From Warhol muses to Bowie confidantes, these runway models are seriously storied.
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The inspiration was the English countryside — horses, hounds and rich grandmas with lavish, moth-eaten wardrobes and glittery boxes of jewels. Mulberry’s thinking could not have been more of the moment as 2017 is shaping up to be the year of the heirloom. There’s the upcoming show at Chatsworth that will showcase 500 years of the Devonshire family’s fashion, textiles and jewels, while a major display of Princess Diana’s dresses is set to open at Kensington Palace, marking 20 years since the royal’s death.
Although Mulberry’s thinking was of-the-moment, the collection proved tricky. Highlights included a series of classy crochet dresses with contrasting collars, in feisty combinations such as mauve and mustard, burgundy and green, caramel and aqua, and a lineup of flat-front pleated skirts that swooshed as models walked.
Creative director Johnny Coca said he was thinking of a young woman wandering the halls and rummaging through the closets of the family’s stately home, adapting her grandmother’s wardrobe to suit her modern life. At times, though, it failed to work. The oversized quilted ponchos, inspired by horse blankets, were unwieldy, as were the check suits and big coats that swallowed models’ slim figures.
Bags and accessories — a mainstay of the business — were the
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David Koma, a Georgian by birth, was in a combative mood for fall, as he took cues from the chokha, a centuries-old “warrior dress” worn by Caucasian men from his home country, he informed reporters backstage.
But don’t get fooled by the belligerent theme. It wouldn’t be a Koma show if that didn’t translate into a volley of body-con numbers destined for the closets of those high-powered vixens who naturally gravitate toward his high-energy collections.
Deep V-lines, bare shoulders and sinuous silhouettes were at the forefront here. Koma embellished them with grosgrain ribbons, metal tubes and in lieu of real-life ammo, plexiglass ornaments, which imbued the dresses — as well as some slim-cut suits — with a distinctly graphic, almost futuristic aesthetic.
The warrior references were at loggerheads with a series of floral camouflage numbers done in metallic macramé and lace, which looked labor-intensive but did not offer any fresh visual input.
Where Koma surprised most, however, was in his daywear, an admittedly rare sighting at his evening-focused shows. Among the highlights were long, paneled military coats and austere leather minis done up with cozy Mongolian muff hemlines. They looked both chic and sassy.
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There was a new, sleek polish to Alice Temperley’s lineup this season; along with the femininity that characterizes her designs, she imbued them with a sense of strictness and restraint.
Vintage fans that Temperley had found in a museum — and the floral, filigree designs that adorned them — provided inspiration. The designer treated the intricate flowers in a bold way — they appeared on a blue and pink floral jacquard she fashioned into a chic shirtdress with a full skirt. But Temperley also worked the idea with a subtle hand, taking a lip motif that was inspired by a Surrealist design on a fan, and embroidering it sparingly at the neckline and hem of a black tulle column dress.
The sequins, silks and beading in the collection all had a toned-down quality to them, too. One ankle-grazing, blue sequined skirt was grounded with a snug, cable-knit sweater. And another high-waisted black maxi skirt, in panels of tulle and sequins, was paired with a mannish, high-necked shirt with a black neck tie — drawn, the designer said, from Anthony van Dyck paintings.
But while Temperley noted that she’d envisaged the collection as “cleaner and chicer,” there was still the familiar element of romance and escapism to her designs.
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LES AMÉRICAINS À PARIS: The Council of Fashion Designers of America and Vogue have named nine designers for the 12th round of the “Americans in Paris” program. Nine designers and CVFF finalists will head to The City of Light to show their fall collections for this season’s showcase, including Laura Vassar Brock and Kristopher Brock of Brock Collection, 2016 CVFF winners; Adam Selman, a 2016 CVFF runner-up; Stirling Barrett of Krewe, a 2016 CVFF runner-up; Beckett Fogg and Piotrek Panszczyk of Area; Chloe Gosselin; Ji Oh; Morgan Curtis of Morgan Lane; Maryam and Marjan Malakpour of NewbarK, and Laurence Chandler and Joshua Cooper of Rochambeau.
The showroom, which aims to expose emerging American designers to retailers and editors during Paris Fashion Week, will be located at 29 rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré — inside a townhouse once inhabited by Coco Chanel — from March 4 to 6. The initiative will be celebrated with a cocktail party on March 3 at the 1728 restaurant within the Hotel Mazin La Fayette.
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WILD THING — Does Jessamine-Bliss Bell have an affinity for wild things? The young British actress earmarked a three-quarter-length fur coat as a highlight from Jonathan Anderson’s fall collection and is set to star in “Dragonheart 4,” a prequel to the original 1996 fantasy film.
“I play the lead in that, so that’s amazing. There is an actual dragon in it; It’s a Patrick Stewart dragon so it’s a pretty good dragon!” she told WWD. “I don’t slay the beast, the beast is actually a good beast. But that’s all I can say for now.”
Other VIP guests on the front row included Tallulah Harlech, Alexa Chung and photographer Alasdair McLellan.
Fashion Show Review: J.W.Anderson Fall 2017 >>
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It was a proud moment for the Stallone family on Sunday. Jennifer Flavin Stallone was joined by her eldest daughter Sophia in the Topshop front row to see her middle daughter, Sistine, as she made her catwalk debut in London.
Fashion Show Review: Topshop Unique Fall 2017 >>
“Oh my God, I’m so excited,” said mamma Stallone, who had just arrived in town to see Sistine in action. “She’s got an amazing walk, she’s a total natural. I mean, I couldn’t walk [as a model] to save my life so I don’t know where she got it from because it certainly wasn’t [Sylvester] or I.”
Sistine Stallone at the Topshp Unique fall 2017 show.
Giovanni Giannoni/WWD
Jennifer Stallone, herself a former model, knows the work required to make it big as in the industry. “She just practices and she’s been watching this world since she was a little girl, so she’s been studying the runway, watching videos and wanting to do this her whole life,” she told WWD ahead of the show. “She always said, ‘I would do it for nothing, I love it so much. I don’t care if I ever make a name.’ She knows we don’t care. So she really loves every
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A cheeky challenge from London Fashion Week…
Folksy elements, seen through a modern lens, defined this collection, which designers Peter Pilotto and Christopher de Vos worked with a breezier, more youthful air than in seasons past.
The designers cited Peruvian quilting as one of the “worldly” techniques they’d explored, with the stitching embroidered onto the silk pockets of oversized tweed parkas, or on a panel of one wool wrap skirt. But alongside those obviously wintery elements were fluttery, bias-cut dresses that had a seasonless, globally minded appeal. One navy blue number was edged in a red and gold pattern that evoked a silk scarf, while another hot pink, one-sleeved silk dress was embellished with pipe cleaners, twisted into leaf shapes.
Adding to the arty-crafty vibe were oversized sweater dresses, sewn with patches embroidered with what looked like Incan symbols. Accessories, too, had a quirky appeal, from the mismatched glass earrings in abstract shapes, designed by Jochen Holz, to shiny leather riding boots stitched with colorful embroidery.
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