TBT: Margiela’s AW11 Chic Party

July 24, 2014July 28, 2017 | Design & Culture by Ed

With Caroline de Maigret opening and closing the show, the AW11 collection by Maison Martin Margiela team was something of a party you wanna be in. The collection was all about the dress, but if you think that a dress is this what you think about at Margiela, then you must be crazy. The MMM dresses seemed to be peeling off their models like old wallpaper. A red one early on was unzipped up the side to reveal a patent skirt a shade darker. The green one that followed was unsnapped at the waist, offering a glimpse of a white leather skirt with a stamped hem.

#TBT: Kate and Christy for Louis Vuitton

July 3, 2014July 28, 2017 | Design & Culture by Ed

Kate Moss and Christy Turlington captured by Inez & Vinoodh for Louis Vuitton’s campaign in 2000. Absolutely fabulous.

#TBT: Helmut Lang SS01

June 19, 2014July 28, 2017 | Design & Culture by Ed

Helmut Lang’s show began innocently enough, his trademark sleek trousers, body-conscious tops and functional overcoats redone for Spring in nubby silk-knit burlap. The looks were pure Helmut: functional, urban and modern. But then, gradually, a wave of sexual innuendo began to escalate. A tape-like strap was strategically placed on a semitransparent top; a bikini bottom was paired with a deep-plunging tank. Finally, a procession of crisscrossed, bondage-inspired dresses and tops whizzed through the audience. Lang, the designer who pioneered androgynous, uniform dressing, had designed a brilliant collection that could go from a Tribeca loft cocktail party to an alleyway midnight rendezvous west of Times Square.

#TBT: Shaggy Balenciaga avec 2002

May 22, 2014July 28, 2017 | Design & Culture by Ed

And… it’s… Thursday… The 26 looks that Balenciaga designer Nicolas Ghesquière showed here today at the Gagosian Gallery will be more scrutinized than Enron’s balance sheet. That’s because Ghesquière has become one of fashion’s magnate designers, able to change the look of a season with one outfit. Moving his Fall show to New York from Paris added a significant jolt to fashion week, increased by the fact that getting one of the 200 tickets was well-nigh impossible.The all-black opening was tough-girl chic: variations on the motorcycle jacket, with exaggerated knit collars and worn with skintight pants or tight, flippy skirts. He showed soft, oversized sweaters and jackets, and a small group of colorful knee-length collage dresses apparently influenced by Cubist paintings. Ghesquière helped usher in fashion’s current love of artisan craft, and the dramatic, shaggy ivory coats that closed the show could double as soft sculpture.

#TBT: Versace AW 1998 Campaign

May 15, 2014June 17, 2023 | Design & Culture by Ed

It’s Thursday and here is the Versace campaign by Steven Meisel starring Carolyn Murphy, Maggie Rizer and Guinevre Van Seenus! The photographs got that disturbing, romantic mood that make the models look so strong and brave. This campaign is a timeless masterpiece.