Our review will be posted shortly. See the complete collection by clicking the image at left.

http://feeds.style.com/~r/fashion_show_updates/~3/QTCFaeJs1gM/

The expectation with Elie Saab is always that there will be beautiful lace and embroidery. On both counts, the designer did not disappoint with his pre-fall collection. But it was a surprise and pleasure to see how the workmanship that goes into those materials could be applied to cashmere and fur. The former, for instance, played a starring role in a jacket-cape hybrid. Double-faced instead of lined, the cashmere formed softly around the torso, opening from the shoulders into a sleeveless, swingy back. That same controlled trapeze shape reappeared in a suit jacket contoured with satin and zippers, as well as a lace and organza tunic in ultramarine. Though this silhouette is conducive to a spectrum of figures, the fit-and-flare remains Saab's standby. As a modest evolution, dresses were shown in a new perforated, ribbed fabric cut in body-contouring panels that left a more precise effect than lace. More important, it strikes the right amount of red-carpet sizzle to ensure its use beyond one-season wonder.

Meanwhile Saab seemed to figure that pre-fall was an opportunity to push further into the accessories market. His heels adopted the same contouring as his dresses, and it goes without saying that the bagsavailable in metallic-finish exotic skinsare not season-specific. The roomy, tissue-box-size clutch solves the problem of what to carry when wearing the coat-cape. All told, this was a thoughtful collectioneven if it never once deviated from Saab's feminine ideal.
Alex Veblen

http://feeds.style.com/~r/fashion_show_updates/~3/5wEwZ7GaMHc/

Our review will be posted shortly. See the complete collection by clicking the image at left.

http://feeds.style.com/~r/fashion_show_updates/~3/XNaJQaTFeak/

Jonny Johansson's inspiration du jour was "winter beach." The rocky beaches of the Scandinavian peninsula are more existential than the usual Beach Blanket Bingo variety, and Johansson has lately had opportunity to spend some spiritual time by the water. "One year ago I bought a house in Torц. It was Ingmar Bergman's summer home in the sixties," he said. "It's quite far out and tortured." Which you could also say about the designer himself.

But the slight chill in the air seemed to do the collection good. Last season's more conceptual anticsglam rock as inspired by the Swedish outsider artist Hilma af Klinttested the resolve of Acne Studios' more pragmatic fans. But the label's taste for boundary-pushing waxes and wanes with the seasons. This was a realistic collection of pieces, not lacking in styling brio but not defined by it either. Maybe things were grounded by the emphasis on functionality. That can mean many things. It can be the functionality of a waterproof parka in neoprene; or of a pant made modular by the addition of zippers at the ankles to expand or constrict the shape; or simply the functionality of agreeable pieces, like brushed alpaca topcoats, popover anoraks, and satin varsity jackets, that don't overreach into unnecessary avant-garde territory. The beachy palette of sand, blush, and camel gave it all a new freshness for winter.

The collection served as a happy return to a more restrained form. Those who might regret that need only wait. A few long foiled layering pieces and shirts hanging down well past waist level suggested an idea still in development. "A lot of guys in the office wear skirts," Johansson said with a note of bloodhound curiosity. The pendulum will no doubt swing again.
Matthew Schneier

http://feeds.style.com/~r/fashion_show_updates/~3/hjB1wkzSVGs/

Since Raf Simons arrived at Dior, Christian Dior himself has been resuscitated, restored as the wellspring of the house's mythology. Today, Kris Van Assche made his own contribution by elevating him as the original homme Dior, using elements from the magic Christian's work and wardrobe to create one of his strongest collections yet for Dior Homme.

The strength was in the finely honed detail. The pinstripes of Dior's own Savile Row suits were reproduced in myriad versions: narrow, wide, irregular, embroidered, rendered in leather strips. The polka dots of his silk ties were embroidered all over jackets, pants, shirts, bags, and shoes. The lily of the valley that Dior believed was his good-luck charm appeared as a trompe l'oeil embroidery peeking from a pocket, covering a shirt, or as a jacquard knit.

In studying the life of Dior the man, Van Assche was fascinated by how superstitious he was. Guided by a quotation from Goethe, "Superstition is the poetry of life," Van Assche drew on not only the flower but also the star, heart, and coin motifs that Dior treasured for the subtle, delicate detailing of tiepins and brooches. A rose embroidery found in Dior's couture archive was blown up as a visual on huge, swingy coats (they're shaping up as Fall's must-have in Paris).

