blendnewyork…Fashion.Art.Style.Inspiration.Love

A Galliano show is usually an excuse for a fashion bacchanal, the clothes just one component of a son et lumière spectacular. Now the mighty have fallen. This outting consisted of 20 looks presented in a salon on Avenue Foch. But what better testament could there be to the genius of their creator than that there was scarcely any sense of diminishment? In fact, attendees with memories unimpaired by the poisons that have been addling Galliano’s own brain were irresistibly drawn back to his epochal March 1994 presentation in the hôtel particulier of patron Sao Schlumberger. That was a beginning, this was an end, but there was the same essence of Dietrich glamour, untrammeled imagination, beauty out of time, presented in an intimate, inescapable way. The thirties line that Galliano always loved was revisited in the rigorous tailoring he excelled at, but it was wickedly updated. The hand of Galliano the master seducer was obvious in a silk jacket in a dégradé plaid, which was belted over a slipdress. Another slipdress was worn under a latex-yoke organza coat. A clutch of the bias-cut beauties that were the designer’s original calling card were preceded by Kloss in a breathtaking full-skirted, halter-neck gown with an arrowhead motif. If it couldn’t distract from the ugliness of recent events, it also underlined the loss. Likewise, the classically draped one-shoulder closer, which was gathered at the back with pink ribbons. They were the sort of dresses you could imagine in a once entirely justifiable museum retrospective of Galliano’s work. But could such a thing even happen now? (by Tim Blanks – style.com)

Catherine Malandrino’s Fall collection picked up where her Spring Nomads show left off. Named Khan and inspired by an image of the Earth as seen from above, it was a densely layered, richly textured melting pot of influences. The show was also long on the kind of crafty details that the French-born New Yorker has made the calling card of her designer-priced Malandrino label. Among all the fringing and embroideries, there were scads of leather either laser-cut into racy strips and feminine eyelet or stamped with graffiti hieroglyphs. At times, you could get the feeling that you were on a Sunday afternoon stroll through a tribal costume exhibit at the American Museum of Natural History. That’s a dangerously literal path for a designer to follow, but Malandrino was unabashed: She said she was thinking about our communal ancestors and our modern nomadic life. In any case, take the looks apart and there were plenty of timely, sellable pieces here. (by Nicole Phelps – style.com)

Since his Spring show last September, Prabal Gurung has seen his profile rise and rise. Demi Moore, his number one fan, and Thandie Newton wore his cocktail dresses on the red carpet, and he made a red gown for Oprah Winfrey to wear on the cover of O magazine. His Fall collection, the first one he’s put on the runway, won’t slow his upward trajectory one bit. On the contrary, it shows that Gurung is just as savvy a tailor as he is a dressmaker. (by Nicole Phelps – style.com)