14/05/2014

Carla Fernandez: The Barefoot Designer

In our fast paced society, which strives to deliver new trends quickly, the craftsmanship and heritage underlining the production of many garments are slowly falling into oblivion. Nevertheless, whatever pace our society runs at, we somehow manage to find enough time to admire beauty: a beauty that leads us to understand meaning inherent in any type of production, that guides passions and ideas; a beauty that can also be seen as a quest for identity by its creator. This is the case of Carla Fernandez, a contemporary Mexican designer whose work aims to preserve her country’s rich textile heritage by merging traditional techniques with unique contemporary creations.

Traditional Mexican patterning is an intricate system of pleats and seams that creates an almost endless range of garments by using simple squares and rectangles. Carla Fernandez and her Taller Flora depart from this, as of yet largely unexplored, use of traditional techniques to create innovative styles and develop new types of production in line with the contemporary fashion world. Fernandez’s workshop, Taller Flora, a traveling fashion laboratory, collaborates with local Mexican artisans with the idea of preserving and disseminating native knowledge and talent that would otherwise risk of being forgotten.

The innovation of Carla Fernandez’s work lies not only in her anthropological or historical interest in traditional crafts, but within her capability of developing a successful enterprise where fashion industry and handmade crafts coexist. Born after 10 years of research spent cataloguing hundreds of garment designs, including ancient Mayan and Aztec as well as pre-Hispanic ones, Taller Flora collaborates with different communities throughout Mexico – mostly cooperatives of women – to deliver two different lines of clothing: couture to accommodate the slower techniques, and a prêt-a-porter line of mass-produced items using these designs and motifs.

Fernandez’s work strives to bring back the attention to the single creator in order to understand what is being created, highlighting the beauty of individual pieces and the joy in producing them, while, at the same time, articulating a production model where traditional crafts can actually compete with the modern technical world.

After showing her pieces in London, San Francisco, Japan, Colombia, and Mexico, Carla Fernandez’s work is currently the subject of the first fashion exhibition at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston. Titled “Carla Fernandez: The Barefoot Designer”, the show includes apparel, textiles and drawings, as well as performances, workshops and photographs, vividly delivering the intricate design process behind Fernandez’s work. The exhibition will be on show until September 1st 2014.

Victoria Edman 
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13/05/2014

The Evolution of the Bra

Have you ever asked yourself about the very first bra? The underwear garment that was the cause of feminist fights for decades, saw its first appearance back in 1913. It was initially designed by Mary Phelps Jacob, enjoying, only a year after its creation, quite a lot of success.

In a more recent fashion history, the relationship between underwear and design cannot be understood without mentioning Vivienne Westwood. The mother of punk movement in fashion was the one who coined, back in the 80s, the statement “underwear over outerwear” as a sign of rebellious attitude and ferocious female protests, first seen in her Buffalo Girls collection. Westwood’s attitude and design could easily be linked with a more recent collection my Miuccia Prada. For her SS 2014 runway, “the intellectual fashion designer”, as Prada is often reffered to, created a decorated bra styled over coats, T-shirts and dresses.

Nevertheless, during the last fashion shows, many designers have sent their models down the catwalk wearing bras, with apparently no particular underlying meaning, other then their aesthetic appeal. We are not talking simply about crop-tops, but actual bras, which has become a symbol of femininity – meant to be shown rather than hidden. Michael Kors chose a vintage look – a strapless top paired with a longuette skirt – where the printed motif underlines a certain kind of elegance while the high waist silhouette emphasizes the body’s shapes.

Dolce&Gabbana took a different kind of approach: linked to the past of Magna Grecia, for the SS 2014 collection the Italian brand showcased a particular kind of lingerie matched with pointed pumps and big gold earrings. On the other hand, Ports 1961 and Alexander McQueen, have imagined a different kind of woman: an evident sports vibe for the first one, with tight straps and coco leather cup; an optical pattern and constricted shapes for the other.

However, a bra as an actual piece of clothing is not something anyone can wear: if you aren’t aiming for a particularly bold feminist statement, styling a bra might prove to be a though challenge.

