Like getting a lump of coal instead of Louboutins...

John Galliano

Today marked one of the most exciting days that comes twice a year; the day that John Galliano presents his signature ready to wear collection to the masses of editors, buyers and diehard Galliano groupies. Now that Dior has become stagnant, boring and not even all that beautiful (do we recall the Mrs. Robinson nightmare that was F/W 08?), Galliano's signature line has become a safe haven for all of his refugee fans. Not only is it more "him", it's also experienced a creative revival. After years of experimentation and overindulgence in which Galliano's gifts became obscured by too much theatre, John finally managed to grab the reins and give the world what they love from him; drama, romance, sex, glamour, eccentricity and some seriously gorgeous gowns. Starting with F/W 07, he set off on a roll that came crashing to a hault with his S/S 09 collection shown today. Gone was the sophistication, the madness, the decadence that Galliano is all about and in it's place was something that was entirely marketable, bland and more than a little bit flat. We all know that these are some tough financial times we're going into but the thing is, John's best collections have always been completely out of the realm of wearability....until you see the clothes on a rack without the hair, makeup, platforms, accessories, sets and stories that the runway presents. Once you see the clothes, they make sense. This time he gave it to us in pre-packaged bites so that even the most dense non-fashionista can comprehend them; bland jacket, drapey dress, printed ruffles and silky blouse, all of which are wearable, salable and forgettable. Worse than that, they're not even particularly beautiful, which could be the most tragic thing about them.

Inspired in part by Napoleon-era charicatures by James Gillray, the opening looks were more Queens Guard than Waterloo, at least to me, but I'm no expert in European history so don't take my word for it. Sure, you could see hints of charicature-like wackiness in the overblown technicolor wigs, Napoleonic bicorne hats and flowery bonnets, but the clothes barely registered anything close to humor or exaggeration. The main problem was that, for all of the historic inspiration that apparently went into making this collection, you don't see any of it in the clothing. Obviously it would be too easy to do military frogging and epaulettes in wild colors, and frankly, Galliano is above that. But would it be asking too much to actually see some inspiration in the designs?

James Gillray charicatures
images from Wikipedia.org and blastmilk.com

Of course with Galliano, there's always an array of lighter than air or sexier than all hell bias cut dresses, but even those failed to elicit any sort of admiration on my part. It was a sort of "been there, done that much better" situation because quite frankly they didn't look on par with John's usual work. He's like Vionnet re-incarnated, he knows how to drape and mold around the female form better than most designers could even pretend to, and he can practically do it in his sleep, so why did he squander than on dresses that don't look all that special or even that well thought out? Even the fact that they're completely transparent doesn't save them from being mediocre.

I mean, how could this...

....compare to this?

images from firstview.com, corbis.com, style.com

Bottom line; it doesn't. The technique may be the same, but the results are worlds apart. The one real highlight of the show, for me at least, are the shoes. They're insanely fabulous. Part tranny, part Jetsons, part chopine...and in so many shiny colors. No they're not entirely wearable, but I think if you love something, then who gives a f*** about wearability?

Overall, this has been a pretty lackluster season, as so many people predicted it would be, but it's been particularly off for John. Even the joyous cartoonery (that's officially a word now) of this collection, which does stand out for being a little more upbeat than most, can't change the fact that this season fashion has been missing a lot of the things that make it so incredible. It's been four weeks of shows that are like waking up on Christmas morning to find that Santa didn't bring you anything you asked for. Here's holding out hope that Marc, Alber and Miuccia can at least end the season on a high note tommorow, but in the meantime, a glimpse back at one of Galliano's finest moments....

all fashion show photos from style.com

Panic at the Fashion Show....

