A Swan Lake

    When I first watched Aronofsky's multi-awarded "Black Swan" last year, I didn't expect theinfluence that it had a few months later, not in cinema but in fashion, as Jean Paul Gaultier's

haute couture show for A/W 2011-2012 seemed to be inspired of it and of Tchaikovsky's "The Swan Lake" in general.

  Ballet accessories like  chic midi length tutu skirts and tutu skirted dresses and also high heeled pointe shoes and playful elements like the plissé-finish jackets made their appearance along with a lot of feathers -from hair accessories to skirts- implying the film's strong influence. But ballet is not only for women; and Gaultier pointed that out by resuggesting men skirts continuing his idea of fluidity of the sexes. Of course, all these were characterised by Gaultier's unique theatrical mood.
  However, there was something in all this that made me feel like I had traveled back in the '80s watching  one of l'enfant terrible's first individual shows. Maybe it was the reintroduction of some of his '80s innovative elements like the man skirts and the cone bra (which is probably due to his currently three-decade-plus career retrospective running at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts), maybe the wide use of leather, especially when it comes to long coats or it was just the whole "irreverent" atmosphere...

second part:

   

East meets West Vol 2

  Trying to analyse a Vivienne Westwood's show is like solving a really complicated puzzle. It's as difficult as for a Junya Watanabe's show.
  However, both of them remain of my favourites.  That's why in every one of their shows time stops and you empty your mind of anything else except the show. The same happened when I first saw V. Westwood's Spring/Summer 2012 fashion show; it felt like watching  a new Tim Burton movie: the gowns, the huge magnificent wedges, the make up created a little bit of neo-gothic atmosphere combined with the japanese tradition- which they were all inspired from- and  revealing at the same time Vivienne's West roots through draped dresses and accessories like hats, high heels and "I heart crap" purses. At last there were the extremely romantic 19th century "Corpse Bride" lace gowns.. Anyway, it was one of the season's most immersive shows!
 At last, I think it's better let the clothes speak for themselves...

Revolution is back?

    Looking back at ss 2012 fashion shows I see two main trends standing out, both coming directly of the '60s period. The one was bright monochromatic sets and the other the imprimé; both of them played more with the colours and less with the structure that we had seen back then.

 

ADAM

 Araks

Issey Miyake

Celine

 Kenzo

 Paul Smith

 Louis Vuitton

 Alice&Olivia

 A Détacher

 Jil Sander

 Prada

  Of course this reappearance was not unexpected if you consider the similarities between ours and the sixties' society. The Vietnam War's consequences didn't affect only the participating countries but the biggest part of the world, including Europe, causing massive revolutions worldwide through the May 1968 Movement.
  Fashion designers joined the protest making their own revolution advancing the youth style. And the biggest highlight of the era was of course the miniskirt. They were also inspired of Pop and Op art producing an extremely colourful variety of clothing. This colourful and innovative fashion vision functioned as an optimistic position against the industrialized countries' economic performance. And we cannot refuse that contemporary societies face a similar period of economic depression during the last two years.
  However, is fashion trying to make a new revolution against the System?
  Or is fashion industry using the references to the '70s revolution as a lure to attract consumers who need to feel that they revolt somehow to the general depression?


Photos:Style.com