Paris Fashion Week: Givenchy

I loved the style. It was unbelievably sexy. Very sleek. Very Chic. Very unwearable.

The clothes were so damned tight. I don’t know where the designer hid the oxygen tanks on the pieces, as the models would need them for surreptitious breathing. Yet the pieces were gorgeous nonetheless. I think the problem though was in functionality. Some times functionality in fashion takes a back seat to the design aesthetic. It seems the trend is moving towards an amalgam of both as demonstrated in Milan.

Seeing Riccardo Tisci’s work in person made me wonder where he was going. Far be it for a small time fashion blog to question the gods of design in Paris, but I just didn’t “get it.”

-Meryl Demiglio

What’s on my favorite blogs today

I love reading people’s thoughts. It must be the voyeur in me…

Lera at Fashion Addict Diary is talking about the hotness right now. Babies are out.

Manolo at Shoeblogs has a hilarious post on the many faces of Galliano.

The girls at I AM Fashion have the hottest boot of the season on display, and I might have to agree with them.

Shhhh… Don’t tell anyone about the leggings at fashionologie.

We love Sherri at Pretend you care We may be a bit biased since she’s a papierdoll editor. She wrote an interesting feature on trends in fashion. You can read it here.

If I missed something good, let me know.

Paris Fashion Week: Rick Owens

American designer Rick owens must love pony tails. And I must love Rick Owens. Of all the shows seen in the past 3 days, this show seemed to pay the most attention to the female figure. There were a lot of long, slender pieces. Using less color than the ones seen in other shows, Owens seems to have a great understanding of the female form. The models moved with ease and the pieces appreciated their curves with every single step… until a stumble. It wasn’t that big a deal, but you could tell that some dresses were easier to walk in than others. At the same time the pants had features easily noticeable from a distance (and I was definitely very distant), zipper linings and seams were purposefully displayed.

The lack of color was definitely a downside in my most humblest of opinions. Every show need not be a rainbow kaleidescope to get praise heaped on them, but I would have loved to see maybe a purple or maybe even a pink. That’s just a personal preference though and not Owen’s style.

One more thing: the powderface make-up really contrasted the outfits and was done to great effect. Can I rest now?

-Meryl Demiglio

Paris Fashion Week: Yohji Yamamoto

Imagine a multi-layered, army green camouflage dress. That’s all. Just imagine that. No need to imagine because that’s the piece I fell in love with at Yohji Yamamoto’s Paris show. Michael Kors had something similar at New York fashion week, you can see it here, it’s the fourth image I think. This piece was different in several ways, the most obvious was that it had more character. It had more details so it seemed a bit more elaborate.

The thing that got me about this show more than anything else was the variety. You had the aforemention camo dress, then you had a slinky deep red dress. Some people might call it a lack of singular direction, but I see it as less of that and more as a willingess to experiment.

Other pieces included a variety of long flowing dress/gowns with spectacularly sharp edges. One in particular was this black piece that actually flared out at a near 90 degree angle, came back in and flared out again. It was artistry in fashion form.

Paris Fashion Week: Vivienne Westwood

What do you get when you mix sexy with punk fashion? Vivienne Westwood’s Paris pret a porter show. Even if you were sitting far behind the runway, you couldn’t miss the colors. They were loud. The designer who has been the muse for many up and comers spared no creative expense in putting together a show that mixed golds with light blues on an asymmetrical dress and in turn has an “I am not a terrorist” shirt and matching belt in the same show.

Did I mention the make-up and hair? Think dark gray goth-like lipstick, heavy mascara and gel’d hair to the side. Everything about the fashion screamed Vivienne Westwood’s signature style. Is it wearable? Yes and maybe. Some of the shorts were just way too short for my taste, but that is fashion. I shudder to think though, that someone who shouldn’t wear them, will probably attempt to this summer.

Either way, it was an honor simply being there.

-Meryl Demiglio