Francesca Crippa 
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12/05/2014

Style Suggestions: Spring Jackets

Spring is that wonderful time of year when you can finally shed your heavy coat in favor of a lightweight jacket. But which one should you choose? Whether you prefer basic blazers, rugged denim versions or a leather biker jacket, there are a ton of options on the market right now and here are some ideas to get you through the next couple of months.

Jacket: J.Crew, Boots: Alexander Wang, Bag: Anya Hindmarch, Earrings: Alexis Bittar, Cuff: Eddie Borgo

Styling by Vanessa Cocchiaro 

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09/05/2014

Kenta Matsushige Wins this Year’s Hyères Festival

An the end of April 2014, the 29th Hyères International Festival of Fashion & Photography was held at Villa Noailles in the south of France. The main focus of the annual festival is to spotlight and honor new talents in the fields of fashion, architecture, design and photography, and this year’s edition was no exception.

The Hyères Festival has a long tradition of awarding up-and-coming designers: former winners and contesters are top designers such as Viktor & Rolf, Matthew Cunnington and Sandra Backlund. This year, the winner of the Première Vision Grand Jury Prize, is the Japanese designer, Kenta Matsushige. After graduating from the Chambre Syndicale de la Couture Parisienne in 2012 the young designer is now living and working in Paris. Kenta Matsushige says that the aim of her project was to create a urban and modern collection whilst respecting hinabi – the pastoral beauty – which is in opposition to miyabi – urban beauty. The winning collection was therefore inspired by his home country – the architecture of Japanese museums, the peace and the traditions of the countryside.

Matsushige and nine other talented participants of the Première Vision Grand Jury Prize-competition, showed their work on a catwalk in front of the public and this year’s jury, led by the creative directors of Kenzo, Carol Lim and Huberto Leon, together with actress Chloë Sevigny and the InStyle USA Fashion Director Eric Wilson, who crowned Kenta Matsushige the winner of this year’s top prize, giving him the opportunity to show his upcoming collection at next year’s edition of the festival. A second part of Matsushige´s prize is the opportunity to work with the French artisan organization Ateliers des Métiers d’Art, which will finance the development of five looks created by the young designer. Kenta Matsushige’s future looks to be as bright as that of other former winners of the Hyères Festival and we are looking forward to seeing what he will do next.

Hanna Cronsjö 
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07/05/2014

Patrick Kelly: Runway of Love

“Wearing your heart on your sleeve” – a common expression used to describe someone who doesn’t hide emotions – couldn’t be more fitting, both figuratively and literally, for fashion designer Patrick Kelly. During the 1980s Kelly was, in fact, a beacon of flamboyance and fun of the fashion world mostly dominated by the concept of “shop til you drop”. At that time, the rules of consumption triumphed over creative production – a fashion game Patrick Kelly would take a stand against.

Kelly’s career started as a young teenager growing up in Mississippi, where he worked in boutiques selling high-end designer clothing. Soon after he would move to New York and finally Paris, becoming a highly acclaimed designer and one of the few ‘foreigners’ elected into the Chambre Syndicale. The art of re-design and re-appropriation was something that Kelly learned from his grandmother and which would become his trademark. While working in boutiques he would re-design their high-end clothes selling them on the street under his own trademark. Re-design could be viewed as an ironic comment on what seems to underline all of Kelly’s work: being proud of who you are and making it on your own. Often criticized for using particularly charged imagery, Kelly was unapologetic and believed it was necessary to know one’s history to move forward. From his humble beginnings to the prestigious circles of the fashion world, Kelly developed an aesthetics that mixed his African American and Southern roots and knowledge of fashion and art history with references from the club and gay cultural scenes in New York and Paris.

Kelly understood design as a way of making people happy though the creation of wearable clothes, commenting – at the same time – on some of the most stereotypical assumptions of the then society. Designs like a watermelon hat, a golliwog logo or a colorful minimalistic twirl attire for women of all sizes, were all projects that kept people at the edge of their seat for what he would create.

“Patrick Kelly: A Runway of Love” is an exhibition at the Philadelphia Museum of Art celebrating an artist known for his playfulness, rich colors, bold imagery and iconic button-filled patterns, proposing an intriguing intersection of conceptual, cultural and spiritual juxtapositions with fabulous fashion.

