Maison Martin Margiela...lamp!

Speaking about a large bottle lamp could appear stupid but I would like to put the attention on how the fashion world is "conquering" every aspect of our life and integrating with everything. So, I post this lamp but I could think about the candles of Margiela and Gucci, for example, about the Bicycles (Fendi, Gucci, Chanel...), about the snowboard (Chanel...) and so on. 

By the way, Margiela is one of the brand which owns an hotel, wich creates avant garde pret-a-porter and haute couture, wich has a unique point of view...in summary, wich matches design and fashion. I'm thinkig to the transparent shoes, for example. So, this maison is an example, a model, of fashion wich is intergrated in everything and this allows "fashion" to be more open, more "innovative" and so to develop more interesting ideas. I would like that more brands apply this philysophy that is also the one of Armani (armani home, hotel and the rtw/haute couture), Fendi (home and  rtw), Missoni (home, hotel and rtw), Versace (home, hotel and rtw), Ralph Lauren (home, hotel and rtw), Oscar de la Renta (home, hotel and rtw).

So, it's true that a lot of brands are applying this èhilosophy: adding to their "classical fashion things" other things of the daily life... but I believe that Margiela is the only one to have a really UNIQUE concept-design idea on which it develops all its creations.

Imagea and shop on-line:
Antonioli

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Posted in Maison Martin Margiela

S/S 2011...Volumes and extravagant!

 Speaking about volumes, Japanese designers are very interesting and they are the best ones in making "extravagant clothes". Commes des Garçons' family (Tao, Rei, Junya) developed big volumes on skirt and top with, sometimes, asimmetry in a way that is absolutely innovative. Yamamoto, who normally uses long and slim silhouettes, decides to create a big knot that makes the coat just right for very convinced fashionistas. V&R are maybe the only designers who are able to develop such big volumes (think to that s/s where, quoting world economic crisis, they produced exagerate gowns with some "holes"...). 

However, Valli created nice volmes on skirts...but Margiela, the Belgian designer who influenced our fashion era in such an important way, designed a really "strange shirt". In particular the top looks like a flat squared which modifies at all the silhouette of woman body. It's  of course an important piece of design but I don't think that this could really have a commercial succes or being wearable. And CDG top is of course unwearable (this is only a good fashion creation), Viktor and Rolf are unwearable too, I think... So, Valli and Tao (unexpectedlyfor this last one...) are absolutely perfect in the right occasions.

Images via:
Vogue

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Posted in Commes des garçons , Giambattista Valli , Maison Martin Margiela , s/s 2011 , Tao Kurihara , Viktor-Rolf , Yohij Yamamoto

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

Market bags: chic or..cheap?

This is surely one of the most discussed trend of the last spring... We started to see "plastic bags" on the runway with Louis Vuitton s/s 2010, where Marc Jacobs decided to purpose two version of a really expensive bag (2000 dollars). I think that everyone agree that the Vuitton bags were the worst example of this new kind of bag and showed what it means "pay only for the brand name". 

However, this year Jil Sander (for 100 dollars) purposes some acetate bags that could be an interesting innovative solution for make a look funnier or younger. Furthermore, the bag has an aesthethic that is so right for the spirit of the show and its style, so Raf Simons made a wonderful product where the relation between price and quality is good.
But, I see another version of the Jil Sander "bag". The shape of that bag is really with the shopper that you find at the supermarket. So, Margiela presented (not on the runway, only in the shops) a bag (available in brown and black) that has the same shape of the Sander's one but that is realized in leather and that cost more or less 400 dollars. Also in this case the bag reflects perfectly the style of the maison. However, I have to say that I don't like the Margiela bag becuase I think that here the "famous minimalism" of the maison appear a bit "old" and sad. So, I believe that only Simons, for Sander, understood the real "power" (and the limits, too) of this trend, or better of these accesories. In fact the only use of this kind of materials/kind of bags, is to make a look funny and not cheap/sad/ boring. Vuitton, absolutely crazy (the price) and so cheap the appearance. Margiela could make every look sad, not funny: I'm almost annoyed by those bags.