The formality of the collectionoften three-piece, sometimes four-buttonwas new. Van Assche has usually, by his own admission, stuck to a clone-like proposition of "utilitywear, jeans, and sneakers." What was clever here was the incorporation of streetwear into the tailoring. Macro: a parka cut from a substantial Japanese nylon in khaki, or a utility jacket in that same nylon, both layered over pinstripe suits. Micro: a nylon cargo pocket on pinstripe pants, a single zippered pocket on one sleeve of a blazer. Van Assche said he was "imposing more variety" on himself. And that means, come fall, there'll be more choice for l'homme Dior.
Tim Blanks

http://feeds.style.com/~r/fashion_show_updates/~3/mmha-8F6JOk/

After several seasons of spectacular tableaux vivants at Berluti, Alessandro Sartori had reached the point where he wanted to do a show: a living, breathing, moving advertisement for the extraordinary work the Berluti artisans are doing. The decision was made early enough in the process of designing the new collection that the show could become an extension of it. Which meant that everything about tonight's presentation was, according to Sartori, calculated to convey the character of the company that he is building as creative director with CEO Antoine Arnault.

With that in mind, it was slightly discombobulating to walk into the venue. Berluti has assiduously massaged its niche as the best of the best, and yet here we were in a parking garage on an afterthought of a street somewhere behind the Eiffel Tower. But walk on. We strolled through a "forest of creativity"plinths supporting miniaturized wooden shoe lasts covered in the hundred different colors of leather that Berluti has on offerinto a pinewood studio that looked like the set of Lars von Trier's Dogville. "Doors that are going somewhere else, walls that are creating new volumes," Sartori rationalized at a preview earlier in the day. His cryptic statement made sense once the models appeared.

Menswear is traditionally a composite of minute details, which means that you'd be safe thinking that radical shifts, especially at this elevated stratum of the luxury market, are chimerical. So picture men's fashion as the caboose on that train, and then appreciate how, throughout his career, Sartori has managed to shove the caboose a few yards down the track each season with his tailoring tweaks. Here, he introduced a slash pocket to his jackets. Instantly, a new way to make your jacket work for you. He also added an intarsia pleat to the top of the sleeve, creating an articulated effect that allowed the arm to move with greater ease. As Sartori described it, it sounded so elementary that you wondered why no one had done it before.

Another innovation: outerwear featuring a technical membrane of wool sandwiched between two layers of boiled cashmere, a combination so durable that Sartori imagined the coat and bomber jacket he'd cut from it would be passed from generation to generation. If this isn't exactly the planned obsolescence of fashion as we know it, that only points to what is still essentially an experimental phase for Berluti. One jacket featured a checked pattern that had been literally scratched into the fabric; the surface of anotherin mohair, for eveninghad been pad-stitched for a total of seventy hours to create its texture. There was a kind of irresistible madness in such ideas, the rush of doing something because anything is possible in the zone where, said Sartori, "craft and quality meet technology." He made his fashion statements tonighttop-to-toe camel or black reflected the season's trend toward monochrome dressing, ties matched shirts throughoutand he also offered the straightforward luxury of shirts in two-ply cashmere and sweaters in twelve-ply cashmere bouclй. But it's in that other zone where Berluti's character is taking shape.
Tim Blanks

http://feeds.style.com/~r/fashion_show_updates/~3/HBSw3eei_ng/

Cerruti, despite its noble history, has struggled in recent years. Following founder Nino Cerruti, a succession of designers has passed through its doors, from the famous (Narciso Rodriguez, Richard Nicoll) to the lesser known. The latest to take the helm is Aldo Maria Camillo, an Italian-born veteran of Valentino menswear, who has been given charge of the men's collection Cerruti 1881 (1881 being the year the Cerruti family's fabric mill was founded). After years of Cerruti presenting without fanfare, Cerruti 1881 finds itself back on the catwalk, complete with a front row filled with European celebrities and an aggressive marketing campaign to get the word out.

It's no secret that heritage can be a millstone around the neck of a designer. Camillo, now in his third season, doesn't seem under any illusions about that. "We have to reach into the past to catch a bit of Cerruti," he said. His debut collection last January captured a bit of the unforced elegance of Cerruti in its halcyon days.

