussing the errant body parts of these two women--which is funny because most front row veterans spend all day at fashion shows looking at half-naked models with complete indifference.
February 28, 2007 2:40
Cool Shoes
Nicolas Ghesquiere said his Balenciaga show yesterday was about global symbols and street fashion. He had certainly piled it on--from the Keffiyeh-style scarves to the Chinese characters embroidered on the back pockets of his johdpur/khakis to the gold crests and brass buttons of his Eton-worthy blue blazers. But street fashion, globally speaking, really happens on the feet these days, doesn't it? Sneakers are the universal vehicles of trends and status. And Ghesquiere's very cool sneaker-inspired stiletto heels were the hit of the show. Bravo to Pierre Hardy, the designer who cobbles together these incredibly intricate and yet amazingly functional mobile masterpieces.
February 27, 2007 6:21
Getting Your Kicks At Gaultier
Chris Moore / Catwalking / Getty
Jean Paul Gaultier Fall Winter 2007
I was waiting in the back of Jean Paul Gaultier's show space at his rue St. Martin headquarters this evening when I overheard one usher explain to another that Gaultier was the only designer of his generation to have his own maison. It's true, most of his colleagues work for big conglomerate-owned houses. John Galliano has been at Dior now for ten years. Even Nicolas Ghesquiere works under the watchful eye of the Gucci Group. I was thinking about this while taking in Gaultier's over-the-top Scottish Highland fling of a show filled with fur-trimmed tartan coats and kicky bright red tartan skirts and patent leather platforms with punkish rows of staps and buckles. The first model out, Coco Rocha, even did a high-steppin' jig down the runway. Something about the energy and the wackiness of that jig reminded me of Gaultier's shows in the early 1990s when his was the hottest ticket in Paris. I used to have to sneak in because the publication I worked for at the time, Women's Wear Daily, was feuding with the designer and thus, banned forever. A friend of mine, a buyer at Barneys, would leave an extra ticket on the windowsill of her office. It was so thrilling to slip into the back row and watch the spectacle. I could never write fast enough--that's how many ideas were jam-packed onto Gaultier's runways in those days. I miss that thrill at fashion shows now. Maybe I'm getting old, but even the most avant-garde shows today seem contrived to please some corporate uber-boss in the front row. Watching Galliano's stiff pageant of retro evening dresses for Dior I wanted to repeat the words of Jamelia on the sound track: No More. But of course these guys drive huge businesses now. There's no more time for fun. Only Gaultier, maybe, can have a few kicks.
February 26, 2007 7:05
Ready For Ze Close Up
Pierre Verdy / AFP / Getty
The Viktor & Rolf show tonight reminded me of the time this pretty blond socialite told me that she always takes a polaroid picture of herself before she goes out at night just to make sure that her outfit doesn't look flat in photos. I was pretty flabbergasted by this admission at first, but then I found out that it was common practice among a clique of society girls who like to get photographed in party dresses. Well, if you're that kind of girl then Viktor & Rolf have the perfect accessory for you: a portable set of tungsten lights rigged up on a special scaffolding that fits right into your dress. Forget all those awkward paparazzi flashes, these dresses are for real pros. You can do HDTV with this new runway look! It was funny for a minute, but then when the models seemed to shake under the weight of the rigs--and they were also teetering on six inch-high wooden clogs--the audience started to squirm.
February 26, 2007 5:40
Drawing The Line
Chris Moore / Catwalking / Getty
When you've been decoding fashion for a while it becomes quite predictable. Here's how it goes: one season it's slim, the next season it poufs out. One season it's black, then white. Fashion always reacts against itself, veering from one extreme to another. So when the fashion flock settled into the first day of shows in Paris today, they were ready for a new silhouette. And it came right out at Martin Margiela's afternoon show where a slimmed-down shape appeared, topped by a knife-sharp shoulder. Margiela's mouthpiece, a guy called Patrick Scallon, described the shoulders as "razor sharp," sticking straight out like a ledge. In fact some of the models wore hard plastic bodices under their t-shirts and jackets, making a stiff, straight shape across their shoulder blades. Fashion can really flip flop in Paris: The weather isn't even warm enough for those floaty trapeze dresses that are the hot trend for spring and yet they already look old. By the way did you know that the word silhouette comes from the name of an 18th century finance minister named Etienne de Silhouette who taxed the rich and supposedly "reduced them to a shadow," hence the meaning of his name? (It's also more commonly used to define a popular form of portraiture from that period). I learned this off the Missoni program notes.
February 26, 2007 4:29
I Don't Know How She Does It
Pascal Le Segretain / Getty
Versace.
