Maison Martin Margiela... Boots!

Since Martin Margiela has left his label it looks as MMM is making for every collection more "conceptual" and absolutely "strange" clothes and accessories. After the "flat squared dresses" the creative maison presented this special shoes for the spring. The peculiarity of this boots is the avant- garde aestethic that I'm not sure if I like it or not. It's clear that the main risk is that the shoes seem a "broken" ones or that the shoes eats the feet. But this tendance of making shoes with unusual appearance or better like two shoes in one ( this model seems made up by the shoes and the sole, as a different part of the overall boot) is also purposed by Van Assche for Dior Homme. Dior made a nice sandal with a sock that could be wear together or separate. The Margiela's model and the Dior's one are absolutely different. But the element that unifies the two shoes is the desire, the trend, of making "constructed", "multiple", shoes with innovative and futuristic, sometimes, results.

Images and shop on-line:
Net-a-Porter

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Posted in Maison Martin Margiela , Net-a-Porter , s/s 2011 , shoes

Balenciaga...raffia bags!

Spring is definetely arrived and, here in Milan, the weather looks like we are in summer. The sun and the blue skies let us think about sea and holiday in general. I think that bag are a very interesting accessory that during the summer could be really chic or absolutely boring. So Balenciaga purposes raffia these bags in different nuances of colors. The appearance is absolutely light in a chic style that caracterize every Balenciaga's piece. The shape are a bit classic but we are speaking of raffia bags so with this "unusual material" for everyday bags is better to maintain classic shape. The details are realized in leather and I think that this feature help the overall aestheic of the bag to be more "glamorous" and to abandon, at all, any referrement to beach style.

Images via:
Balenciaga

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Posted in Balenciaga , handbags , Nicolas Ghesquière , s/s 2011

Brian Atwood...very elegant shoes!

Bridal shoes are, often, really boring. Classic white shoes, very elegant but, in general, they are all the same even if there are a lot of deisgners who try to make "innovative" shoes for bridal: from Louboutin to Blahnik, I was always bored by their creations (speaking about bridal shoes). 

Brian Atwood tries to be quite classic with an innovativer touch. This looks as a controsense, but I think that this is the best defintion for this shoes: an innovative classic aesthetic.

The heel measures 12 centimeters and the sandals are embellished with floral and shimmering Swarovski crystals. The satin, the flowers and the  glittered heels make these shape the most chic model and the most interesting one for a bridal. The only "problem" is the price, but for this piece of art I think that every price is right: on Net-a-Porter these shoes are sold for $3,440. The only thing that leave me in doubt is that these shoes could "move" the attention from the gown to the sandals. In fact accessories (shoes, bags and jewels....) should be only accessories and not the centre of the outfit. So this shoes are nice and wonderful, for me,  but there is the great risk that they "obscure" the gown.

Images and shop on-line:
Net-a-Porter

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Posted in Brian Atwood , Net-a-Porter , s/s 2011 , shoes

Matthew Williamson...feather skirt!

Matthew Williamson has a great talent in  macthing ethnic style with his vision of fashion and actual trends. In this case he created a skirt with feathers (that are a trend of this s/s) and sequins (another trend) on a gold fabrics (quoting Anna dello Russo, gold will be the new black...). SO this skirt si a summary of the main trend of thsi s/s and it's amazing from my point of view that such a small piece of fabric could represent all these things. Maybe the price is a bit high, but in some cases (and this is one of them) every price is acceptable.

Images and shop online:
Net-a-Porter

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Posted in feathers , Matthew Williamson , Net-a-Porter , s/s 2011 , skirt

Hermès...lively adv!

Hermès campaign are always interesting. In fact, this brand makes adv that aren't a simple "show" of clothes, accessories and so on but Hermès tries with its campaigns to express the spirit of the collections or the maison.

In this specific case, a particular effect gives a lot of movement to all the pics and each shoes, bags....is matched with a "common object" such as scissors, hammer.... The color are bright  and in the first image we can admire a foulard that is "extended" to cover completely the body of that woman.  The image of this huge foulard was the one from which I was amazed. In fact, in that pic there are some small jars where there are some jam or, they also remind me, an ancient japanese medicine that use "colorated fires" to cure every disease. However, apart from each itnerpretation, it's clear that this image has a great aesthetic that, for me, made the adv one of the most beautiful of this s/s.

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Posted in Adv campaigns , Christophe Lemaire , Hermès , s/s 2011

Bottega Veneta...so soft!

Bottega Veneta's handbags are so famous that sometime it looks boring to speak about them. However I think that Maier is doing a great work at this maison and sometimes it's interesting to stop and think about the concept on which he develops Bottega Veneta's bags. We all know Bottega Veneta for its luxury bags and intrecciato. But what about shapes?? For this spring, but in general too, the brand use soft shapes. We see that this s/s is caracterized by a great use of this kind of shape. Jil Sander Market bags (in plastic and in leather), Margiela Market bag, McQueen Faithfull, Marni... This is the time to leave strong and structured shape for softer ones. This is not an opinion shared universally but I think that is a right concept speaking about Bottega Veneta.

These three models are really different and the first two pics represent new bags of this spring. The last one is a classic bag. We see in all these bags a deconstructed shape where every single line is soft and the leather looks like a "flying on the bags". This effect, that is more clear in the first bag, makes these bags more new and interesting. The leather is really soft and so the aesthetic is more natural and less artificial than normal bags. This aspect is underlined by the "corners": they are "beveled" in order to improve the roundish appearance of the bags.

Images via:
Bottega Veneta

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Posted in Bottega Veneta , handbags , s/s 2011 , Thomas Maier

S/S 2011...ruches!

Ruches are conquering every designer. During the last seasons almost every brand decided to use this "decoration" in some different ways. For example, also Simons for Sander uses ruches on maxi skirts; the most minimalistic brand uses ruches. This is one of the things that I would not have ever imagined.

However, we see Valentino, Marchesa, McQueen, Ricci...everywhere an explosion of ruches. McQueen  is such an exageration of ruches that only Marchesa 's gown has more of them. 

I don't know if this is a trend that will end with this season or will continue...Speaking about f/w 2011 this trend is not so spread even if some brands use ruches (but, as I told, some maisons like Valentino and so on use ruches everytime.

Pilati for YSL is the only one who uses contrasting ruches. In fact, on the neck uses pink that contrast with blue and on the hem there is a little ruching underlined by some white pieces of fabric.

Images via: 
Vogue

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Posted in Alexander McQueen , Francesco Scognamiglio , marchesa , Nina Ricci , s/s 2011 , Valentino , Yves Saint Laurent

Nancy Gonzalez...light spring!

Nancy Gonzalez is one of my favourite handbags designers.

This bag is realized in crocodile and raffia, this particular mix (the mix'n'match with unconventional materials is her first feature) gives a lighter aesthetic to the bag that, otherwise, could be "old" and not so "fresh", for spring. 

The shape is classic, might remind the Alma of LV, but the nuances are completely new. Or better, the color of handles and the first part is classic for crocodile bags but the lower part with that use of raffia and the contrasting leather, under it, reinvented the crocodile giving to it a style that is really more youth and without that "past luxe" or "snob" appeal that sometimes crocodile may have. This designer knows very well how to avoid all the clichès about crocodile and this is the thing that I like most of her. 

Images and shop on-line:
Net-a-porter

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Posted in handbags , Nancy Gonzalez , Net-a-Porter , s/s 2011