Alexander McQueen

Today was, thankfully, a bit of a return to form for Alexander McQueen, who recently has been inconsistent in his output giving us strictly showroom type clothes one season, romantic historicism the next, then an aggressively theatrical presentation followed by more showroom type stuff after that. It's gotten a little frustrating to witness because, generally, when he goes commercial he neglects the things that make him "him" such as dramatic tailoring, macabre undertones and gothic romance. He's like his fellow Saint Martins alum John Galliano in that you can always tell what he was feeling just by watching his show. So in the past when he's shown lackluster commercial collections, the audience, both at the show and not, is left to assume that he was feeling frustrated. Not to point the finger of blame or anything, but this pattern seemed to start around the time that Domenico DeSole stepped down as head of Gucci Group...is this significant? I'd guess so. Last season he broke this pattern offering a blend of wearable McQueen signatures like built out hips, sharp tailoring and historicism and pure show in the form of a Maharajah meets Jane Austen meets Swan Lake fantasy finale. Needless to say that the Burton/Goreyesque gothicism which opened the show was seriously overshadowed by the finale that, frankly, was more Marchesa than McQueen. For all of the beauty of it, it felt completely out of left field for fashion's own Edgar Allen Poe. That finale was the main reason why I wasn't especially fond of the collection, and why I wasn't feeling completely optimistic about his Spring/Summer 2009 collection.

However, I've been wrong before, and luckily I was wrong today. It was fairly familiar territory for McQueen, but after a few years of not seeing this part of his personality, it was a very welcome reminder of what he's all about. At this point I couldn't begin to tell you what the inspiration or story behind it was, one look at the set would be enough to throw you off. An array of taxidermied animals was spread out as the backdrop like some sort of dead version of Noah's Arc, with the girls making their entrance onto the runway from beneath a giant glowing globe. Right away it reminded me of the hall of animals in Museum of Natural History in NY. Then come the clothes, some printed with this strange mutation of an animal print that was treated like a Rorschach inkblot; a mirror image on the right and left. This print was used on sculpted mini-dresses with kimono collars that stood away from the neck and shoulder, sharp frock coats and second skin blazers with peaked shoulders, skinny trousers, and even a voluminous parachute dress. Interspersed with these looks were two dresses in yellow and red that combined flesh colored tulle, crushed satin or taffeta and flattened out flowers that look like they had been dried and pressed, then inserted between the tulle and the body underneath so that they would "float" on the skin. There was also some of McQueen's signature skirts with built out angular hips. Two looks came lashed at the waist with embroidered leather corsets, which reminded me a lot of his famous S/S 99 robot/amputee collection, right down to the parchment and brown colors with delicate floral patterns worked over the fabric.

After this, the collection went a bit Sci-Fi with some short, stiffened bell shaped dresses covered with embroidery, a maroon sequined catsuit that reminded me a bit of the rubber suit worn by Jennifer Lopez in "The Cell" which was worn with a printed sleeveless jacket with built out shoulders and some more variations on those Rorschach prints, this time in multicolor brights or black and white which wound up looking a bit like an X-ray illustrated by H.R. Giger.

For evening, McQueen decided to forgo the traditional gowns in favor of skintight catsuits or more sculpted mini dresses completely encrusted with crystals in black, smoky beige or topaz. Overall, this wasn't his most moving collection, nor was it his most disappointing. This seems to be the general theme of the shows for the S/S 09 season, they don't blow your mind, but they don't let you down either. More than anything it's a frustrating feeling when all you want is to be blown away by something, anything really. But on the positive side this collection seems like a positive return to more traditional Alexander McQueen territory, and that's something any McQueen fan can appreciate.

