Hardcore traditionalists may disagree with me but Adrien Sauvage defines the modern dandy man and his suit pretty darn accurately.
Hardcore traditionalists may disagree with me but Adrien Sauvage defines the modern dandy man and his suit pretty darn accurately.
I am probably the only blogger who hates dressing up during summer. And because it's Singapore, yes, that's practically three quarters of the entire year. I have always grappled with the issue of looking my best in this weather. As much as I want to pull a sweater over my shirt, my sweat glands aren't exactly the most cooperative organs in my body. I have immense respect for my country folks who aren't afraid of the heat and go all out when it comes to layering in temperatures of 30 degrees celsius all year round. Call me a hypocrite but I always believe that comfort should preside over anything else (fashion folks would readily disagree with this). And I will hardly look good if I look like I have just come out of the pool when I obviously have not. And on those hot and sweaty days, I wish that no reader of mine would ever recognize me on the streets even if I have tried my best (I really have!) in putting together a t-shirt and shorts combination (I would rather be naked if it weren't for Adam and Eve). It certainly does not hold up well with my menswear blogger reputation.
However, I think I've found the answer to dressing up during summer. Mjolk is pretty much how I would envision my summer wardrobe to look like. Clean cuts with a beautiful color palette to work with-a mix of burgundy, camel, navy and an occasional liberty print for those wild days. The play of proportions here is devastatingly spot on, and I'm amazed by how effortless everything looks. My favourite look would have to be the red 3/4 sleeved mac paired with a liberty print shirt-my idea of a perfect rainy day. I'm also quite enamored of the combination of burgundy tasseled loafers and white socks. THE NERDS ARE BACK WITH VENGEANCE!
(So I guess this is my first official menswear post.)
I love Raf Simons-I'm gonna start my first post with utter designer infatuation. And while I have always appreciated clothes that have a concept behind them, there really isn't any intellectual depth to this collection. Yet Raf Simons makes up for this with an extremely well thought-out collection and a highly entertaining take on the modern dandy man.
Almost instinctively, I find myself asking, "How did he do that?" and I'm also afraid my next few sentences will be embedded with chummy love messages. This collection is funny in a way that it is somehow not the usual formula for success. Raf has employed the same use of neon colours in his previous menswear and womenswear collections and it is also a wide known fact that the fashion crowd is a very fickle bunch. In theory, this collection would never ever be lauded for its creativity. But it seems it is quite the complete opposite. There's something both familiar and distant here-the colours have gone up a few notches, the neon water-colour flowers have been stripped off, the same impeccable tailoring but with a whole different structure and ingenuity.
The best pieces are simple and at first glance, seem nothing at all- a boxy suit with a t-shirt underneath. Yet they have somehow worn into my consciousness and I keep coming back to look at them, and wondering why I keep coming back.
I am intrigued by the use of fabrics (would materials be a more appropriate term?) here. Suits are made out of what seems to resemble felt, giving it a loose, unstructured fit round the body. Knits and jackets are done up in some sort of foamy neoprene, and it will warrant my visit to the showroom. The material nerd in me wants to snuggle up to a pile of orange and salmon pink knits and because I'm a total creep in real life, there's a high chance I might start caressing them against my face and pee around the pile to mark my territory. The suits are cut up to spectacular proportions, with much emphasis placed on the shoulders. The vibrancy of colours only serves to further highlight the simplicity of Raf's clothes. While I'm pretty sure I wouldn't be able to afford any of these, I like the idea of layering knitwear in different shades, and might toy around with the idea of incorporating primary colours into my wardrobe. But other than that, I am going to continue my fantasies about having that orange foamy quilted knitwear (with that bubblegum pink shirt underneath because we all know how perfect they look together) and that salmon pink jacket (I don't get how it's so voluminously perfect.)
I guess at the end of this we are left asking ourselves how Raf never fails to create and invent, even if it's within a field that hardly ventures further than a pin-striped three piece suit. But the answer doesn't really matter-the mystery surrounding it only leaves us wanting more. Raf really is the new king.
Tommy Ton for GQ for Pitti Uomo (Oh god, I feel so guilty for using a picture that's not mine. Also I would like to be this guy but I look like an egghead when I have a beanie on. Also this is a really long caption.)
