London Calling

After last Monday's Marc Jacobs Fall Winter 2010/2011 show, I didn't think I would love another collection as much as Burberry Prorsum fashion extravaganza. While Marc Jacobs show harks back to his signature style, Christopher Bailey of Burberry Prorsum clearly outdid himself. With his collection finally shown back in London, his fall/winter collection is a mélange of Burberry's classic heritage mixed with a new individualism that is so fresh and original all at the same time. The collection consists of another fantastic reinvention of the trench coat and brightly jeweled cocktail dresses that exudes an ease of dressing, capturing a certain independent spirit that only the Burberry girl embodies.


The one reason I love fashion is the idea of visualizing a concept and transforming the ordinary into the extraordinary. The trench coat has been done plenty of times, but the way Bailey does it makes it exciting and exquisitely new. 


I just hope someday I get to be a proud owner of a Burberry trench. 










S. 

A Change of Style

© Samantha L.

© Samantha L.

“ Le bel été ” avec Lou Doillon et Gonzales for Vanessa Bruno

Voici Paris! A La Haye!

While summer’s Chanel couture captivated Sam , I came face to face with the house’s 2009 couture collection last night at the opening of Voici Paris! Haute Couture.

 

Hubert de Givenchy, Cocktail ensemble: dress and coat, Paris Fall Collection 1960. Worn by Audrey Hepburn in Breakfast at Tiffany’s (1961). From the Gemeentemuseum The Hague.

This spring, the Gemeentemuseum in The Hague presents Voici Paris! Haute Couture,  a dazzling collection of haute couture, offering a unique and up-close glance into the world of this ultimate branch of fashion, its designers and its history. Thanks to the museum’s Press Department, I had the honor of a front row experience:

Although the evening’s dresscode, “couture (haute or neo)”, had send me into a sartorial tantrum earlier, my all black ensemble with high-waisted bow skirt and pompom slingbacks endows me with a sense of, let’s say pseudo couture, among the pièces de résistance by names such as Lanvin and Dior. Either way, the glorious haute couture instantly humbles my disproportionate sartorial self-concern, and I move into a mood of thankful relief.

As I make my way through the exhibition, I travel in space and time, stepping from one dream into the other. From a feeling of nostalgia over highly feminine fifties dresses by Chanel and others, I continue my reverie and end up on the roofs of Paris surrounded by contemporary visions by the likes of Armani, Saab and Galliano. As I move from gallery to gallery, the journey through the sublime of fashion goes on and on through a kaleidoscope of designers, themes and eras. The individual aesthetic of each designer or era resonates through every part of the exhibition design, from the mannequins to the benches; I become immersed in the experience.

While traversing through the rooms, I discover that the exhibition does not only look at the most obvious glamour of haute couture. Among some encounters with lesser known names and more avant-garde designers, the exhibition manages to stir my nationalist sensibilities with a spectacle of Dutch couturiers and contemporary designers in a highly quirky setting of clotheslines/high voltage cables. Moreover, the exhibition’s attention to Chinese couturier, Ma Ke, forms an intellectual antidote to the intoxication of fast and disposable mass-produced fashion.

It is exactly this laborious aspect of fashion I miss in the exhibition. As Fong-Leng, icon of Dutch couture, commented in her speech earlier that evening, the process starts with the choice of material. Both couture and mass-produced fashion are highly laborious endeavours, albeit in completely disparate ways. I believe a public awareness of process, whether couture or mass-produced, can lead to a more conscious embrace of fashion and  a healthier fashion industry. I feel the exhibition could have played a role there.

Nevertheless, I don’t want to bother you too much with my lecture ;) it does not make the experience any less sublime! The Gemeentemuseum has one of the largest fashion and costume collections of Europe. Plus, the museum recently acquired a piece from Maison Dior especially for this exhibition (take a peek at this March’s edition of Glamour). Don't miss out on this unique opportunity. So go see Paris in the Hague and experience this truly wonderful exhibition!

Voici Paris! Haute Couture

By Madelief Hohé (curator) and Maarten Spruyt (exhibition designer)

Gemeentemuseum The Hague

February 20, 2010 – June 6, 2010

Links
Gemeentemuseum The Hague

Interview with Madelief Hohé by Textilia (in Dutch)

Website Maarten Spruyt

Interview with Ma Ke by Eco Fashion World 

Exhibition Review in the Couture Journal (in Dutch)

The Fédération Française de la Couture

G.

Inspirations and Illustrations

One of the major reasons why we started the blog is to share our thoughts and reflections on fashion, art and beauty. I've always loved drawing. I even went to school for art. In the last couple of months, I have been going back to the basics. Drawing what I see.  I'm such a private person and for me to post a drawing of mine is something that is very cathartic.

Illustration of a model from the Chanel Haute Couture Spring Summer 2010 show.

© Samantha L.

Illustration in pen.

© Samantha L.

Here are two of my latest inspirations: the fantastical element in the Chanel Haute Couture Spring/Summer 2010 where the models adorned Minnie Mouse hairdos and a girl lost in her own thoughts. 

S. 

Windburnt cheeks for Fall/Winter 2010

 

Marc by Marc Jacobs F/W2010. From Elle.Com

Yesterday, I had to trudge through the wet snow to the Marc by Marc Jacobs with my makeup kit in tow, it got me thinking what the look might be. The boys and girls at the show are always fresh, spunky and absolutely of-the-moment. Fresh skin and blushy cheeks. That's one look for the Fall/Winter season of 2010. Effortless and impossibly chic. That's what I'll be wearing next season.

S. 


PS- The makeup for Michael Kors show is stunning. More windburnt cheeks! Will be posting the pictures up soon afterwards. 

The Shows...

I just finished watching the Marc Jacobs show. Even though I didn't get to do it, but I really appreciate the way he presents his clothes in such an poetic dignified way. I loved how the clothes exude an awkward elegance and how the simple set design, along with the music command our attention. I think I've gone to heaven. So much beauty in 15 minutes.

That's why I love fashion. It's flighty and fanciful at the same time!


You can watch the show on the Marc Jacobs' website:

http://www.marcjacobs.com/#/en-us/marcjacobscollection/women/fallwinter10/runwayvideo

S.

PS- I'll let you know about the Marc by Marc show in about a couple of hours.

A Fashion Lover's Confession

 Shopwindow in downtown Beirut, Lebanon.  
© A Madeleine Moment.

"We dream and imagine stories that are inhabited by clothed people. The stories are powerful because of their associations, not factual accuracy." 

Judith Clark in an interview with Sarah Scatturo for Fashion Projects.

I really connect to what Judith Clark is saying here, I often find myself dreaming away over clothing. To me, however, the clothing itself conveys the dream much more than its wearer (Clark's "clothed people"). In a very egocentric kind of way, the piece needs to spark my imagination and must becomes part of my fantasy. It is a strange kind of power play, I want the dream to be all about me, yet I need the garment to experience the dream and start the fantasy in the first place. A needy and abusive relationship.. Maybe that is why I rather see what I desire on a mannequin than on a model. If she is already living the dream, it can no longer be mine and I become terribly jealous. I have to confess, I am possessive and jealous lover of fashion..

G.