Valentino

Today marked Alessandra Faccinetti's second, and last, Ready to Wear collection for Valentino. In know what you're thinking, didn't she only present her first collection 6 months ago?. Why yes, she did. And didn't she only get one opportunity at doing a Couture collection? Right again. In yet another sudden, and this time sad decision, Faccinetti is leaving the house before she even got to show the world what she could do. Rumors have been swirling all week, and today after she presented the S/S 09 collection, the word seemed to be that she will be replaced by the duo who currently serves as the head of accessories at Valentino. Sound familiar? It could be because when she left Gucci in early 2005 she was replaced by Frida Giannini, the head of accessories. At the time that decision baffled me beyond belief, I mean, what does somebody who has been trained to design handbags and shoes know about designing clothes? Now that the fashion world has seen the situation play out yet again, and with the same woman, it all makes sense. Accessories designers wouldn't know anything about designing clothes, ergo, management can control what the ready to wear looks like. The people at Gucci clearly wanted more influence in what the ready to wear looked like and the Valentino people seem to feel the same way. It's one thing to eject one ready to wear designer for another, but when two major luxury fashion houses have made the choice to put people who don't have any background in designing clothes in the head designer role at the expense of someone who not only has a background in it, but talent too, it's a disturbing look at where luxury fashion is headed. Clearly, fashion design isn't even about design any more.

It's not as if Faccinetti went into the house and went off entirely in her own direction; quite the contrary. Her work was extremely respectful of the Valentino legacy, and she made it clear that she had no intent to completely rip apart a 45 year old image. Her work was overtly feminine, pretty, elegant, and classic, in other words, it was very Valentino. The only difference between the Maestro and Ms. Faccinetti's work was that her approach was lighter and more relaxed which ultimately translated into it being more youthful. There's so much riding on a debut at an established house. The designer is expected to keep the identity of the brand, show the world what they're going to bring to it and sell products. Many people accused her work of not being true to the Valentino name. Others accused it of being too safe. What the people throwing these accusations around fail to realize is that any new designer at an established house is faced with the inevitable situation that no matter which route they choose, it won't be good enough. If she was too literal in her approach to the Valentino DNA she'd be ripped apart for just mimicking a legend with less successful results, if she injects her own vision into the work she's not being true to the house. No matter what she did, not everyone would be pleased. That's the main reason why these rapid decisions to oust designers are so problematic. This isn't Hollywood. It's not a situation where you either screw up an audition or you don't. You need some time to be able to meet the challenge and it's unfortunate that the suits have lost sight of that fact.

The announcement certainly can't overshadow the beauty of the collection, which was like a breeze. It was light, easy and pretty and most of the palette revolved around soft neutrals; black, white, blush, soft yellow and icy blue, but there were occasional pops of color like foresty green, rich teal and of course, Valentino red. One of the predominent looks was a boxy jacket with bracelet sleeves and embellished detail paired with shorts. It looked particularly chic in a faded black/dark navy variation. Mixed into the daywear were short, loosely fitted shifts with strangely beautiful embroidery.

This being Valentino though the real magic was saved for nightime. Alessandra revisited the softly draped empire silhouette that she played with for her couture collection in July. Done mid calf in black polka dots or full length in assymetrical pale nude it looked like the perfect option for any summer evening, the kind of thing you could easily imagine blowing in the breeze at an outdoor soiree. But for me the best look in the lineup was a deep teal draped off-the-shoulder empire dress, worn with matching flat slippers and jeweled neckpiece. It was absolutely striking shown in the sea of soft non-colors, and was made even more striking worn by the red-headed Olga Sherer. In fact, it looked so beautiful that any woman who wears the dress should be required to dye her hair red, just to preserve the impact (you can't really tell her hair is red in this photo, but trust me, it is.).

Overall though, the collection felt a little....defeated, like she knew what was happening and her heart wasn't in it. I can't blame her for that really. It's a shame we'll never get to see her expand on the bold ideas she tried out for her couture collection.

These last few years the whole game of musical chairs in fashion seems more prominent than it was, say, 6 years ago. A lot of that could probably be attributed to the decline in the economy that's taken place, and not just this recent crisis, but the cumulative effect of the last few years. But overall it represents a sense of panic on the part of the big shots in the luxury biz, and as anyone can tell you, good decisions are rarely ever made when you're panicked.

all fashion show images from Catwalking.com via Inaya and Faith Akiyama at the Fashion Spot.

A look through the keyhole...

