Author Archives: marcusah

Celine / Fall 2011 / Paris Fashion Week

Let Phoebe Philo teach you a lesson or two about creating a global lifestyle brand. She’s done so in only a few collections at Celine and this season is no different. If anything, she’s signaling a broadening of the brand; adding to her color scheme, increasing the amount of buyable coats, and styling the collection as if it were for herself. (Philo knows best.)

Philo’s Celine is a packaged look – this season, its backbone is a tight turtleneck that appears under car-door-inspired coats, lush pieced furs, and latch-strap jackets. Pants came relaxed and wide-legged. Skinny versions were slit at the bottom to appear petalled above the ankle and came replete with leather paneling made to look like luxury automobile interiors. Beautifully colored sweaters harkened back to Philo’s classic personal style, while woodgrain-printed dresses and tops debuted a new sense of modernity.

[Read the rest of my review on TheFashionSpot here.]

Givenchy / Fall 2011 / Paris Fashion Week

Riccardo Tisci’s Givenchy has always been influenced heavily by symbolism, love, religion, music, and animals. This collection boasted pieces of it all – both in literal and conceptual depictions – to foster what could be his most marketable season to date. And to think it may be his last at the legacy-laden house: he’s been buzzed about leaving Givenchy for Dior since the Galliano controversy erupted before Paris Fashion Week.

For Fall 2011, Tisci took Givenchy to the streets of East Los Angeles, where Cholo (and Chola) street gangs hold fort. Influenced heavily by hip hop (Tisci was just recently commissioned to design Kanye West and Jay-Z’s collaborative album cover, which looks strikingly similar to the collection at hand), this season was a beautifully executed, at times quirky, take on street aesthetics gone luxurious. See, for example, the gaudy symmetrical silk-print baseball jackets (to which he’s been developing for seasons now – see his Pre-Fall collection) that looked straight from Gianni Versace’s 1990s baroque print archive, to which The Notorious B.I.G. wore famously.

[Read the rest of my review at TheFashionSpot here.]

Alexander McQueen / Fall 2011 / Paris Fashion Week

Is there anything better?

photos courtesy of globalvu, tFS, & style.com

Maison Martin Margiela / Fall 2011 / Paris Fashion Week

Dresses that peel away like pages of a book to reveal a mismatched under layer and became something of a dress suit? You’ll only find it at Margiela. Conceptually intriguing, this clothing experiment garnered some rather outstanding results. It was all in the details, it seemed, since what looked from afar like a simple sweater set peeled like paint from a wall when eyed up close.
[Read the rest of my runway review on TheFashionSpot here.]

(top) photo courtesy of style.com x balenciaga f/w ’11

Marani / Fall 2011 / Milan Fashion Week

photos courtesy of marani x mel bless

Emilio Pucci / Fall 2011 / Milan Fashion Week

For Fall ’11, Peter Dundas saw his woman as a taut, top-heavy, European bombshell. One whose more apt to dress up than down and looks to be more than comfortable within her own skin. So much so, in fact, she’s amped up her most erogenous feature – le bust. Examine the low-cuts and cinched waists meant to accentuate her hourglass shape, symmetrical Rococo-like treatments used to center the eye, lace peek-a-boos set to frame the breasts, even the positioning of certain sequins – they’re all adept plays on morphing the bustline. Even in his signature asymmetrical backless gowns with Ibizan palettes, Dundas still kept focus on the bosom. Suiting, which appeared slick and ultra-fitted, played upon the theme in a more literal way, flashing cleavage in unbuttoned blazers to purposely reveal the common denominator.

[Read my full review along with more collection pics at TheFashionSpot here.]

Francesco Scognamiglio / Fall 2011 / Milan Fashion Week

In his ninth season showing, Francesco Scognamiglio speaks glamour fluently. But, he’s perhaps at his best when he’s most flagrantly sexual. We are speaking of a man who made his name dressing the queen of all kink (much like Jean Paul Gaultier) – Ms. Madonna Ciccone, during her Hard Candy promo’s. This outing proved to be a lighter, subtler affair from the start with muted gray and light taupes leading into bright white’s and cream’s…

[Read my full review and view more collection pics on TheFashionSpot here.]

Fashion Week / Fall 2011

click collection name below to view post

Highlighted Collections
Francesco Scognamiglio
Emilio Pucci
Marani
D&G

Julien Macdonald / Fall 2011 / London Fashion Week

Julien Macdonald flexes with his latest collection. With McQueen gone, it’s easier for Macdonald to get recognized for his spectacular clothes…and for good reason: he’s the best at what does. Play on playa.

photos courtesy of fashiongonerogue

Jaeger London / Fall 2011 / London Fashion Week

The historical wool house known as Jaeger makes some of the best coats imaginable. Their latest collection’s color scheme ain’t too bad either.
View highlights below.

[Click photos below to enlarge]

photos courtesy of fashiongonerogue

Christopher Kane / Fall 2011 / London Fashion Week

One of my favorite contemporary designers, Christopher Kane, debuted his latest collection during LFW which included his most surprisingly trippy 90′s-tinged looks to date. Start heating your lava lamp up now because Kane’s officially brought the 70′s-by-way-of-90′s steez back to the forefront. View highlights below.

(top/hi-res) photos courtesy of fashiongonerogue
(bottom/details) photos courtesy of tFS & shoeblog

Fall 2011 Collections

Best Collections
Julien Macdonald
Christopher Kane
Jaeger London

Best Shoes


Charles Anastase

Jean-Pierre Braganza

Peter Pilotto

Acne

Best Separates

Mark Fast

Best Texture

Michael Van Der Ham

Best Prints

Holly Fulton

Basso & Brooke

Best Palette
Peter Pilotto

Best Fur
John Rocha

Roksanda Ilincic

Best Pants

Burberry Prorsum

photos courtesy of tFS and vogue.com

Herve Leger / Fall 2011 / New York Fashion Week