I miss my kids. I shouldn't complain because I don't travel half as much as many of my colleagues, but it's hard to be on the road for two weeks straight. My husband laughingly refers to this bi-annual jaunt to cover the Milan and Paris shows as my vacation. While there is something to be said for not having to attend to 2nd grade math homework every night or 2 a.m. bottles, missing my kids this week has left me wondering how many of the women in the fashion business, especially the high profile executives and designers, balance their professional and personal lives. Last week I had lunch with Angela Ahrendts the CEO of Burberry who seemingly effortlessly juggles a global brand and three kids. She was just back from Seoul and explained her secret: leave late Sunday night and be back before they wake up on Saturday. When she's home she tries to limit evening events to one night a week. Miuccia Prada, who designs eight collections a year and has two teenage sons, has been traveling most recently to China to get a sense of what is going on there while also turning out some of the most newfangled fabric research to come down the runway in years. Angela Missoni also designs her family's namesake brand and raises three kids and Chanel global CEO Maureen Chiquet manages a French company from New York while raising kids and circling the globe. I wonder how any professional woman these days can even get close to achieving the perfect balance. For that reason alone my hat goes off to Donatella Versace who has perservered obvious family tragedy as well as personal struggles all while turning out consistently good collections. She doesn't get enough credit. Her show on Friday night in Milan was slick and sexy and very salable which in some fashion circles may not be a compliment but here it certainly is.
February 23, 2007 11:36
Lucky Charms
Fashion people are superstitious. They like to carry talismans of luck. One very successful Italian luxury executive I know carries a smooth piece of amber in his pocket everywhere he goes--and only in the left pocket, to protect his heart. They also love to talk about astrology. My friend Natasha, a writer who works in the biz, explains everything in the context of the moon being in Capricorn or Mercury in retrograde or something. I can never really keep track, but I go along with it and sometimes I even believe it. Everytime I've had a baby she has produced the child's full chart almost instantly and refers back to it religiously whenever describing my kids' characters. And now sometimes I even catch myself explaining my son's particular likes and dislikes by saying "Oh, he's a Cancer." Anyway, the Italians are particularly obsessed with superstition, or so my friend Ludovica tells me. "Even Berlusconi has a private card reader," she assured me this morning. Then she reached into her coat and pulled out a necklace with two dozen charms on it and began to rattle off the origin and particular charm of each doodad--an evil eye from Turkey, the Andean cross from Machu Picchu, a four leaf clover, a broom to hang on the door (bristles pointing north), a jade circle from China, a scarab from Egypt, and of course the Catholic cross. "I believe in luck, " she said, carefully explaining that the Turkish eye had to be worn on the back for protection. Then she pulled her keys out of her bag and there on the chain were another two dozen charms.
February 23, 2007 10:38
Holding On
FirstView (2)
It's the last day of a long week at the fall, 2007 Milan fashion shows and people in this sometimes silly subculture of clothing-obsessed narcissists are getting a little antsy. So if what I'm about to write sounds really trite and ridiculous, please don't be offended. Here's the fashion message: It's all about the day clutch. I know you're thinking what the hell is a day clutch? Leave it to fashionistas to go for a handbag that doesn't have handles--you just grab onto it for dear life and, well, clutch. You may laugh, but this is important news in my business. Remember Meryl Streep's brilliant monolgue in The Devil Wears Prada wherein she explains the trickle down effect of the fashion industry? (P.S. I heard Streep added that monolgue to the script herself). Well, get ready for an onslaught of clutch bags next fall -- and the requisite reams of ink in the fashion glossies explaining that very specific clutch motion to the uninitiated. Don't say you weren't warned.
February 22, 2007 5:39
Helmut Lang Posts His Notes
My friend Lynn called me tonight from New York to tell me that Helmut Lang has produced a new art project with the avant-garde magazine, Purple. "Have you seen it?" she asked with a slight sound of panic in her voice. Well, I hadn't, but she explained it to me: a book of all the notes he's received over the course of his career. Many are from fashion editors, some from Hollywood agents like Bryan Lourd, some from artists, even one from David Letterman apparently. Anyway, being an early adapter of Lang's minimalist style, I covered him a lot and interviewed him many times in the early 1990s when he first started to show in Paris. I'm sure I wrote him a lot of notes because I was (and still am) a big fan. There's nothing more private than a personal note--or at least that's the way it should be. Maybe I am just old fashioned. What are MySpace and YouTube and blogging for anyway--if not to let it all hang out? It's the ultimate voyeuristic thrill. But there's something about handwriting that somehow makes it more intimate. Think about the people with the freakishly bad handwriting! The designer Hedi Slimane sends a lot of notes and they look like hexagrams from the I-Ching. Lynn assured me that the notes I wrote to Lang are not embarassing. We'll see. Helmut, what were you thinking?