Yves Saint Laurent

Today, Stefano Pilati presented his Spring/Summer 2009 collection for YSL. I approached it cautiously because, while I've never been a diehard fan of his, his most recent fall collection really put me off. I found it unnecessarily conceptual, cold, and sterile, in other words, the exact opposite of what Yves Saint Laurent is all about. Pilati has frustrated me during his tenure because he seems to shy away from sexuality, and sex was always a part of Yves' best work. Last season epitomized this, it was entirely asexual and because of that it was no closer to the spirit of the house than Tom Ford's overtly sexual work was while he was heading the house. Another thing that's begun to bother me is that Pilati doesn't seem keen to tap into the color that YSL is so famous for. I mean, he'll throw a fuschia one shouldered dress into an all beige, white and french blue lineup or a pop of bright pink into a mass of grey and black, but beyond that he hasn't really done much color since his first two spring collections at the house. So I was cautiously optomistic when the first images I saw didn't have any of the conceptual, modernist hair and makeup and there was some real color on the runway in the form of forest green and blood red sequins. Chic, hauty women with huge piled up chignons, cage booties and bras exposed by either open necklines or sheer tops imediately made me think of Catherine Deneuve in Belle de Jour outfitted, of course, by Saint Laurent himself. At this point, Belle de Jour has become such a go-to fashion standard that it could be considered a cliche, but when it's in the hands of someone who understands subversion, it's fabulously chic (see my entry on Prada as an example).

It started slowly, with Pilati first showing oversized jackets that were worn open or wrapped at the waist like a kimono or robe, cropped tops paired with semi-transparent high-waisted shorts or tapered, mannish trousers that exposed the undergarment underneath, and some classic Saint Laurent suiting. Shown in shades of black, navy, bisque and pearl grey it was classic and fairly restrained, the exception being those sheer shorts and trousers which are great in theory but would be kind of pervy worn on the streets. I mean, you wouldn't have to worry about men undressing you with their eyes, you've pretty much done it for them. In a way they had this strange sexual but not sexual at all thing going on because even though they're exposing the body, I don't find anything particularly sexy about it.

But then there came a clue; a caban coat made of the same cagelike patent leather as the booties. For those who don't know, one of the most famous looks worn by Deneuve in Belle de Jour was a black patent leather trench coat. This seemed like a more dangerous and overtly kinky homage to that iconic piece and was the thing that really made me think that this collection was at least partially inspired by Belle de Jour.

compare to the original c. 1967

image from forum.purseblog.com

After that look, the collection seemed to head into sexy territory, which is refreshing for Pilati. Some of the blouses, jackets and dresses were undone to show the lingerie beneath and those that weren't were completely transparent. Particularly effective was a boxy rubberized jacket over sheer blouse, bra and semi-sheer trousers and a gorgeous blood red sequined dress with black bow and black underpinnings. More subtle, but strangely erotic, was a white strapless empire waist gown with a gathered bust that, if you squint, has the look of someone wrapping themselves in a bedsheet when caught en flagrante. It's most likely my mind that's making it up, but anything to give a pretty white dress some edge is good in my book.

Overall this wasn't Pilati's best collection, but it wasn't my least favorite from him either. It was nice to see him attempt sexy, but the truth is the way he did it has been done before, in fact it's been done before by two of the people he previously worked with; Miuccia Prada practically owns this ladylike sex-bomb territory, and Tom Ford based one of his best collections at YSL around the idea of lingerie and deshabille. Both of those designers have trodden this territory, and they've done it more confidently than Mr. Pilati has. Maybe Pilati is so hesitant about injecting true eroticism and sexuality into his collections because he will unavoidably be compared to Ford, and Ford was the king of erotic fashion. I don't know for sure what it is that's holding him back from exploring this facet of the Saint Laurent legacy, but he'll need to conquer it before I'm willing to acknowledge Pilati as the true heir to Yves Saint Laurent.

all fashion show images from Catwalking.com

Midnight Cowgirl...

