Red Valentino SPRING 2016 READY-TO-WEAR

Hey! The marathon of fashion weeks has officially started and the eyes of world wide fashionistas are in New York. And what better way for me to start reporting the trends that with one of my favorite labels: RED Valentino. Maria Grazia Chiuri and Pierpaolo Piccioli have created as always a adorable collection with laces, pastels and some blacks. They have found inspiration in Marie Antoinette with a 1970s vibe. Cute short dresses, edgy leather , midi skirts and delicate embroidery, just what you need for a sweet spring!

Photo: Courtesy of Red Valentino

Vogue September Issues Around the World

September it's the January of the fashion calendar. Let's take a look at what Vogue magazines around the world put on the cover of their most important issue. What is your favorite?

Vogue US

Beyoncé on 'Vogue.' Photo: Mario Testino/Vogue

Vogue UK

UK Vogue September 2015 : Emma Watson by Josh Olins

Vogue Italia

Vogue Italia September 2015 Lexi Boling by Steven Meisel

Vogue Paris

Vogue Paris September 2015 : Natasha Poly by Mert Alas & Marcus Piggott

Vogue Germany

Vogue Germany September 2015 : Julia Bergshoeff by Patrick Demarchelier.

Vogue Japan

Vogue Japan September 2015 : Katy Perry by Giampaolo Sgura

Vogue Brasil

Vogue Brazil September 2015 : Isabeli Fontana by Zee Nunes

Vogue China

Vogue China 10th Anniversary Cover photographed by Mario Testino

Vogue Russia

Vogue Russia September 2015 : Natasha Poly By Patrick Demarchelier

Vogue Australia

Vogue Australia September 2015 : Nicole Kidman by Will Davidson

Vogue Mexico

Vogue Mexico September 2015 : Joan Smalls by Russell James

Vogue Netherlands

Vogue Netherlands September 2015 : Imaan Hammam by Marc de Groot

Vogue Turkey

Vogue Turkey September 2015 : Joséphine Le Tutour & Alexandra Ljadov by Liz Collins

Vogue Ukraine

Vogue Ukraine September 2015 : Guinevere Van Seenus by Steven Pan

Vogue India

Vogue India September 2015 : Katrina Kaif

Vogue Spain

Vogue España September 2015: Penélope Cruz by Nico Bustos

Vogue Thailand

           

Vogue Thailand September 2015 : Suki Waterhouse by Marcin Tyszka

Vogue Portugal

Vogue Portugal September 2015 : Kasia Struss by Marcin Tyszka

LVMH Announces Its Twelve Fashion Prize Finalists

The panel of experts has spoken, the votes are in, and today we can announce the twelve talents who will move on to the final round of the heated LVMH Prize for Young Fashion Designers competition. Atto by Julien Dossena, CG by Chris Gelinas, Gabriele Colangelo, Shayne Oliver’s Hood by Air, Jacquemus by Simon Porte Jacquemus, Miuniku by Nikita and Tina Sutradhar, Thomas Tait, Tillmann Lauterbach, Tim Coppens, Simone Rocha, Suno by Max Osterweis and Erin Beatty, and Vika Gazinskaya will go head-to-head for the award’s 300,000 euro grant. 

But wait, you might be thinking. Weren’t there only supposed to be ten finalists? Yes, but LVMH’s team of forty industry insiders simply could not decide after surveying the work of the competition’s thirty semifinalists during an event at Paris fashion week. “It’s so hard,” offered Louis Vuitton’s executive vice president Delphine Arnault, who has been spearheading the initiative. “When we compiled the votes, four designers all had the same amount, so we let twelve in. I think it’s good.” We’re sure the finalists would agree.

The dozen men’s and womenswear designers, who hail from round the globe, will each have fifteen minutes to present their Fall ’14 collections at the LVMH headquarters in May. Judges including Karl Lagerfeld, Raf Simons, Nicolas Ghesquière, Marc Jacobs, Riccardo Tisci, and others will consider their efforts, and later choose a winner. 

Louis Vuitton FALL 2014 READY-TO-WEAR

Few designers are as beloved, respected, or copied as Ghesquière is, and he's been off the scene and badly missed since his departure from Balenciaga a year and a half ago. Only Raf Simons' debut at Dior was as breathlessly anticipated as Ghesquière's at Vuitton. 

As the metal blinds of the Cour Carree show space opened to bright sun, Freja Beha Erichsen emerged in a black leather snap-front coat with a wide caramel-colored collar, carrying the new Petite Malle bag, a miniature LV trunk at her fingertips. The coat's flared A-line cut and abbreviated thigh-high hem was the show's predominant silhouette, but if that shape cued a 1960s vibe, the workmanship was 21st-century state of the art.You won't find a more luxurious coat than the black crocodile shown here, despite its industrial zip front, or a jacket as well made as the one he patchworked in different colored leathers.

