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Fashion
Eclectic — but with fashion impact
MARIOS SCHWAB
By Jessica Michault
f nothing else, the first few days of
I London Fashion Week have shown
that an eclectic group of designers
can make an impact on fashion —
from the searing trail blazed by the
young designers Christopher Kane and
Marios Schwab to the subtle stretching
from the longtime catwalk staples John
Rocha and Jasper Conran.
Marios Schwab showed a striking,
strong collection in which the designer
took up the challenge of trying to map
the body with his clothing. ‘‘I wanted to
examine the body as an atlas or as topo-
graphy to see how the inside relates to
the outside,’’ the whippet-thin designer
said backstage.
iht.com/style
Photographs from London Fashion Week
gucci.com
What did that mean in terms of
clothing? Think fifth-grade science
class and that fateful frog dissection, in
which sections of skin were peeled
back to expose the inner workings.
Sounds strange — it was — but it
worked, as Schwab curled back the out-
er shell of a dress to reveal colorful and
complex prints beneath. The clothes
had a visceral impact that had audience
members sitting up in there seats.
There were prints that looked like
computer-generated measurements of
body heat and pants with a holographic
sheen and zippers cut into the knees.
Soft dresses were encased in exoskelet-
ons of pearls or black wire. Snug biker
jackets could be sliced apart by unzip-
ping different sections and one partic-
ular spotted fabric used on a number of
pieces seemed to shift and blur, looking
slightly alive, as the models walked by.
The use of parachute closures and
A SPECIAL REPORT
CHRISTOPHER KANE
The
Collections
oversized plastic zippers, like spinal
cords, up the backs of dresses (used to
particularly graphic effect on a bare
back with a ribcage of black pearls) gave
outfits as much impact coming as going.
The hard/soft duality between the
supple fabrics and the rigid fastenings
was finely executed and the show left
the audience with a collection of wear-
able clothes that did not only look mod-
ern and surprisingly feminine, but also
pushed fashion forward.
Christopher Kane might have had
his entire collection stolen only days be-
fore his show, but that did not stop him
from burning the midnight oil to replace
all the looks and send out a collection
that was fierce in its personal vision.
Photographs by Chris Moore/Karl Prouse
London
Claiming inspiration from a number
of far-flung sources (Miss Hannigan
from ‘‘An nie,’’ the horror stories of
Stephen King, the film ‘‘Crocodile
Dundee,’’ to name a few) Kane’s show
was unique.
Moving away from the form-fitting
bandeau dresses that first got him no-
ticed, the designer showed a new sil-
houette that was loose and definitely
airy, with flouncy, frilly, ruffled
dresses that were given a palpable ten-
sion by subverting the sweetness.
The designer smartly used camou-
flage and snakeskin-printed fabrics
with a venom that kept the outfits from
looking cloying. The dresses of sheer
flyaway chiffon, which, at a distance,
International Herald Tribune
Wednesday, September 19, 2007
PAUL SMITH
Man/woman thing
By Suzy Menkes
he thing about my
‘T clothes — they are just
about people,’’ Pau l
Sm ith said backstage on
Wednesday, deliberately separating
himself from the wild creativity of
young London and joining designers
who turn fashion into a buck or, in
his case, millions of them.
Is Smith being disingenuous? Yes.
But he has a point. For the purpose of
his fast-growing women’s line is to
looked uncomplicated, revealed naked
flesh as the models stalked by. Exposed
through the use of suspender-like
strips of fabric that held the layers to-
gether, Kane incorporated the skin into
the dresses as if it were a fabric, al-
though an evocative one to be sure.
Oversized and cropped sweaters got
the Swarovski treatment with a kalei-
doscope of colorful crystals in geomet-
ric patterns that looked like something
out of the iconic ’80s movie ‘‘Tron.’’
Biker jackets in frayed sky blue denim
or black chiffon were toughed up and
tricked out in industrial zippers that
could cut open a sleeve from cuff to
shoulder. In the end, the designer came
up with a decisive collection that had a
clear message. The question remains
whether it is one that women can trans-
late into their daily wardrobes.
There was chirping merry-go-round
music playing on the soundtrack, ropes
11
replicate the masculine success on
which his empire was constructed.
So the inspiration of this show, as
for the menswear shown in July, was
David Hockney and the way the artist
dressed during his years at the Royal
College of Art at the beginning of
those lighten-up 1960s. On the back-
drop were colorful paint splashes on
canvas and on the runway, the Cam-
bridge boating blazer shrunken or
more generous jackets with vertical
Continued on Page 12
of white carnival flags looped overhead
and yellow ‘‘first place’’ ribbons from
the county fair designating each seat at
the Eley Kishimoto show, leaving no
doubt that the design duo of Mark Eley
and Wakako Kishimoto were in a fes-
tive mood. Getting into the swing of
things, the stylish front-row staple
Maria Luisa Poumaillou jauntily
pinned her ribbon to her lapel as it
matched perfectly with her yellow scarf
and set off her ruby lips.
Once the show, called ‘‘Village Fête,’’
finally began, it was a colorful feast for
the eyes — as if the designers had used
an extra-large box of crayons for all the
inventive and vivid prints.
The fun collection offered up easy
silhouettes of cute summer dresses,
comfy wide-cuffed shorts and loose
jackets. Endearing touches included
Continued on Page 12