The difficulty lies in looking backward while pushing forward. For his Fall collection, Camillo toyed with the stiffer idea of uniform, but a uniform from a time that seemed to extend back even further than Nino Cerruti's eramaybe all the way back to 1881. (The show notes invoked "a cupboard containing remnants of a past life& over which the passing of time can clearly be discerned.") There was a military cast to the greatcoats, with their fur hoods and collars; the capes; and the palette of olive greens and rich browns. The construction and the fabrics looked terrific, which was a bit of heritage done right (Cerruti has always been fabric-centric, given its lanificio history). Rather than begin with big ideas, Camillo said, he begins with textiles: "It's more easy for me to understand where I am going from the fabric," he explained. Here, boiled wool, felt, and cashmere led the way.

But a runway is a better platform for conveying the style rather than the substance of a collection. Many pieces felt engineered for effect, perhaps destined to be tamed before they arrive in stores. It's easy to imagine a man wanting a Cerruti coat, but perhaps not so much of one as appeared here. If one was more than enough, two was twice that: For several looks, jackets were worn over coats, or light cashmere coats doubled on one another. It was a provocative silhouette, the kind that speaks forcefully on a runway or an editorial page. But it felt at odds with the time-faded inspiration and the stated aims of the collection itself. "My favorite word is 'rational,'" Camillo said. It wasn't that.

Which Cerruti is the Cerrutithe antique or the fashionable, the glamorous or the rational? Until the question has a clearer answer, the label may be destined to be simply a maker of beautiful clothes. That's a worthy end in itself, and more than enough for many. But it seems to fall short of Cerruti's current ambition.
Matthew Schneier

http://feeds.style.com/~r/fashion_show_updates/~3/hOG777wlif8/

Our review will be posted shortly. See the complete collection by clicking the image at left.

http://feeds.style.com/~r/fashion_show_updates/~3/rqmmXOuguKY/

Our review will be posted shortly. See the complete collection by clicking the image at left.

http://feeds.style.com/~r/fashion_show_updates/~3/EIa4g2IJGhU/

Our review will be posted shortly. See the complete collection by clicking the image at left.

http://feeds.style.com/~r/fashion_show_updates/~3/JzuRP-Tu9cc/

Couture has been a watchword for the Valentino men's collection under Pierpaolo Piccioli and Maria Grazia Chiuri. The exigencies of the fashion calendars mean that menswear and haute couture fall naturally one after the other in January and in June, but it's more than temporal coincidence that throws them together where these designers are concerned. Couture "is the DNA of our brand," said Piccioli, "and what we think is good to get into every single thing we do."

The opening of the new Valentino men's store on rue Saint-Honorй tonight allows the designers to make couture for men a reality. Their Fall show was designed to show off the possibilities. Piccioli and Chiuri proposed five couture coats in double-face cashmere, handmade in the Val atelier in Rome's Piazza Mignanelli and adaptable to a man's any and every whim. Theirs were long, swingy, and in one vivid case, stripy, but the choice is his.

The introduction of this men's couture only further ratchets up the degree of luxury Piccioli and Chiuri have made it their business to sell. But the twist at their Valentino is that with each new turn of the gilded screw, the look of luxe gets less and less. The collection has never looked looser. Suits have mostly melted into pajamas; trousers into jeans; shirt-and-tie into sweatshirt-and-scarf. (On occasion, it is loose to the point of self-parody: cashmere coveralls and fur bucket hats are glamorous absurdities.) Everything is more than it appears to be(couture) coat, (bespoke) jeans, (monogrammed) sneakers. The Valentino man has it his way, though with such patrician discretion that only his tailor knows for sure.

The premium is placed on the known rather than the newa reverse engineering of the ideal wardrobewhich helps to make the pieces especially covetable. What these designers realize that many of fashion's novelty artists seem not to is that it's easy to want what you already have and love. Artists' egos be damned. "The ultimate luxury is to do whatever you want," Piccioli said. Which makes Valentino menswear the most elegant instigator of anarchy.
Matthew Schneier

http://feeds.style.com/~r/fashion_show_updates/~3/ymkNYKUp9dc/

Our review will be posted shortly. See the complete collection by clicking the image at left.

http://feeds.style.com/~r/fashion_show_updates/~3/kvVC8Jfe-T8/

Haider Ackermann's pirouette onto fashion's center stage with his epochal Fall 2011 collection launched a thousand comparisons with Romeo Gigli, another poetic dreamer who, two decades ago, made Paris weep with wonder. Gigli's cautionary career proved that a signature so particular can be both blessing and curse. That's the niggling in the back of one's mind when approaching a new Ackermann show. His men's collection is in its infancy, but it's a testament to the distinctiveness of his first presentation last Spring that the same apprehension already applies.