Not too long ago, I was planning to take the lazy bum way and sneakily ease back into my weekly blogging routine of putting up spring 2011 reviews for which I have dragged for quite a while now and blabbering about designers that I'm really excited about. It just seemed so easy then, but it was really hard to actually lift up my fingers and write stuff that honestly would not be doing my conscience any favor. I think I have dragged this way too long and avoided it to the point of me questioning my sanity. I have lost my interest in womenswear. Those following me on twitter would probably have gotten use to me lamenting about how bored and angry I am with the whole fashion sphere. My more recent posts have also unconsciously hinted at the possibility that I'm not finding as much joy as before when I'm writing about womenswear, and needless to say my long absence from this blog speaks for itself (you people do know that those photo blogposts are just fillers right?). I don't think It's possible to avoid this any much longer, persisting in the thought that I would be able to seek out any fervor that I once had. Oh god, I hate sounding so morose but really, I don't think this is the end for me. I am in no way planning to lay this blog into the ground and quite the opposite, I'm planning to take this blog into a whole new direction. MENSWEAR. Somehow I feel that menswear is where my calling is and I get all hyped up when I spot a immaculately dressed man on the sartorialist as oppose to maybe a Anna dello Russo wannabe. It's also so much more fun obsessing over clothes that you can wear and save up for (you do not know how excited I am about the new upcoming menswear talents) and menswear on a whole is just a whole lot less "fashion-y" and of a much more slower pace. And well you folks should know that I am actually a 70 year old grandpa, typing this post on my windows 1997 desktop, with a cigar pipe in one hand and a hot chocolate in the other.
P.S. I got my own domain (theclackers.com) to mark this change. Whoopie.
It's over. Paris Fashion Week is over.
It always happens every fashion season and it sucks.
As I write this review with the grunts of Serena Williams at Wimbledon in the background, it suddenly dawns on me that I've never really written much reviews on the Paris shows, ever in the history of this blog. Most of my time is spent on New York and Milan that by the time Paris Fashion Week comes, I'm too lazy to even think or translate these images on style.com to words. The never ending cycle of fashion weeks; it sometimes surprises me how editors can jet from one country to the next for 4 continuous weeks (or 3 sometimes, for the lazy ones), without feeling jaded or tired or in desperate need of a new wardrobe change or a good sleep in bed.
As such, Lanvin always get left out in this blog of mine, because it has this habit of showing in the later part of the week. I would never be able to get myself to write about it, despite how amazing each and every collection always is. (GODDAMN IT, Lanvin please revise your schedule!) Amen Spring 2010 and Fall 2010 (who never really made it here), you hear me Alber Elbaz! And so I guess it's only right to write about Lanvin this time round, FINALLY.
My love for Lanvin goes right down to my roots and blood and name. For those who didn't know, I wasn't born with the name Lucas. Instead, my parents gave me a very traditional chinese name, that has and still is giving me a lot of troubles throughout my growing-up years. (Not many people, unless you're chinese, know how to pronounce this very chinese name, just like how no one ever knows to pronounce Meadham Kirchhoff or Ball-mane or even LAWN-VAH for the matter.) I can't believe I'm telling you this now and so here's a lil' short story. There was this time I decided to name myself 'Lucas' after Lucas Ossendrijver of Lanvin after seeing his menswear collection, if I'm not wrong, it was Spring 2010. (Before Lucas, there was Alexander, named after Alexander Wang but I didn't like it after some time. Ok, that was real awkward.) And there it happened, my name ever since. This has gotta be the most absurd thing you should have ever heard, and I too feel stupid and embarrassed for doing so then. I swear I'm not even making this story up.
Moving on, 30 degrees is not exactly the best temperature to piece together a two piece suit, or even to put on a long-sleeved shirt. Without doubt, summer is the most challenging season to look elegant, and the easiest time to look all relaxed, 'minimalist', or sloppy and lazy as you go down the spectrum. Mr Alber Elbaz had pointed out that this collection was 'the antidote to laziness'. In this case, one could either look at this season's clothes as 1) an answer to looking (somewhat) polished during summer, 2) or as a wardrobe option of a summer suit (not a swimming suit, mind you) or 3) one that suggests energy, and movement or simply, sports. Sounds perfect to me. The only time I really do exercise is during a weekly one-hour session of hardcore tennis training (just to keep the calories down). Even during PE lessons at school, I couldn't even be bothered to show any sort of enthusiasm and I really do dread any type of strenuous movements. Perhaps Lanvin cycling shorts will do the magic and provide the love.
