valentino, is that you? couture 2010

it's only been a few seasons now for Maria Grazia Chiuri and Pier Paolo Piccioli as Valentino leads, so i get that they're still trying to find their "special touch"- but i have to say, i'm confused. starting out - they were almost too safe, barely experimenting away from Valentino signatures.. so what do they do this season?

uhh.. the opposite of "Valentino", i guess.

the the cut:

The theme was Garden of Eden, and critics agreed the designers succeeded in creating a "transporting" experience. Models had blue Avatar makeup on their shoulders and the clothes had a distinct eco, leafy vibe, like they sprouted up from Pandora soil. But WWD said the show "seemed too desperate to be achingly cool." The paper wondered "where in this fantasy world was the essence of Valentino?" Though they applaud Chiuri and Piccioli for trying to take the label in a new direction, they add that it's "easier said than done."

how bout Suzy? She writes in the Times:

The sheer organza leggings that went under brief dresses looked like trying too hard to be hip. But the clothes themselves, with swathes of drapes or inserts, using layered chiffon in different pastel colors, were delicately done.

couture season just destroys me :::

i mean, Givenchy spring 2010 couture, ladies & gents:


Riccardo Tisci called the show "Early ’70s Paris — erotic."
The sheer paneling and the audacious glitter jumpsuits!

SuzyMenkes writes in the New York Times:

The show deliberately disintegrated into a disco mania of purple and electric blue — a wild rave of evening clothes, calmed by two ball gowns with psychedelic colors on the hem ruffles.

are you weeping yet? just me? okay.

i just want to eat, sleep, get married in every piece from this collection.
view all here

Chanel Spring 2010 Couture// "neon-baroque"

Karl Lagerfeld called the collection “neon-baroque”, an ode to the acid yellow, cotton candy pink and subdued lime hues in the collection// almost like icing, amid a delicate tableau of frosted pastels, champagne and cream; and one hint of black, in the form of a large “kipper tie”, embellished with a crystal brooch, which punctuated the front of classic, white silk, column-gown.

Someone backstage suggested futurism. "I hate that," Lagerfeld shot back. "I don't believe in avant-garde clothes for a future that will never happen. Fashion is always now."

So impressed with the sans-black palette, a challenge to the traditional Chanel collections. And the rocker-ish rough silver gloves against the uber lady-like pastels? genius. but then again, when is KL not?
see entire collection here

Suzy Menkes on Galliano's historical couture references:

via the cut

"That feeling of a film fading or a fairy tale ending has never seemed so powerful and elegiac at this fashion house as it did after the poetic parade that John Galliano sent out on Monday," Menkes writes of yesterday's spring 2010 Dior couture show, which referenced equestrianism, Charles James, and the era of the Gibson Girl. "There was nothing equivocal or compromising: It was the haute-est of couture," Menkes adds. Yet she wonders why Galliano always looks to the past for his collections. "[F]or all his genius, Mr. Galliano refuses to click on the modern world’s reset button or drag his icons to a new place ... [I]t would be a fine thing if Mr. Galliano could just once make the starting point of Dior couture not fashion’s sweet memories but a clean sheet of paper on which he writes 2010."

OMGGGGGG: dior couture paris spring 2010

from style.com
Haughty, crop-switching equestriennes in top hats, veils, and impeccable riding habits; incredible ball gowns swathed and swagged in dozens of yards of duchesse satin: This was one of those occasions when John Galliano pushed a Dior couture show into the realms of sensory overload. He'd been galvanized by a research trip to the Costume Institute at the Metropolitan Museum, where—just up his romantic street—he lost himself in a recent bequest of Charles James gowns being prepared for this spring's exhibition American Woman. "I was reading that, actually, it was Charles James who influenced Monsieur Dior to come up with the New Look," he said. "And then I was looking at a photo of Charles James doing a fitting—and on the wall behind him was a picture of women riding sidesaddle. And that was it!"

Quite apart from the double-layered references, neatly trimmed to both house tradition and the upcoming American moment, this was an example of Dior teamwork meshing at optimum force. From the models' performances—Karlie Kloss walking as if she were a thoroughbred dressage pony herself—to Pat McGrath's porcelain-perfect makeup and matte red lips, to Stephen Jones' giant snoods, veils, and hats, right through to Michael Howells' backdrop of 3,000 overblown pastel roses, it made for an unforgettable coming together of live atmosphere, detail, and voluptuous visual pleasure. After two seasons in which Galliano has set the fashion agenda with hit lingerie collections at Dior, he is, forgive the pun, a designer firmly back in the saddle.

VIEW WHOLE COLLECTION HERE
(dying)