PARIS, October 3, 2009

By Sarah Mower

In the summer, Jun Takahashi met the great German industrial designer behind Braun, Dieter Rams, at a Tokyo retrospective of his electronic products—the radios, hi-fis, calculators, and shavers that have become commonplace since the fifties. Rams' dictum, "Less is better," went into Takahashi's brain as a principle that should also apply to modern clothing. "In this economy," he said, "we should cut out the unnecessary." After getting Rams' blessing, he designed his menswear collection as an homage to the Braun aesthetic of minimal detail and functionality. And for Spring, he followed through with the equivalent for women, with the same industrial gray/khaki palette, orange buttons, perforated patches taken from stereo speakers, and narrow tan leather straps found in Rams' work.

Takahashi's interest in utilitarian products isn't a whim. The designer said he's taken up running, which got him thinking about incorporating the advanced fabric of high-spec outdoor wear into fashion design. "So, I've been naturally drawn into it," he said. In any case, the thought process is another step along the research path he's been following for several seasons as he's imported technological climate-control materials into clothing. On the general level, the anoraks, jackets, shorts, and dresses in the collection shed a different light on the interest in casual sport dressing that is rising this season. Takahashi's approach is one in which the scientific content aims to transcend mere styling. Still, his concentration on quiet product development, and his withdrawal from the runway for two seasons (he shot the collection images in Japan), have somewhat sidelined him as a voice in Paris.

BRAND: UNDERCOVER  |  UNDERCOVER OFFICIAL WEBSITE

PARIS, October 2, 2010

By Meenal Mistry

When you think about it in terms of today's political climate, it's strange that religion is such a frequent fashion reference. But there's something about both sides of Catholicism—the pomp and the severe simplicity—that inspires designers. (Here's looking at you, Riccardo Tisci.) Today, Véronique Leroy took her cues from the severe end of the spectrum, with visions of medieval pilgrims to Santiago de Compostela. That translated to super-stripped-down silhouettes in what Leroy called "raw fabrics," like jute, linen, and a nubbly rough-woven tweed.

For the most part, the effect of these peasant dresses and spartan versions of ladylike looks was quite chic. Backstage, Leroy also name-checked the American painter John Currin, and there was a sensuality, albeit set at a low simmer, in the sheer fabrics that exposed bra tops and briefs.

The proceedings weren't without their clunky moments. An oddly dowdy oversize skirtsuit felt entirely out of place. (Though Leroy made the hem du jour—the midi—work nicely everywhere else.) It's also doubtful that jute dresses—which look like burlap—will ever make it off the runway. And if the huge backpacks were Leroy's way of working in the more casually clad pilgrims of today, they only served to distract from an otherwise fine collection.

BRAND: VERONIQUE LEROY  |  VERONIQUE LEROY OFFICIAL WEBSITE

PARIS, March 8, 2010

By Nicole Phelps

It's not usually a good sign when a designer opens up with a knit leotard with a cutout at one hip worn over a pair of clingy exercise shorts and heavy tights. Where, for example, might a young woman sport such an outfit, outside of the ballet studio? But there was more to this Vanessa Bruno show than the opening suggested. Dance, or more precisely, the layered and wrapped outfits that dancers wear to rehearse, provided Bruno with an organizing theme for her Fall collection. And if it's hard to picture that first look hanging in the window of her Rue de Castiglione store, her outerwear, starting with a long, icy gray shearling knitted at the hem, will have them lining up.

Already own a trench? Bruno's given her fans a reason to buy a new one in the form of a drop-waist camel leather version or another in tweed with a leather storm flap. She also made some smart moves with her tailoring. Adding a strap to a blazer so it stays on when you wear it tossed over your shoulders isn't a new idea—Helmut Lang did it a decade ago or more—but it's probably new to her girls. As for the season's must-have mixed-media jacket, hers combined crisp gray flannel with a deep leather hem and a ribbed knit back.

There were other things to like here as well, including a ribbed cardigan with leather elbow patches, the floaty printed chiffon dresses, and Bruno's patchwork stacked-heel boots with fur trim. All in all, a strong show from this well-priced Paris favorite.