Faced by Ackermann's signaturesthe opulent fabrics and languid proportions, the flowing scarves and lustrous waistcoats most people would agree that the Haider man is a dandy. But for Ackermann, dandyism is a state of mind, rather than a dress code. "More distant, more reclusive," he offered by way of definition tonight. And there were more mores when he talked about his new collection: "More mature, more interior, more sober." Herringbone and gray flannel were the new standards, leaving the jacket in lilac velvet like a last gasp of past splendors. Except that Ackermann had really just made the richness more discreet. The silhouettes were still extreme, the proportions extravagant, the layering louche. Tear it all apart and you could walk away with a smart camel blouson or fur-lined parka, a striped cardigan coat or that icon of sobriety, a gray flannel topcoat.

One of Ackermann's young models came to say good-bye after the show, returned from the designer's dreamworld to the everyday of jeans and skateboard. The transformation in ten minutes was so striking that it provoked an onlooker to ask Ackermann what kind of transport he imagined his men would prefer in their full Haider rig. "A Kawasaki to Scotland," he promptly answered. Lord Byron on a bike? Maybe Ackermann is making the right moves after all.
Tim Blanks

http://feeds.style.com/~r/fashion_show_updates/~3/AqLK3fsauGU/

The soundtrack was Pink Floyd's The Dark Side of the Moon. "Nothing connected to anything that is now," said Raf Simons. "This has been nine years in the making," he added of the show he presented tonight with artist Sterling Ruby. That's how long the two have been friends, and they clearly communicate on such a deep and generous level that they were able to accomplish something quite unique in the ego-addled annals of art and fashion. Not a collaboration in the usual sense of designer hires artist for T-shirt design, but a full-on, both-names-on-the-label mind-meld. "This is our child," said Simons.

And even if you could pick out the faces of the parents in the finished productsilhouettes and proportions that were iconic Simons, flashes of the organic chaos of Ruby's artthe overwhelming impression was of an astonishing compatibility. For instance, anyone who wondered how the monumentalism of Ruby's work could possibly be conveyedor containedin a collection of clothing would have recognized symptoms of overscaling. But this is also a Simons signature.

A Ruby painting or sculpture often has an unfinished feel, an urgent sense of something protean arrested in motion. Simons made his name with clothes that traded on that same mood: deconstruction/reconstruction. They came together tonight in coats collaged with pieces of fabric that seemed in an upward rush, about to fly off their foundation. Items that looked like paint-spattered, bleach-splashed artist's workwear evoked images of The Clash, a reminder of how much punk's DIY ethos has motivated both Simons and Ruby. It infused the lineup with a spontaneous, handcrafted quality that felt like a riposte to the shiny Warholian propaganda of Simons' Spring collection.

Which was perhaps the point of the images in this collection. These included a shark's ravening maw and a grasping hand with luridly painted nails, and they were intended, said Ruby, as "icons of consumption." Both men have used photos and words to similar effect in their work. Among the words that reoccurred here as visual motifs were abus lang and father. The first stands for "abusive language"; Ruby acknowledged the second as his particular contribution. A possible connection between the two would have added a layer of psychological complexity, but Ruby would say only that father is a particularly loaded word, used here to imply "the indoctrination of the man."