Victoria Edman – Images courtesy of Philadelphia Museum of Art 
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06/05/2014

Style Suggestions: Sneakers

You can put away the heels and still look stylish and feel comfortable. From hidden wedges to athletic runners, sneakers are the must-have shoe that is recurring season after season, so invest in a great pair because this trend is here to stay.

Clockwise: Comme Des Garçons Play, ACNE, Y-3, Balenciaga

Styling by Vanessa Cocchiaro 

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05/05/2014

Slippers To Go

It might sound weird to many, but slippers – those type of unflattering shoes mostly used indoors and usually worn with socks by utterly demodé tourists – are currently in vogue. The trend started, more or less one year ago, when Phoebe Philo decided to send a modern interpretation of the classic Birkenstock, fluffier and definitely cooler, on the Céline catwalk.

As usually happens, from that moment on, each respectable fashion brand has offered their own version: Givenchy with dark flowers, Isabel Marant aimed at a basic one, Missoni played a bit with shapes and Marni just kept re-working its typical sandal produced along the years.

Generally speaking, during the last two fashion seasons there has been a notable increase in the use of comfy accessories, especially related to shoes. This is certainly a crucial point that underlines, in some way, a need for a more relaxed approach in the fashion field, even if it’s not the first time Birkenstock family has been singled-out by the fashion world. In fact, during the 90s, everyone who wanted to look easy and cool used to wear them – a black and white photo of a young Kate Moss sporting a perfectly un-classy pair of Birkenstocks is a case in point.

As for every trend, seeing slippers on the catwalk is only a matter of habit: once we start seeing them everywhere and in every possible variation of style, we automatically accept it as a normal and even desirable accessory. At least slippers are comfortable, aren’t they?

Francesca Crippa 
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02/05/2014

Style Suggestions: Summer Festivals

As the Summer season is approaching so are the music festivals. The only rule is there are no rules and you can choose anything that will make you brave the crowds looking and feeling great: from boho floral dresses to T-shirts to denim and head to toe Isabel Marant.

Isabel Marant, Chloé, Vanessa Bruno, Vintage Levi’s, Pamela Love, Stella Jean, The Row by Linda Farrow, Kiehl’s

Styling by Vanessa Cocchiaro 

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30/04/2014

Workwear: From Factories To Catwalks

You’ve probably heard it a thousand times, but you’ll unlikely find a more truthful statement than the one stating that fashion always looks back to move forward. Undoubtedly, this is also the case of workwear, a specific type of clothing originally created for the industry – building sites, factories, highways and production lines – and lately picked-up by the fashion world.

Looking at the work apparel, one can find numerous examples of excellent brands that were originally developed for working sites and eventually evolved into high-street brands, one of which is certainly Carhartt. Smart enough to keep producing their original manufacturing line of clothes for workers, Carhartt has also been creating a second line of fashionable street wear clothes for hip-young people, Carhartt WIP.

But while workwear is part of Carhartt’s heritage, what has made other high fashion brand connect to this type of production? As often happens, subcultures like skaters, surfers and sport-minded, fashion-oriented groups, needed something cool and comfortable enough to wear. Through the years, these trends were brought from street to catwalk, making these simple garments become the ultimate fashionable pieces.

On the catwalk we have seen many adaptations of the trend: the upcoming Italian designer Fabio Quaranta, for example, made the unisex jumpsuit his statement piece, while the elite brand Hermès opted for something similar during its last show in Paris. An increasing interest has been manifested in womenswear, too. While DKNY’s adaptation of workwear may not come as a surprise, that of the historical maison Louis Vuitton is certainly a bold and groundbreaking statement. For his very last collection, Marc Jacobs has, in fact, created comfy turned-up jeans paired with black boots. While in the past workwear might not have been considered a stylish-enough attire, in 2014 people definitely consider it a synonym of durability, quality and craftsmanship.

Francesca Crippa 
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16/04/2014

Style Suggestions: Metallics

Whether they come in the form of cool silvers or rich golds – we can’t get enough of these metallic colored must-haves. From flirty, feminine frocks and shimmering pencil skirts to iridescent pastel coats and brocade jackets, every fashion option has had a metallic make-over for Spring/Summer 2014.

Swarovski by Christopher Kane, Vintage Chanel, Stella McCartney, Saint Laurent, Roy Roger’s, Frends, Ray-Ban

Styling by Vanessa Cocchiaro 

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