September is upon us and many people here in Italy already returned to work. The fashion world is slowly awakening from the lazy mood of the summer vacations, and in a few days we will get on the carousel of the fashion shows, but before discovering the trends for next summer (which will always be the same: white, striped, lace and colors), The Fashion Commentator starts the season with #FashionLoop, the column dedicated to the ever-recurring cycles of fashion! Today I talk about ‘Lettering‘, the practice of using words and letters of the alphabet as decorative motif, which is very…
Pretentious, Odious, Irritating, Refined, Exaggerated, Triumphalist. The list of adjectives that can describe Paul Poiret does not end here, of course, but I liked the idea of finding a word for each letter of his surname and that all together they could communicate the personality of one of the main protagonists of fashion history. How do I know that Paul Poiret was really so? Simple, I just read “King of Fashion: The Autobiography of Paul Poiret”.
Another year has gone since when I started “my own business” by creating this blog in 2010. As with any anniversary, it’s time to look back and to set new goals, but given that I do not want to be verbose, I’ll just make a short list of the more significant achievements of this year thanks to The Fashion Commentator blog.
A few months ago, during one of my usual iconographic researches, I discovered the artwork Gymnasts of the USSR (1964-65) by Dmitri Dmitrievich Zhilinskyj, a Russian painter who joined the Soviet art movement called ‘Severe Style‘. This movement was born in the mid ’60s, when the communist utopianism began to decline, and it was mainly featured by the change of the dictates of the Socialist Realism (the only style allowed by the regime), highlighting the suffering of the heroic figures and replacing the glory of the collective work with the introspection of the individual characters. Dmitrij Ţilinskij, Gymnasts of the USSR(1964-65) – Saint…
During Pitti Uomo, Florence becomes the world capital of men’s fashion, showing the current and future trends, both in the streets and in the venues of the fair. Four days of meetings and discussions that not only involve the productive and creative side of the industry, but also the cultural one, thanks to the events organized by the Fondazione Pitti Discovery. The fashion designer Nino Cerruti, emblem of the Italian men’s style worldwide since the 1960s, was the undisputed protagonist of this edition. The Italian writer and fashion critic Angelo Flaccavento outlined a very intimate portrait of Mr. Cerruti in…
Haute couture time in Paris. Models on the runways need to have a great screen presence; styling should be perfect; clothes must impress the press and the 30 richest women of the world who can buy them; guests must seem like stars in the sky, while smiling at the cameras. In this ritual concerning abstraction from reality, mere mortals can watch the celebration of fashion as a pure art form only via streaming.
I think tattoos are horrible. It’s like living in a Pucci dress full-time. If you’re young and tight, maybe it’s OK, but … Karl Lagerfeld about tattoos Personally I hate tattoos. I do not like them and I’m not at least attracted by them, especially if they’re just due to a temporary trend, rather than a personal special event to remember. I do not know how many times I dissuaded friends or colleagues from getting a tattoo, especially when they wanted a tribal design, without being part of any kind of tribe. But maybe this time is different … Alexander McQueen…
“High Alert” to all those wishing to be astonished, amazed, astounded, and in general, blown away by the immense talent of our time’s greatest innovator! There are just thirty days left to “Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty”, the retrospective exhibition now on at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London; August 2nd this show will close, and the opportunity to travel a path through ten rooms of fashion creation will end. It is simply Something Not to Miss!
Gilded mirrors, soft lighting, international guests and the garden full of people. It seems to be in one of those wonderful hotels that survived the Haussmann’s renovation of Paris, waiting for the collection of the latest child prodigy who will change fashion for ever, but actually is June 16th and I am at the Polimoda Show 2015 in Florence to see the 20 best collections from the Polimoda Fashion Design Course led by Patrick De Muynck.
Never like before Pitti Uomo turned out to be a real hotbed of emerging talents thanks to the scouting initiatives as Pitti Italics, The Latest Fashion Buzz and the famous contest in Who is on Next?UOMO in collaboration with L’Uomo Vogue. Then, in addition to these projects, there are the emerging designers who showcase their lines inside the Fortezza, thanks to which Pitti Uomo is confirmed to be THE ONLY event to record the global trends in men’s fashion. The new brands involved in Pitti Uomo are so many that there is plenty of choice, but certainly most of the…