This collection had a real sporty vibe to it, probably one of the more athletic collections that Lanvin has come up with. There was the spandex, in the form of tight, stretchy knits, some that were wrapped around the torso, resembling cocoons that of Balenciaga Womenswear Spring 2009. They look somewhat breathable (and that is because they are sheer), I hope. And there were the cycling shorts, the one sporting garment that the entire fashion industry seems to be crazy about and readily approves of as something you can wear outside of sports. (Credit goes to Marc Jacobs.) The peacoats were great, but what I thought really stood out was Lanvin's take on the parka. So great that it reminded me of capes that Dracula would wear and upclose, the plush fabric detail only made it more desirable. Somehow somewhere, that smell of the fabric (leather? canvas? jersey?) is lingering in the air right here right now. Across the Atlantic, a week since the show. Wouldn't this be perfect to hug to sleep and to sniff at?
Along the way, silhouettes shifted from tight to breezy and loose. It wasn't entirely sportswear throughout, let's be honest here, no one in the right mind would go out looking like a Tour de France cyclist. Elements of that easiness and casualness of sportswear were taken apart and fused with formal tailoring. This translated to slouchy suits, with the emphasis placed on the extensive use of innovative fabrics, that would make suits in summer seem acceptable and very wearable (read: comfortable). I think it was silk that these suits were made of, and it was nothing perfect. Don't get me wrong, the suits were nothing that of prim and proper, in fact it was light, almost weightless and was wrinkled and unfinished. There were the loose seams and the rough hems, and to be honest, I was not quite sure what Lanvin was doing here. It was complicated, perhaps messy sometimes and I find myself looking back and forth at looks, trying to 'get it'. I rather leave my doubts unanswered when it comes to Lanvin.
What I appreciated from the duo was the use of textures. It's hard to describe textures (especially if you haven't really felt them yet. DUH!), but thank god style.com provided the detail shots and gosh, have I been sent to textile heaven! There was some sort of quilted fabric used on the pants, and patch-worked square patches that looked like really bad primary school art and craft; those which sides were never glued properly. The best part of the collection was undoubtedly the last parade of floral suiting. They were more than just plain old 2D floral prints, these were cut from textured, floral embossed silk, probably the best fabric ever made. I think I will make a trip down to Lanvin when these arrive in stores. After all, these are the clothes that would be great to touch and to hog on for a few hours because you know you can't afford them and memories are great, aren't they? 3D floral prints, you just never know.
The thing to note about this collection was that from afar and from just the runway pictures on style.com, there was nothing really special about it. But the essence of this collection could be found in the detail shots. The detail shots and nothing more. If it was top money you were paying for Lanvin, then it was the best and ultimately the most innovative fabrics you would be getting.
If there's anything one would love to wear during summer, it would be t-shirt and shorts and nothing more. I have to admit that casual does play a significant part in my 'wardrobe agenda' during summer and in Singapore, the most you can layer, even during the coldest of days, would be nothing more than a trench-coat (that is if you always stay indoors.) I'm not here to talk or defend about easy dressing but quite the opposite, I'm here to yak about Yohji Yamamoto new menswear collection that addresses the issue of 'dressing down'. I'm not particularly sure when the American way of t-shirt dressing started to dominate the wardrobes of people worldwide (probably the 90s, probably) but if there's anything dandier than the suits of today, then history would only prove better. 18th century dressing to be exact, that was the time Yohji Yamamoto looked back to. And because I'm a history student who is very much in love with history, my senses would only react with excitement to this collection. Pull up your stockings and hoses, put on your powdered wigs and make-up, because that's how Mr Yohji sees it.
If there was anything different about the line-up of models, it was that they were playing characters, one could spot an aristocrat, or a classic English Gentleman or a literary laureate from the Victorian era. A stark difference from the model clones we saw at Prada. Everything was very elaborate, from the powdered faces, to the mustaches and full-grown beards, and to sausage curls and ponytails on the head. At one point of the collection, we thought we saw Willy Wonka replicas come down the runway, complete with top-hats and felted millinery kookier than what Mr Willy Wonka would ever put on. At another point, we even thought we saw those court officials that wore powdered wigs in fairytales come to life, only that would be creepy and so something closer to real life, would be those who wear gowns and wigs in courtrooms. A digression, why would anyone try to act serious when they are in costume? (You get what I mean. I'm trying to be funny, but apparently not. Awkward laughter.)