Givenchy

The cowboy; the iconic image that's become so instantly recognizable and so identified with "America" that it's a wonder the entire world doesn't think this whole country rides horses, wears spurs and....does whatever else cowboys do. Hero to millions of little boys, overzealous straight men, gay porn directors and even, on occasion, fashion designers. No prizes for guessing where this is going.

Today Riccardo Tisci debuted his S/S 09 Ready to Wear collection for Givenchy and the inspiration, I'm assuming anyway, was cowboys. Lucky for us Tisci isn't one for themes, because no theme is more of a one way ticket into full on tacky territory than cowboys. Given that knowledge, there have been many designers who have tapped into the Wild, Wild West. I mean, Ralph Lauren has built an entire facet of his image on it, so it can't be all bad, can it?

Tisci started things off safely enough, with more of the monochrome razor sharp tailoring that he's become so well known for at Givenchy. Into this he integrated some Alaia/Versace-esque bondage, which is the obsession du jour for young designers. Now, I love a bit of kink in my fashion as much as anyone else, but I'm starting to get a little sick of it. Some designers were born to do kink. Others, not so much. Unfortunately the designers who don't do it in a really fabulous way make it so that you don't want to see anyone doing it at all. At least, that's how it works for me. But I digress. For this opening passage, the western influence was pretty subtle, to the point that it was non-existent. He sent out some buttercup yellow and beige organza pieces with triangular scalloping worked in curves around the surface of the pieces. That trimming reminded me a bit of the cut work you see on cowboy boots, but like I mentioned, it's not literal.

Then he segued into trickier territory; suiting with a decidedly Colonel Sanders flavor. I don't care how sharp and flawless the tailoring is, did he have to put that stupid looking little western tie with the looks? On the plus side, Frankie Rayder's feline face made an appearance on the runway in one of the aforementioned suits. Thigh high cowboyish boots made an appearance with a western shirt-come-shirt dress and sheriff's badge brooch.

But then it devolved into full on gay biker bar in the Meatpacking District on a busy Saturday night. You didn't think that gay porn reference earlier was just for fun, did you? Black leather "chaps" were integrated into the cut of bleached denim, one pair even had a "codpiece" worked into the crotch....forget the back, the leg or the decollete, the crotch is the new focus according to Tisci. A crocodile harness was added to the lineup, perhaps as a play to steal the kinkier portion of Hermes' clientele. Even a leather daddy or dominatrix likes exclusive luxury. The worst part (I know what you're thinking, "there's something worse than bleached denim?") was the gold, white and black leather worked into the intricate cut work patterns you see on a vintage country music star's stage wear. Needless to say this portion of the collection was not the most successful for me.

But luckily things perked up towards the end. The sharp shapes that dominated most of the collection were softened up a bit with some fluid draping, which actually looked really beautiful paired with the severe tailoring. The country music thing struck again with giant crystal embellishment on the pieces that could've slipped right into Dollywood land, but stayed just shy of it. Fun fact: during his tenure at Givenchy, Alexander McQueen also did a collection inspired by the American west and, tada!, Dolly Parton. What is it about the house that's so firmly associated with understated, timeless chic that drove two very different designers to explore one of the more kitschy elements of American culture?

Could this be some sort of subtle jab at the way the world has come to view America, or is this just Tisci's attempt to pull a Moschino and insert irony into his clothes? You hear that argument all the time, that it's supposed to be ironic and not as serious as it appears. But here's the problem; irony is pretty much lost on clothing. You don't get humor from a pair of leggings studded with crystals, or a pair of leather pants that look like a tragic mix between Elvis and Ziggy Stardust. Overall I have a love/hate relationship with this collection. The things I like, such as the first passage of looks, I like a lot. The stuff I hate, well....I hate it. Like so many other collections so far this season, I'm left feeling unsure about this. It doesn't excite me, nor does it repulse me entirely. And if Miuccia Prada has taught me anything, it's better to be repulsed than to just be uninterested.

all fashion show images from Catwalking.com via MulletProof @ theFashionSpot