Naturally, there were a lot of skins, a lot of suede, a lot of leather, and naturally Ghesquière used them in innovative ways. A pair of cool evening looks had molded leather bodices and knit skirts aswirl with hand-cut feathers. Elsewhere, the designer's famous flair for experimentation was somewhat scaled back. (That mostly holds true for the bags as well, save for a double-handled style that in fact came with just one handle.) That came across in an outfit like the checked three-button blazer accompanied by glossy leather jeans and a red cardigan with a frilly white collar underneath, and in another that consisted of a white turtleneck, a trim black jacket, and a skirt in wool and crinkly leather, the new LV suit. And in a third that was as straightforward as a ski sweater and a belted A-line mini can be. Skirts and dresses were squarely the focus, yet fans of Ghesquière's life-changing trousers could take heart at the sight of a high-waisted style into which he tucked a khaki jacket. In any case, there will be plenty of seasons for pants. This was a great beginning, understated but not without power, for Ghesquière and the new Louis Vuitton.

Cédric Charlier fall 2014 ready-to-wear

Cédric Charlier acknowledged some of the season's signal items today when he showed generously cut trousers, culottes, sweatshirts, oversize drop-shoulder coats, and short dresses paired with thigh-high boots. That's what is called being "on trend," and it's a savvy place for a relatively new designer to be. But that's not really the hard part. The challenge is standing out in the crowd, creating a signature that is sharp and special enough that the world gets it—better yet, wants to get it. After two years, you could say Charlier's signature is dark and arty, precisely cut, and menswear influenced. But how does he elevate that handful of ingredients—which, after all, crop up everywhere—so his dish is the tastiest on the table? 

Snakes, that's how. 

The designer used a rippling debossed pattern to suggest a snake's slither, and he pleated leather to look like a scaly skin. Same with the paillettes he applied to a shift dress. 

"A deliberation on comfort, sensuality, and nonchalance" was his description of the collection. True, all three were embodied by the slouch of a blue pantsuit—by all the trousers, in fact. But otherwise there was a very un-snaky uncertainty about this show. 

Stella Jean fall 2014 ready-to wear

Stella Jean has emerged as one of the most hot young talents the recent seasons.  Franca Sozzani of Vogue Italia can't get enough of her. And she has reasons to be, because Jean's collections are as unique as refreshing. 

If anything, this collection felt even more multilayered than her last. It being Fall, there were floor-scraping cardigan coats in bucolic intarsias and printed tights that matched the patterns on crinoline-lined skirts—along with natty tailoring in colorful tweeds and plaids that added an element of newness to a mix that leaned heavily on Jean's African wax prints. That said, the wax prints are her unique selling point. They were vibrant and gorgeous. 

As for the animals? They officially became a thing yesterday when Dolce & Gabbana put embroideries of squirrels, foxes, and owls on their runway. Jean's weren't just woodland creatures. She had impressively plumed roosters, what looked like an egret, and giant koi. We're on the fence about animals on clothing, but a quick post-show survey revealed that key retailers are sold on it.

Dolce & Gabbana FALL 2014 READY-TO-WEAR

"Enchanted Sicily" was the title Dolce & Gabbana gave their collection, but what we saw was actually a timely departure from the overtly folkloric tone of the duo's recent collections. Here were ten of the all-black, widow's-weeds-y outfits that established Dolce & Gabbana's fashion signature three decades ago, but they were like breathing spaces in a fantastic riot of fairies, princesses, owls, foxes, squirrels, and swans. There was even a frog for a princess to kiss. All of them were rendered in charmingly naive appliqués. The owls on a blue brocade shift were a particularly memorable combination of ultra-cute and hyper-sophisticated. 

Sicily was still in the mix, but in the same way it featured in the men's collection in January. The island has been enough of a cross-cultural historical crossroads that you can basically pick an influence and run with it. For the men's show, it was the seven Norman kings who swept down from the North (very Lord of the Rings). Here, it was their female consorts who inspired the embroidery and gilding, the gothic appliqué, the studded balaclavas and gauntlets. Those antique invaders brought their myths and legends with them, and that, according to Gabbana, is when fairies arrived in Italy. The recurrent motif in the collection was the key that opened the door to a secret garden. 

For all the arcana of their inspiration, the clothes themselves managed to build a bridge to the real world, or at least a world real enough for a woman to wear an A-line tweed coat with a little appliqué, a skirt suit in deepest forest green, or even one of the beautiful Riding Hood capes. As a shortcut to escape while the world's weather patterns surrender to globally warmed insanity, they could scarcely be more apt. Of course, Domenico and Stefano couldn't leave it there. They marched a platoon of gothic Tinkerbells down the catwalk as a finale. Who doesn't need some fairy dust?