Even if the hats and make-up and not forgetting the stockings stayed true to history, the clothes were anything but that. Eccentric would be the proper term to describe these garments, and 'clothes revived from the coffin'? Not quite so. The first part of the collection saw the use of florals, one that would probably be seen on the wallpapers of an old English house or on the armchair in an old antique shop. Unfortunately, style.com didn't provide any detail shots because that would add on to the excitement I'm having for florals right now, though it would take me lots of guts and a whole lot of bottles of tequila and vodka and gin for me to wear floral prints out onto the streets. Then again maybe I will, but I first need to find one that suits me. There were also some sort of cross-stitching/embroidery/patchwork on a few of the jackets, of what seemed to be teddy-bears and a christmas tree (?) and arrows of a compass (???), but a pity no detail shots were provided. Though a little kitschy, it sure would make for a great detail (that Tommy Ton would shoot for GQ) and not forgetting, very endearing too.
If you were expecting to see Savile Row suits when Yohji announced he was taking things a little formal for this collection, you obviously do not know Yohji Yamamoto well enough. When he said he was dressing things up, what he really meant was loose, long, even oversized formal wear-his signature proportions. But while keeping with his design DNA, Yohji also stepped away from the use of monochromes, and introduced a broader (and the first in a long time) palette of orange, turquoise, and purple. There were the oversized jackets and looser versions of tailcoats, but honestly, one could easily mistake one for the other if he hadn't look closely. The shirting was cut at the ends to resemble waistcoats and Yohji had very very lovingly and adorably included oversized bow ties in a few looks. Those with a keen eye for identifying fashion faux pas, would have noticed that collars and even the lapels of jackets were upturned, but then again these were very different from those who have the annoying habit of popping up their collars of their polo shirts. Perhaps these here were high-peaked, but nonetheless it made for a real interesting detail, and the way they were done, it was nothing pretentious but more of nonchalance and just that 'I-couldn't-care-less' attitude.
It was a great story that Yohji told with his clothes, one that crossed between history and reality, eccentricity and elegance, and the living and the dead. It was indeed a breath of fresh air, just like Spring and how Spring clothes should be. My favourite menswear collection for this season. Vuvuzela.
The beauty of menswear lies in the details, the choice, the colours and most importantly, the personality. Often, true menswear are found on the streets rather than the runways.
The choice of something so utilitarian like camouflage prints with something as decadent as purple and gold, genius.
Most of the time, it is difficult to find someone that is willing to make an effort to pull together a matching outfit. This man seems to be playing a character, which is very rare. It is very charming.
The details.
He is very charismatic, classic, and old school. This is someone that I would love and want to emulate.
Pictures are via Tommy Ton for GQ in Pitti Uomo
It could have been the Olympics, but look again and you will realise that the audience was in a better sartorial form than the usual sport-goers, the cyclists wore more than just brightly coloured spandex, and the flags on the cyclists hats (and not helmets) were that of Moncler Gamme Bleu. Or it could be France, given its uncanny resemblance to the France flag. But I was sure that the first stripe on the flag was black rather than blue so MGB it was. Moncler Gamme Bleu, as a country, we sure wouldn't mind its chic existence. This was a show by Thom Browne, and you wouldn't expect a fashion show of his to be a fashion show without the theatrical excitement. This time round, inspired by Tour de France, the models doubled up as cyclists and mounted themselves on racing bicycles and paraded (or raced, to be exact) round the Milan Velodrome. It sure was sportswear and that needed no more contention.
And we know you can't tell much from pictures, especially sports. So here is the actual video. Cycling included.
Moncler Gamme Bleu Spring/Summer 2011 Runway from LAT Videos on Vimeo.
At 1.00 am this morning, while half of Singapore was fast asleep, there was me, logged onto twitter, receiving updates from people across the globe who had sacrificed their Sunday afternoon/evening for this one Prada show. Right smacked in the middle of the Prada website was that same familiar black box flashing live video updates of the Prada show that was simultaneously happening just as I existed on this world. The only difference between this time and the last Prada show that the livestream was actually working, without the disturbances of pauses that never played (that is without clicking the refresh button). In fact, by the help of some miraculous holy beings, the days of being kicked out from your front row seat (in front of your computer) at an Alexander McQueen SS10 show or a Louis Vuitton SS10 show are gone. Here comes technology.......errr....and good old fashion. This time the only thing that could possibly distract you (if your attention span is as short as mine) from that black box at the Prada website is the background of what seems to be a cage surrounded by lighted green fluorescent tubes that looked freakishly eerie for a Spring show. That was the set and the last I logged into the Prada website (which was a minute ago), it was the same background but with white fluorescent tubes instead of the green. Did Miuccia Prada had a sudden change in mind that a green lighting would only make her clothes look slimy and gooey, rather than clean, smart and very very desirable? Yes, this collection was it and it was a revelation. A FUCKING REVELATION.