The show clearly entailed an enormous amount of time and effortRuby has never made soft sculptures as large as the handful that arched over the catwalkbut that was also the point. "What does labor mean now?" Ruby wondered afterward. It was a question that motivated both men while they were working together. Clichй dictates that hard work is its own reward, but in this case it was clearly an expression of something deeper: the joy of friendship, family, the dignity of craft, maybe even the mechanics of desire. Becauseand here's the kickerthere was scarcely a soul in the place tonight who wasn't hungering for the clothes as they came down the runway.
Tim Blanks

http://feeds.style.com/~r/fashion_show_updates/~3/_7Z0zz0tmH8/

Tsumori Chisato's collections are almost always birthed from places she has traveled. Shortly after her Spring '14 ready-to-wear show in Paris, the Japanese designer headed to Prague and began sketching what she saw. Evidently, she was captivated by the pitched rooftops, which appear as geometric crocheted pockets; outlined in dark leather and set against an A-line skirt or generous trousers, they established a sharp geometric focus that ran counter to the embellished, embroidered pieces appearing later in the collection. Her trip must have also involved some memorable Moravian winehow else to account for the recurrence of claret tones and bundles of knitted grape appliquйs?

In fact, the most prominent motif to come out of this Pre-Fall lineup was a spry little fox that curled up on a brocade, camouflaged itself into pearl beading, and even played a visual pun as a trompe l'oeil stole around the neck of a silk blouse. Chisato further developed this character by showing an actual fluffy fur stole. But the fox on the Segway scooter was just too twee.

Balancing the kawaii with clean, well-cut jackets and shift dresses continues to be Chisato's strengthbut it's also her Achilles' heel. A group of looks covered in an enlarged patchwork of forms set atop black organza might have been intended to evoke the Japanese lacquer effect or Prague's cobblestone streets. Either way, they were sophisticated in shape and subtle in statement. They had substance, where much of the rest felt like souvenirs.
Alex Veblen

http://feeds.style.com/~r/fashion_show_updates/~3/5kn7brk5O7U/

Our review will be posted shortly. See the complete collection by clicking the image at left.

http://feeds.style.com/~r/fashion_show_updates/~3/OZ0S2YmuYbY/

For Ellery's first-ever Pre-Fall collection, Sydney-based designer Kym Ellery decided to focus on luxe. There were serious fabrics herebrocade, velvet, duchesse satinand high-drama silhouettes, like the voluminous organza dress or the inventive bustier with fabric folded all across the front. Though the shapes were hardly traditional, the very dressiness of this collection made it feel a touch staid. Even the ladies who lunch like some ease in their clothes these days. Not that there weren't individual pieces that expressed just thatthe cropped brocade pants with a little kick out at the hem, for instance, or the motorcycle jacket in wine-red ponyskin, an aspirational lust object, indeed. But the standouts here had to be the simple sheath dresses with the trumpet sleeves: No trouble to toss on, and the effect was incontrovertibly soignй.
Maya Singer

http://feeds.style.com/~r/fashion_show_updates/~3/T6Cc2gHNcBM/

Our review will be posted shortly. See the complete collection by clicking the image at left.

http://feeds.style.com/~r/fashion_show_updates/~3/bUwP49Gww_0/

Our review will be posted shortly. See the complete collection by clicking the image at left.

http://feeds.style.com/~r/fashion_show_updates/~3/md-bSS5iqg0/

The Carven man has, until now, looked like he's never so much as seen the wrong side of the tracksGuillaume Henry's vision for his menswear has been much more tender than that. No one who has been following the collection would have expected him to look to vintage mug shots as inspiration, and fewer still would have expected them to toughen up the designs in a way that helped dispel the fussiness that has dogged the line since its inception.

The customary Carven fineness was still in evidence. It was there in the way Henry cut a collar just slightly too large, or a lapel slightly too small. But while previous collections read as cute, this one had more cockeyed charm. "It wasn't that they were underlining an image of danger that was interesting me," Henry said of the men in his source material. "What I liked was that they were looking right at the camera. They were in a police station and they were charming."

With the palette reduced to basicsmostly black, white, cream, and grayand ornamentation all but stripped away, the clothes had a plainspoken appeal. Even the forays into the idiom of eveningwear, from the use of velvet to the patent-leather lace-ups, didn't knock the collection out of its groove. These pieces weren't challenging, they were reliably approachable, which hasn't always been the Carven case. The handful of girls who turned up in the show seemed almost irresistibly pulled in. Henry was adamant that they weren't mere molls. "They're part of the group," he said. The Carven good girl has joined the gang? Her? "They've always been bad girls," he insisted. "You don't see everything at the same time." This lineup proved the point. Time reveals new shadings.
Matthew Schneier

http://feeds.style.com/~r/fashion_show_updates/~3/XroFsQwRFJI/