Simons, amazing...I love his style and the style that he is giving to Jil Sander: like Prada a new kind of "minimalism" where the shapes and the cuts are minimalistic but the colors are funny...not the "dark" minimalism of Armani, for example.

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

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Posted in Jil Sander , Louis Vuitton , LuisaViaRoma , Maison Martin Margiela , Marc Jacobs , Net-a-Porter , Raf Simons

Dior and Margiela...couture s/s 2011

On monday Dior, Margiela, Armani, Mabille and so on, presented their high fashion shows. Then, yesterday Chanel and Givenchy showed their collections and today the week is closed by Gaultier and Valentino.

But, all these things don't matter with the post. I'd like to speak about Dior and Margiela, today, and then of the other designers.

I start with Dior that is my absolutely favourite brand and show in haute couture week. Galliano is fresh, creative and genious and all these adjectives are not only words but reality. However, you remind the f/w 2010 show of Dior couture that was defined by fresh and spring colors that were more suitable to that season than to winter. Now we see a show for the following spring that is more suitable for the winter than for the spring, so  is Galliano crazy or could we understand it if we watch to  it by a different point of view? I believer that EVOLUTION is the key word to understand all the fashion world...So, if we consider the colors like provocation, like a desire to aovid the clichè and we consdier the shapes (more squared like the f/w 2010 Armani show, more soft and less "exagerate" in the classic meaning of the word like the last Galliano's couture shows, more conceptual and less sexy...) we will understand that Galliano is trying to evolve his vision of couture to reach a new level where the sex appeal and the "past details, past luxe" (that are everytime present in his collections) are replaced by a conceptual and more consciou knowledge of fashion. In the end, and in easier words it's clear that couture is something that must be admired and left speechless and doesn't need all these words that I spent...So, enjoy it without think too much.

About Margiela, I have to say that I love this maison and so my judgements could be a bit subjective and not really objective. By the way, when someone say "Margiela couture" everyone thinks to a stupid, useless and completely unwearable couture...it's so right! But also here the things are changed, developed, evolved. In the s/s 2011, Margiela showed cardboard shapes dresses and here the masion developed the concept in a more wearable way. Here I can see something more similar to beauty than only to "simple0 creativity and conceptuality", here Margiela arrived to a kind of couture that is   (even if it will be worn only by "fashion addicted" and "Margiela lovers"...) more wearable than normal. Maybe it's the absence of Martin Margiela, its team chose a more "commercial" way to make clothes (in this case with commercial I mean wearable...). So, to end the post, I love this collection (it's the first time I really love a Margiela high fashion collection). But the most beautiful things are, for me, the  transparence coat (last pic), [the first interesting result of this kind of coat], and the squared dresses (the right one in particular) where the "intrecciato lavoration" and the shapes are amazingly gathered with a nice result...this is the real minimalism but also the "Prada's maximalism"! 

Images:
Vogue

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Posted in Christian Dior , Haute Couture , John Galliano , Maison Martin Margiela , parigi , Paris fashion week , s/s 2011

Margiela's winter...

Here we have some accessories made by Margiela. the first one is a fur pochette that should be worn with the fur coat made by Margiela for this f/w. The shoes are more complicated: the first ones have a strange shape and are really conceptual so anyone could decide if they are beautiful or not. The second pairs have the peculiarity to put the hallux in a separate position and I think that the  boots are perfect to make more nice a gothic outfit. The third pair is amazing...On LuisaViaRoma you can find also a pair of boots with the same heel. It's just the heel that gives to the shoes that taste of  creativityand glamour that is a peculiarity of Margiela.

Images via:
Maison Martin Margiela (online shop)

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Posted in clutches , f/w 2010 , handbags , Maison Martin Margiela , shoes