| Mag |
Miasma
| All Rights Reserved |
| Our Fashion Picks |
 | |  | |  | |  | |  | |  | |  |
Because life has no borders!
| Search Miasma |
| YSL |
If there is one connecting principle that ran through Yves Saint Laurent's hottest years, it was the way
he picked up the beat of street ideas and transformed them into transcendent cut. For the first time,
Stefano Pilati came close to nailing the essence of that bold philosophy, centering his collection on
the mission to reshape form and give it a contemporary bite. Before now, Pilati's enthusiasm for
fabric innovation has run away with him, but he controlled it in the service of elegant shapes that
stood away from the body.
If the achievement here was partly the sense that Pilati had rejected the burden of quoting too much
literal YSL history, he also melded a significant reference into the collection that reached back to the
radical beginnings of Saint Laurent's career. The subversive Left Bank spirit of the crocodile thigh
boots that so shocked the establishment in the early sixties (and got Yves fired from Dior) rose again
in a fiercely chic passage of black shiny nylon-look cloque, black hoods, gauntlets, and dark glasses.
It was a timely reminder that all really new ideas are risky at first—before they get absorbed and worn
by everyone months later. Pilati himself experienced that in the general panning his first YSL
collection received, after which his belts, tulip skirts, and platforms were copied the world over.
There's a chance that the newness in this show might stir up some of the same like-it-loathe-it
controversy, but whatever the response, this much is already clear: Few designers in the world are
applying themselves to modernity in this way, and that's an energy fashion sorely needs in order to go
forward.
he picked up the beat of street ideas and transformed them into transcendent cut. For the first time,
Stefano Pilati came close to nailing the essence of that bold philosophy, centering his collection on
the mission to reshape form and give it a contemporary bite. Before now, Pilati's enthusiasm for
fabric innovation has run away with him, but he controlled it in the service of elegant shapes that
stood away from the body.
If the achievement here was partly the sense that Pilati had rejected the burden of quoting too much
literal YSL history, he also melded a significant reference into the collection that reached back to the
radical beginnings of Saint Laurent's career. The subversive Left Bank spirit of the crocodile thigh
boots that so shocked the establishment in the early sixties (and got Yves fired from Dior) rose again
in a fiercely chic passage of black shiny nylon-look cloque, black hoods, gauntlets, and dark glasses.
It was a timely reminder that all really new ideas are risky at first—before they get absorbed and worn
by everyone months later. Pilati himself experienced that in the general panning his first YSL
collection received, after which his belts, tulip skirts, and platforms were copied the world over.
There's a chance that the newness in this show might stir up some of the same like-it-loathe-it
controversy, but whatever the response, this much is already clear: Few designers in the world are
applying themselves to modernity in this way, and that's an energy fashion sorely needs in order to go
forward.
| Photo By: Don Ashbey and Olivier Claisse |
| Photo By: Don Ashbey and Olivier Claisse |
Ralph Lauren is never without a surprise. For the fall his elegant cap sleeved dresses
have already become a season must have. Returning home from last season's jaunt
across North Africa and India, this urbane show began with suits—the first was long and
lean, with a closely fitting, cropped double-breasted jacket and a skirt in the slim, three-
quarter length that now looks fresh again. From there, he took the season’s knit-dressing
trend in a new direction. First, classic cardigan coats in hand-knit metallic tweeds cut a
reliably elegant figure. Then—and here's the surprise—he whipped up strappy little
cashmere dresses with short, kicky skirts.
have already become a season must have. Returning home from last season's jaunt
across North Africa and India, this urbane show began with suits—the first was long and
lean, with a closely fitting, cropped double-breasted jacket and a skirt in the slim, three-
quarter length that now looks fresh again. From there, he took the season’s knit-dressing
trend in a new direction. First, classic cardigan coats in hand-knit metallic tweeds cut a
reliably elegant figure. Then—and here's the surprise—he whipped up strappy little
cashmere dresses with short, kicky skirts.
Betsey Johnson is all grown up this fall, “Fall is more elegant, refined," the perennial
teenager said. "We have to be more about the cake than the icing." Forgoing her
usual cheeky antics for the refined tea party-esque runway show Betsey’s fall line up
was nothing short of “girls just want to have fun”. With Betsey fun is never in short
supply but this season one could say Betsey wants her cake and eat it too.
Her prototypical sex-bomb baby still strode the catwalk in a suit with pinup short shorts,
and any number of blowsy dresses. Meanwhile, the more mature—if not strictly
demure—minx dressed the part in formfitting frocks with a whisper of Dietrich, and a
really pretty brown blouse with white polka dots, paired with a suspendered pinstripe
skirt in a length that Johnson evocatively described as "longer, leaner, and more
swayable."
teenager said. "We have to be more about the cake than the icing." Forgoing her
usual cheeky antics for the refined tea party-esque runway show Betsey’s fall line up
was nothing short of “girls just want to have fun”. With Betsey fun is never in short
supply but this season one could say Betsey wants her cake and eat it too.
Her prototypical sex-bomb baby still strode the catwalk in a suit with pinup short shorts,
and any number of blowsy dresses. Meanwhile, the more mature—if not strictly
demure—minx dressed the part in formfitting frocks with a whisper of Dietrich, and a
really pretty brown blouse with white polka dots, paired with a suspendered pinstripe
skirt in a length that Johnson evocatively described as "longer, leaner, and more
swayable."
Betsey Johnson
| Ralph Lauren |
| Chatterbox |
| Photo By: Don Ashbey and Olivier Claisse |
| Photo By: Don Ashbey and Olivier Claisse |
| All Rights Reserved © 2007 Miasma Mag |