February 22, 2007 5:02
A Little Taste of Italy
When front row editors aren't lecturing each other about whether or not Raf Simons channeled Jil Sander on the runway on Tuesday morning, they like to talk about what they plan to eat for lunch or where they had dinner the night before. And if you trail these insiders when they visit their favorite haunts--Bice, Da Giacomo, Controvapore--you will not be disappointed by the fare. But people who have been following the fashion caravan to Milan for years know the best meals are served up by the real tastemakers, old Italian manufacturing families. Last night I ate supper under a Tiepolo fresco from 1740 and tasted Ferrucio Ferragamo's wonderful Pian di Nova Syrah from Il Borro, his vineyard in Tuscany. This afternoon I ate a fantastic risotto in Sergio Loro Piana's showroom. Loro Piana, like Ferragamo, comes from a dynasty of tastemakers who not only know how to make the most luxurious and beautiful cashmere coat or crocodile boot, but also the most delicious cuisine. They know the taste of Italy for sure. My colleague at New York Magazine, Harriet Mays-Powell, has been coming to Milan long enough to know where to go. "This is the best lunch in town," she said after viewing a collection of gorgeous mushroom-colored python handbags and baby cashmere coats.
February 22, 2007 2:49
Welcome to shoebiz
Now that handbags are the established cash vehicle of the luxury industry, leathergoods giants here are stepping up their shoe businesses. Everywhere you look there are funky clodhoppers stomping down the street or runway. At Gucci last night, they came with archive-friendly, dangly gold tchochkes and at Bottega Veneta the day before Tomas Maier braided black patent on the shoes in a genius way. Miuccia Prada even added her favorite tie-dyed effect to patent leather open-toed pumps. Fashionistas have gotten used to teetering around on sky-high platforms, but I'm not sure they will go for metal straps on sandals as they appeared at Marni. The weirder the better in this business. Tod's tends to stride toward the classic, but even they have introduced a new boot that looks like something Timberland would make -- with a high chunky heel of course. The shoe designers have become fashion superstars, too. And they were out in force this week in Milan. Jimmy Choo's Tamara Mellon flew in for a few days before heading out to the Oscars and Paris-based Pierre Hardy was seen dashing into the Jil Sander show early Tuesday morning. Over at Bally, the big news is the appointment of Brian Atwood as creative director of the esteemed Swiss leathergoods brand. It will be interesting to see what he does there--his sexy signature could really give the conservative house a jolt.
February 21, 2007 6:11
Man on the Move
SGP Italia / WireImage
"Scultura, scultura!" An old guy touring the Giorgio Armani retrospective at The Milan Triennale yesterday was examining a menswear-inspired pantsuit from the 1980s. The first room of the exhibition (the same one that opened in 2000 at New York's Guggenheim Museum) is particularly impressive. There are 200 hundred or so suits and coats beautifully fitted on mannequins but without any reference to specific dates. Grouped together the clothes look so contemporary it's hard to guess the year -- or decade -- they were designed. The program notes explain that Armani’s unstructured jackets “conveyed a way of dressing up that looked rather like dressing down.†You gotta give Armani major credit: he grasped the concept of dressing down light years before anyone else. The guy is still traveling at warp speed. After his Emporio Armani show today he’ll head out to L.A. to host a pre-Oscar fashion show and party for 350 people—his own personal red carpet-–at Ron Burkle’s house. Then he'll attend the Oscars followed by a quick stop in San Francisco to check out his store before heading home to tend to his burgeoning global real estate empire: upcoming hotels in Milan, Dubai, and soon New York, plus a brand new building in Tokyo’s Ginza district. Whew. No rest for fashion's weary.
February 20, 2007 2:55
Global Warming
Not much comes between a Milanese woman and her fur coat. Not even yesterday's bright sunshine and springlike temperature could stop the parade of sable and mink sashaying up and down the Via Montanapoleone, one of the global luxury business's richest runways. Oh, the protestors showed up, sure. And they did their best to call attention to themselves, splattering red paint all over the front door of Burberry's Via Durini emporium. But the ladies in mink boleros tucked into risotto at Bice could not have cared less. On the runways, the trend is for short swingy fur coats like the one Armani showed yesterday or a tailored and belted version like those on the runway at Burberry, where the designer, Christopher Bailey featured a military theme. Short hemlines seem to be the only real fashion story for now--along with red paint splattered on the sidewalks.
About Live Blog
Kate Betts is the editor of TIME Style & Design. Betts is also a regular contributor to the weekly edition of TIME, as well as TIME's "Pursuits" edition that appears in TIME magazine and on TIME.com 14 times per year. Read more
Isaac Mizrahi is a New York fashion designer and Creative Director for the Liz Claiborne brand, where he oversees design and marketing for the women's apparel and accessories line. Read more
Joel Stein has been writing for TIME in various roles since 1997, including stints as a columnist and essayist, focusing on topics such as popular culture and humor. Stein is currently a regular contributor to TIME. Read more
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