The set on its own, seemed pretty normal as compared to last season's background of a mind-map of the decade's biggest happenings. But it was still enough for Showstudio (whoever is behind it, Nick Knight?) to make this tweet, "Wonder if Miuccia intended for it to look like the models were wandering through a multistorey carpark?" and Tim Blanks (oh hail the king of style.com's videos) to write ".....could have been an underground car park, or the foundations of a skyscraper, or the bowels of the Battlestar Galactica." I say it was Jesus walking on water, except in this case Jesus were 40 of the same model clones walking on a steel and iron catwalk, wearing the most-amazing mish-mash-of-soles creepers.
I hate to make sense of the concept and the intellectual thoughts that went into a collection, especially of such a beautiful one like this. It's simple to accept that this collection was beautiful because it needed to be beautiful for commercial reasons, but it cannot be said so if it was by one of fashion's great intellectuals. There had to be a message behind any or even every collection, even if it was Resort and Pre-fall or even the bags and the paper-bags.
As the light tubes on the floor flickered and lit up, the collection was well on its way. The show opened with the sharpest of suits, that came in buttons of three and three-pieced. The half-a-dozen or so two-pieced that next came down the runway centered around the colour of blue, or navy to be exact. Uniform, seemed to be the theme for this collection, and well so it was, that the models looked like carbon copies of one another. The only difference between the previous look and the next look was the different hues of navy used. Also, if you noticed well and hard, the silhouettes shifted from tight and snugged suiting to loose-fitting, oversized, baggy t-shirt shapes, sweaters and shorts. And that reminded me of what the uniforms that we wear to school here. Those of the lower grades wore shorts and shirts (due to the terrible heat over here) and those from higher grades wore long pants and the same white shirt.
Uniforms are of a code. Conformity or non-conformity, playing with proportions and breaking the rules, navy blue or denim blue? That was the question you would have to think about. Amidst all of the uniformity, there was that breaking away from the norm. Or you could interpret it as the other way round: amidst all of the different looks, there was that common thread that lines everything together.
The second part of the show still carried the theme of being 'uniform', but the garments were injected with shots of colours, adding a whole new dimension to the meaning of uniformity. It also seemed to suggested a different uniform of sorts, no longer a schoolboy but as quoted from my tweet (ok that sounded weird), "I'm somehow sensing a world cup vibe." After all, it's Italy we're talking about here. Anyway back to the collection, the only variation to the clothes were the colours. Rainbow collared sweaters and loosely cut shirts were to look the same if one were colour-blind. The shapes were limited, but the choice of colours and stripes could go on and on. Basically endless. If there was anything that suggested individuality, it would be the fabric bags that the models were carrying, each embossing a different letter in a varsity college-football-sports lettering (adding on to the sports/world-cup vibe.) Individuality or conformity, that's the question you would have to think about.
I loved the play of proportions, even the awkward ones (because that's how I am). The shoes were also killers; the soles were a mix of soles of wing-tips, espadrilles, trainers, something only the sickest of designers could think about. They were the equivalents of the Armadillos in menswear.
Whatever the concept was, this was one fine collection, even though many were fast to disagree on twitter immediately after the show ended. And did you see the bow that Miuccia Prada did at the end, it was enough to convert any haters (or make them like it a little more.)
I wouldn't say I really hated the Jil Sander Spring 2011 menswear show. The neon colours and the op-art stripes may just be a little difficult on the eyes, and you would need to have a lot of guts and feeling like a big happy kid who has not experienced how bitchy life can get, to pull off such bold colour combinations. Lest I get stoned for crossing into unchartered territories of menswear while making such unruly comments, errr....i guess we can say, "that was some awesome garden and there was some nice tailoring going on over there." But it wasn't a complete hate affair for me, there were some colour combinations that I liked and a few pieces that are worth mentioning here.
The pale peach and the stroke of bright purple is definitely a 'I DIE' combination, also the men's equivalent of this.
While I hated how this orange was shown on its own on a pair of pants in the first look, it was quite a different issue when it appeared again in the form of a suit.
These techno, slightly 3D, photographic floral illustrations are quite something. I need to see it up-close.
The tailoring, as previously mentioned, was extraordinary. Raf Simons can never ever go wrong in that department.
This collection was Raf Simons way of breaking away from the Jil Sander aethestic of a clean crisp white shirt. Perhaps it will be the same too for the womenswear collection, and somehow I'm looking forward to it.