BRAND: VANESSA BRUNO  |  VANESSA BRUNO OFFICIAL WEBSITE

PARIS, October 3, 2009

By Nicole Phelps

Viktor Horsting and Rolf Snoeren play it safe? Not a chance. While other designers have been plumbing the depths of their brand DNA and sometimes coming up empty, the Dutch duo were hacking away at their dresses with a chain saw. Literally. "With the credit crunch and everybody cutting back, we decided to cut tulle ball gowns," Snoeren said.

The gowns he was talking about came at the end of the show. The skirt of a crystal bustier dress was a solid mass of net ruffles, except for the place where a hole had been tunneled front to back and where the edges were chopped away. Another frock was sliced in half with a good six inches between the top and a bottom that seemed to defy gravity. Truly fabulous both in conception and execution, if not all that likely to find a raison d'être outside the pages of glossy fashion magazines—or onstage with the likes of Róisín Murphy. She wore a tulle skirt dress that hid her pregnant belly while she performed on a pedestal at the back of the runway.

Many of the cocktail dresses that preceded the finale, though, did look like they could pass in real life. These married masculine bits of tuxedos and ultra-femme color-blocked pastel plissé, with the remnants of the duo's tulle hack jobs frilling a shoulder, tracing the length of a sleeve, or decorating a bodice like a flower. The designers also dipped into Spring's lingerie drawer, coming up with silk satin bed jackets, camis, and pajamas with peekaboo lace insets. Those were on trend, but the big story was the credit-crunch couture dresses. Horsting and Snoeren haven't always scored with their conceptual games the last few seasons, but today it was a total blast watching them let it rip.

BRAND: VIKTOR & ROLF  |  VIKTOR & ROLF OFFICIAL WEBSITE

PARIS, October 7, 2009

By Nicole Phelps

Wolfgang Joop named his Spring collection "Hurt and Heal." His program notes explained that "after a time of opulence and carelessness, healing has to come." He's not the only designer thinking along those lines; unfortunately, Joop's Wunderkind show took the sentiment way too literally.

Rendered in red or blue toile de Jouy, his blouses, high-waisted pants, peasant dresses, and coats had a country charm that ought to have put him in good company—Karl Lagerfeld himself went bucolic at Chanel. But there was a major disconnect between these clothes and the futuristic knits they were layered upon. Inspired by medical compression body stockings designed to enhance circulation, the unitards came in graphic color-blockings: red, white, and black, with large yellow arrows pointing at the bust or the nether regions. The metal back braces that accompanied some of the looks just added to the head-scratching effect.

BRAND: WUNDERKIND  |  WUNDERKIND OFFICIAL WEBSITE

Beige, beige, and more beige. It's no news by now that the paler shade of brown, and the grown-up daywear it connotes, have become mainstays of the season. It's the route Chloé has taken for Fall, with such thorough commitment that until halfway through, it almost seemed Hannah MacGibbon was reluctant to offer anything else.

From the outset, she whittled the look down to its clearest components: a long-sleeved silk blouse and high-waist flared trousers, and the bouncy, blown-out Charlie girl hair that captures the seventies American sportswear attitude this trend is all about. Next up, MacGibbon introduced knitwear, classic menswear overcoats, and an early-Armani-like jacket that might have jumped out of Vogue's pages in the post-women's lib era—when dashing to work while looking enthusiastically businesslike was the thing.

It's a feeling, of course, that MacGibbon shares with her British female designer peers Phoebe Philo and Stella McCartney, who both passed through the Chloé studio some while back. They left the label with a reputation for girly dressing, jingly-jangly It bags, and statement shoes, but now that they're all into their thirties, these young professionals are leading a different life.

MacGibbon's house-cleaning instinct has thrown out the all the frills, prints, funny bags, and chunky clogs and platform shoes that last made Chloé hot. The bags have been stripped of hardware and logos, and the footwear renovated as sidewalk-friendly caramel riding boots and springy-soled wedges. The flirty, blowy dresses, once the Chloé signature, have been axed. The hip-girl, slightly streetwise element that used to be part of the personality here was this season reduced to a mild play on western styling—a minor outbreak of leather fringing and one pair of velvet, gold-embroidered jeans that turned up in the second half.

In terms of brand differentiation, though, that leaves a conundrum for buyers. Chloé's offering for Fall puts the label in direct competition with what so many others are producing now. It left some puzzlement over whether leaving the house's youth behind is such a wise move.

BRAND: CHLOE  |  CHLOE OFFICIAL WEBSITE